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Allow Dictation Tools for Writing

Tags

ELA: Writing Study Skills & Tools All Ages Strategy

Skills

Fine Motor Skills Working Memory Processing Speed Visual Motor Speed

Allow Dictation Tools for Writing

If your student's handwriting or keyboarding is slow and it is interfering with his writing quality or note taking

How To Apply It!

  1. Offer students who have difficulties with speed or memory the option to use dictation software when they just need to get their ideas on paper to eliminate the added challenge of writing or typing.
  2. There are several computer programs that will transcribe a student's spoken words into typed text.
  3. Free Options: For iOs and Mac, Apple Dictation. Download Enhanced Dictation option for unlimited dictation. For Google Chrome, Google Docs Voice. Added feature allows user to speak formatting instructions.
  4. Paid: Dragon NaturallySpeaking. More accurate but can be expensive.
  5. Students should use software for the first few steps of writing a paper, including brainstorming and outlining. Remind students they will need to edit and re-write manually.
  6. Teachers should plan to help students learn to use this software efficiently. Since we speak with a different style than we write, students need an awareness of these differences as they dictate and edit..

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Writing and mentally juggling need not interfere with a child's ability to think creatively and brainstorm ideas. Alleviate some of the burden of the more basic tasks so they can focus on critical thinking skills.