In my last post, I proposed that technical writing should be taught in science class. Then I received 75 separate papers from students. Papers I had to read, give feedback on, and grade. I take it back! Please! Don’t make me grade all these things!

Then I turned on dictation.

I like to have Alex read me about half a page at a time. Sometimes I read along with Alex and other times I bring my grading rubric to the foreground.

Why does this work for me? I think because it fixes my #1 problem with reading: I get a page into a paper and wonder what the heck I just read (and not just because the kid’s work is that bad). Looking back, when I was a kid, my reading comprehension scores were always relatively low, which might explain things. Anyhow, maybe dictation will help you or a student. Let me know if it does?