Running dictation - Make testing fun!

From my teaching experience I can see that spelling is one of the most challenging parts of learning a foreign language. Students often find it very difficult to remember the words and the teacher should constantly try to find various ways to make this as simple and as fun as possible for them. I'm not very keen on testing but still it is part of the whole teaching process. What I like to do when I want to revise/ test vocabulary spelling is "running dictation". 

There is no need for any extra preparation for this lesson. You can put two posters / sheets of paper on the board, one for each group. Give a marker to each group and choose a set of pictures. Make sure that you give the equal number of pictures (words to be written on the poster) to the groups. 

I wanted to revise rooms in the house and furniture vocabulary but you can do it with any topic that you like. 

Here's how it goes:

1. Put the posters on the board.

2. Divide the students in two groups,distribute markers and put the pictures on the desk next to the groups facing down.

3. Once they hear the teacher say; "Start!" the students need to choose a picture from the pile, run to the board and write the word for that picture on the poster. Then they have to run back and allow to another member of the group to choose a picture and run to the board to write the word. Both of the groups run to the board at the same time but they write different words. What I often do is distribute the pictures to the groups and once they finish writing the words I switch the sets. In this way both of the groups get a chance to write all of the words on the board.

One thing you have to be prepared for is a noisy classroom. Students get really excited and they like to cheer for their classmates - but it's all part of the fun :)

4. When the students finish writing all of the words on the board go the posters and check the spelling together with the students. In this way they become more aware of what they need to practice further.

You can do this in one lesson and according to the results you can do the same dictation using the same words on the next lesson. I've noticed that students try really hard to remember the correct spelling of the words and almost make no mistakes in their second attempt. 

I hope you find this useful!