Running dictation

The last lesson of the week was devoted to an energetic activity, which was a very good idea for a Friday morning, as many students go out on Thursday night and are running a bit low on Friday mornings. So, we did a running dictation in pairs.

I enjoyed the activity; it was challenging and fun. What I liked the most was the last part, when we discussed the text in small groups. Each of the pairs had read one among four pieces of text, and we had to join a group of four where all the pieces of text were represented. Then, each one of us had to tell the rest about our part, and together we had to order them to complete a coherent text. Using the resource called information gap in this last bit of the activity was the most interesting thing for me. We clearly listened to each other very carefully, because we needed the information that the rest had in order to find the overall meaning. That is a very powerful resource when it comes to cooperative learning activities, it is important to give students a reason to interact, a common goal towards each on of them have something to give, and that is why it is widely used, not just in language learning, of course. It is even more important in the educational level or stage at which I intend to become a teacher, pre-school or pre-primary, when children are naturally more egocentric and need more encouragement to interact with each other in collaborative ways.

As far as I could see, all my classmates enjoyed the activity. We all learned a lot; that was obvious when we shared our bits in the small groups. The fact that we knew that we would have to be able to teach others what we had learned probably took us to make an extra effort. Sometimes it is easier to do things for other than to do them just for yourself, and a teacher can take advantage of that too.