How to do Charlotte Mason Prepared Dictation 

Once the child is able to do transcription well, by Form 2, we usually add Prepared Dictation. Dictation is seen as another tool in forming the foundation for good spelling. 

Here are the Steps for Prepared Dictation:

Step 1. The child prepares a paragraph. (Older children 1-3 pages) 

Steps of a Dictation Lesson.––Dictation lessons, conducted in some such way as the following, usually result in good spelling. A child of eight or nine prepares a paragraph, older children a page, or two or three pages. The child prepares by himself, by looking at the word he is not sure of, and then seeing it with his eyes shut. 

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 241

The Charlotte Mason method is adamant at the child doing the actual act of learning. For prepared dictation, the child “prepares by himself.” How does he do this? We encourage him to look at a word, take a picture with it in his mind’s eye, and close his eyes to see if he can remember how it looks. He does this especially for the words that he does not yet know fully. 

Note: we also encourage them to pay attention to the punctuation marks. They don’t need yet to understand grammar rules or why these punctuation marks are there, but the more they pay attention to these, eventually, they will be able to understand the concept of punctuation marks before we ever explain the rule in grammar lessons. 

Step 2. The teacher asks what words need attention and puts these on the board. 

Before he begins, the teacher asks what words he thinks will need his attention. He generally knows, but the teacher may point out any word likely to be a cause of stumbling. He lets his teacher know when he is ready. The teacher asks if there are any words he is not sure of. These she puts, one by one, on the blackboard, letting the child look till he has a picture, and then rubbing the word out. If anyone is still doubtful he should be called to put the word he is not sure of on the board, the teacher watching to rub out the word when a wrong letter begins to appear, and again helping the child to get a mental picture. 

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 241

Here, the teacher does some scaffolding. We ask the child which words he needs to pay more attention to, and then we write these words, one at a time, on the board (blackboard or dry-erase board). As we write one word, we ask the child to take a picture of it in his mind’s eye, then erase the word. 

Then we ask the child to write the same word on the board. Note: just as in copywork, Miss Mason reminds us to be watchful to erase whatever the child is writing at the first sign of a wrong letter! 

Step 3. Teacher dictates the passage, clause by clause, repeated only once. 

Then the teacher gives out the dictation, clause by clause, each clause repeated once. She dictates with a view to the pointing, which the children are expected to put in as they write; but they must not be told ‘comma,’ ‘semicolon,’ etc. 

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 241

The actual dictating of the passage happens only when the child seems to have gotten all the difficult words. 

We read the passage aloud, one clause at a time, and only saying it once. Observe the length that your child is capable of remembering so as to set him up for success, possibly pausing at punctuation marks or within a phrase or clause that makes sense. 

Note that we aren’t to give out what punctuation marks are used. 

Step 4. Teacher watches for wrong words and covers these with sticker paper. 

After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling. If there be, it is well worth while for the teacher to be on the watch with slips of stamp-paper to put over the wrong word, that its image may be erased as far as possible. 

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 241

In this case, Miss Mason recommends using “stamp-paper” to cover any misspelled word. In modern day, we can use stickers or post-its for this, with the goal of covering over misspelled words but also giving space for the child to write the correct spelling in the next step. 

Step 5. Student studies the wrong word and writes it correctly on the sticker paper. 

At the end of the lesson, the child should again study the wrong word in his book until he says he is sure of, and should write it correctly on the stamp-paper. (Page 241-242) 

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 241-242

After the whole passage has been written down, we ask the child to study the words he misspelled, and then when he’s sure he has the correct spelling in his mind, let him write the correct spelling on the sticker paper. 

Prepared Dictation and Good Spelling

A lesson of this kind secures the hearty co-operation of children, who feel they take their due part in it; and it also prepares them for the second condition of good spelling, which is––much reading combined with the habit of imaging the words as they are read.

Illiterate spelling is usually a sign of sparse reading; but, sometimes, of hasty reading without the habit of seeing the words that are skimmed over.

Spelling must not be lost sight of in the children’s other studies, though they should not be teased to spell. It is well to write a difficult proper name, for example, on the blackboard in the course of history or geography readings, rubbing the word out when the children say they can see it. The whole secret of spelling lies in the habit of visualising words from memory, and children must be trained to visualise in the course of their reading. They enjoy this way of learning to spell.

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Page 242-243

Here we can see that the Charlotte Mason method uses transcription and prepared dictation as a foundation for spelling. The more we can see how a word is spelled, the more we can spell better. 

This is an excerpt from our e-book, Doors to Discovery: Charlotte Mason Beginning Writing, Copywork, and Beyond. 

Important note: If you suspect your child to have dyslexia or dysgraphia, the e-book includes a section in the Appendix on A Note on Dyslexia and A Note on Dysgraphia, as dyslexia and dysgraphia can directly affect a child’s ability to do Prepared Dictation.