Oral Planning and Composition Strategies

This sequence focuses on the cognitive planning required before activating the microphone, bridging the gap between thought and oral expression. Students explore how to organize their ideas using graphic organizers and bullet points to prevent rambling during dictation.

Brainstorming for Oral Composition

Students learn to separate the idea-generation phase from the drafting phase. They practice rapid brainstorming techniques to gather ideas without worrying about the technology, preparing them for the dictation process.

Creating a Speaking Outline

This lesson guides students in converting brainstormed ideas into a structured bullet-point outline suitable for dictation. Students learn to use keywords that will prompt complete sentences when they start speaking.

From Keywords to Complete Sentences

Students practice the specific skill of looking at a keyword note and orally expanding it into a full, grammatically correct sentence. This scaffolding helps prevent writer's block when the microphone is on.

Managing Pauses and Thought Flow

Students learn strategies for managing silence and thinking time while the microphone is active. They practice using the 'pause' command or simply waiting quietly without saying filler words like 'um' or 'uh' that appear in text.

Dictating a Narrative from an Outline

In this project-based lesson, students use their prepared outlines to dictate a full narrative story. They focus on moving from one bullet point to the next to maintain a logical flow in their writing.