Back to Back Dictations - Principled Approach to Warm Up Design - In-Service V, 2018

Back to Back Dictations

1) Find or write a short text of 4-5 sentences containing vocab and/or grammar structures students saw in a previous lesson or unit. Have at least 2 different texts. Print the texts out and have one per student.

2) Tape a row of news prints on opposite sides of the classroom. Have students get in pairs and stand back to back. Give each student in the pair a different text and either a black marker or a red marker. The teacher names one wall of the class the red wall and the other the black wall. When the teacher says red, the pairs have to walk to the red wall (standing back to back) and the student with the red marker writes what the other student dictates. Every 30 seconds the teacher says the opposite color and students have to walk back to back to the other side where the other student will dictate.

3) The teacher continues to call out the opposite color at random intervals until students complete the dictations. Then they visit each newsprint and compare it with the original texts.

Use your handout as a reference to answer these questions:

-Does this warm up fit into one or more of the five categories?
-What function(s) does this warm up serve?
-What principles are present/missing?
-How might you adapt, improve, or expand upon this warm up?