In early childhood classrooms, some students are learning to hold a pencil with the correct grasp, while others are writing simple sentences. A challenge for teachers is to provide equal and individual support for these emergent writers in a short period of time.
In our classroom, we include journaling centers every week or two, giving students an open-ended topics for study. Most students illustrate their thoughts and ideas, and some add simple words. Many ask the teacher to print their dictation: either a story or description of their illustration. As one can imagine, this takes a lot of time when there are eighteen children in class.
Though I have not used Dragon Dictation in the classroom, I was able to find a You tube Dragon in the Classroom video that give a detailed description and training for educators. It appears very straightforward and simple to use.
Rather than dictating to an adult, students speak into the app and their words print on the screen. Once complete, students could bring their dictation to a teacher for review (to ensure it transcribed correctly) and print it on the classroom printer. After printing, students can cut and paste their words into their journal. The added bonus in this step is that it continues to encourage cutting and gluing which helps strengthen the fine motor skills that are needed for that correct pencil grasp I mentioned earlier. Utilizing Dragon Dictation appears to be a win-win for students and teachers.
Without Dragon Dictation
With Dragon Dictation
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