171. Synthetic and dictation exercises

The lesson, step by step

1. Talk about the tricky words

   Pairs that sound alike or nearly alike (Abel and able, alley and ally, allusion and illusion), then sentences using them.

   The word pairs in this lesson include:

   Abel, able

   alley, ally

   allusion, illusion

   Find these words in the sentences and talk about what each one means.

2. Read the sentences together

   Read all the sentences aloud together. Some of them:

   The able man's name was Abel.

   A narrow alley.

   He made an allusion to the illusion that possessed him.

   Ask your child to spell the tricky words in each sentence aloud before you go on.

3. Write from dictation

   Close the book. Read one sentence at a time, slowly, in short parts. Read the whole sentence once more at the end.

   Your child writes it with a capital letter at the start and the right mark at the end. Do four to six sentences.

4. Check and correct

   Open the book and compare letter by letter, including capitals, commas and periods. For each misspelled word, your child spells it aloud and writes it correctly three times.

5. Quick review

   Ask three or four words from the hard-words list, or from the last lesson if the list is empty. Words spelled right twice in a row can come off the list.