free australian dictation sample

Downunder Dictation and Teachers Guide

Michelle Morrow 2007

Published by Downunder Literature

27 Russell Street Cardiff NSW 2285

mailto:[email protected]

Web Address: http://www.downunderlit.com

The publisher would like to thank all the contributors to this educational book who have

allowed their material to be reproduced.

I am very appreciative to Margaret Taylor who co-authored the Downunder Literature

Copy Work books. Jocelyn James, Mel Taggart and Mary Collis who also made themselves

available to review this resource and Ruth Colman for your suggestions and editing. I

would also like to my family, who have been very patient and encouraging during this

project.

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or

review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise

without prior permission.

The authors have made every reasonable effort to identify and contact the authors or owners of copyright

materials included in this book and to attribute authorship. Where this has not occurred, authors or owners

are invited to contact the publisher.

All enquiries to Downunder Literature.

LESSON Page Copybook

INTRODUCTION 4

1 Little Tommy Tadpole by C J Dennis 14 One

2 Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree by M Sinclair 15 One

3 Bound for Botany Bay 16 One

4 The Wonderland of Nature by Nuri Mass 17 One

5 Australian Legendary Tales by K Langloh-Parker 18 One

6 Click go the Shears 19 One

7 Spotty the Bower Bird by E S Sorenson 20 One

8 Farmer Shultzs Ducks by Colin Thiele 21 One

9 Tiger in the Bush by Nan Chauncy 22 Two

10 A Book for Kids by C J Dennis 23 Two

11 Our Sunburnt Country by A Baillie 24 Two

12 James Ruse by Watkin Tench 25 Two

13 Six Little New Zealanders by Esther Glen 26 Two

14 A Bush Calendar by Amy Mack 28 Two

15 The Silver Brumby by E Mitchell 29 Two

16 Kings Narrative of the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition 30 Two

17 The Wonderland of Nature by Nuri Mass 31 Two

18 Crowns of Fire 32 Two

19 Advance Australia Fair by Peter Dodds McCormick 33 Three

20 The Singing Wire by Eve Pownall 34 Three

21 Following the Equator by Mark Twain 35 Three

22 A Letter from Strzelecki 36 Three

23 Shearing at Castlereagh by Banjo Patterson. 37 Three

24 Naturecraft in Australia by Thistle Harris 38 Three

25 Valley of Heavenly Gold by Eve Sutton 39 Three

26 A Mothers Offering to her Children by Charlotte Barton 40 Three

27 Flynn of the Inland by Ion Idriess 42 Three

28 Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner 43 Three

29 Captain Cooks Journal During the First Voyage 44 Three

30 & 31 Blighs Narrative of the Mutiny on Board H.M. Ship Bounty Part One and Two 45 Three

32 Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times by A Pakeha Maori 47 Three

Appendix I Spelling Rules 48

Appendix II Grammar and Literary Terms check List 50

Appendix III Charlotte Mason Grammar Lessons 53

Appendix IV Text types 58

Appendix VPunctuation usage 60

Appendix VILesson Planner 62

References 63

4 Downunder Dictation and Teachers Guide by M Morrow 2007

INTRODUCTION

Downunder Dictation and Teachers Guide is a complementary resource to the Downunder

Copy Work series. The goal of this book is to teach you how to apply the useful method of

dictation based on the teachings of Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason. It also gives

suggestions to help you extend this resource to cover other areas of language arts study. The

dictation lessons are all based on the quotes used in the Downunder Copy Work series.

Excerpts from whole or living books, dating from 1769-2007, have been used. They

include: classic fiction, poetry, songs, biographies, studies of nature and explorers journals.

Passages have been carefully selected from a broad range of good Australian and New

Zealand literature. These extracts introduce your student mind to mind with the author.

They are educational, encouraging, uplifting and will bring delight to you and your

students.

We hope that, in using this material, you will be introduced to some wonderful books

and writings of which you were previously unaware. At times the extracts have stopped in

places that will leave your student hungry for more. If they want to read the whole book,

encourage them. Most of these books you should be able to find second hand or in a library.

Some are out of print, but with a little hunting you can find them. We did!

Many of the included works highlight what was happening in the era in which they

were written. For this reason, some of the literature may well be politically incorrect by

todays standards, but at the time of writing it was not. Please use anything that is

politically incorrect as an opportunity to teach your student about the culture of the times.

During research for the Downunder Copy Work books we found many of the selected

extracts, poems and songs online. We also found great educational sites about Australian

and New Zealnd history and famous people. We decided to link the Table of Contents in

each copy work book with relevant websites where possible. We have also provided some

hard-to-comeby nature stories, such as Spotty the Bower Bird, and a selection of Amy

Macks Bushland Stories for you to download. To take advantage of this tool, go to our

website

http://www.downunderlit.com and click on literature links.


DICTATION

Well-chosen passages expose children to good literature and a variety of writing styles

that help them recognise and use well-structured sentences, good grammar and correct

punctuation.

The dictation method that Charlotte Mason suggests is not what most of us would

remember from school. A great emphasis is placed on preparing the dictation passage

before they are required to write it. This can be done using copy work, word study and

careful examination of the piece to be written (more on this later). The goal is to get it right

the first time.

Charlotte Mason and Ruth Beechick suggest starting dictation during the primary

education years. To include children younger than this just use the passages for copy work,

and the Springboards for Further Study section. Most of the ideas can be modified to suit

multiple ages without too much trouble. The ideas and checklists are based on primary age

skills and competencies.

There are 32 dictation lessons. The passages can be quite lengthy, so individualise the

dictation for each student depending on their abilities. At first, just one line may be enough.

You can work on the same dictation lesson over several days. As they improve you can

increase the amount of dictation required in one sitting. Start simply, giving all the help

needed to get the extract correct and gradually give less prompts.

Presentation of the work is important. Instruct the student on using a margin,

indentation of paragraphs and a title for the work. Encourage the student to use self editing

skills and proofread their work. If they see something wrong allow them to correct it (using

an eraser or liquid paper) prior to handing it over for marking. Storage of the dictation can

be in a notebook, folder or book. A well presented work will make them proud of their

achievements.

Mark their dictation on the spot whenever possible, getting them to erase the mistake

and write the correction over it. This is a very important phase for imprinting the correct

image in your students mind. Resist the temptation to scribble in the corrections. We want

the students to be proud of their work. I use three indicators for marking: presentation,

spelling and accuracy. I take a half point off for each mistake and give an overall mark.


Lesson

Bound for Botany Bay

Author Unknown

Farewell to old England forever,

Farewell to my old pals as well.

Farewell to the well-known Old Bailey,

Where I used to cut such a swell.

Theres the captain who is our commander.

Theres the bosun and all the ships crew,

Theres the first and the second class passengers,

Knows what we poor convicts goes through.

Taint leaving old England we cares about,

Taint cos we misspelt what we knows.

But because we all light-fingered gentry

Hops round with a log on our toes.

Now, all my young Dookies and Duchesses,

Take warning from what Ive to say

Mind all is your own as you toucheses,

Or youll meet us in Botany Bay.

Three Who is this song about? Do you know it? Where are they going? What period of

Australian history is this song about?

What is the lesson they have for you?

Listen to the rhythm. Can you find the

rhyming words?

Pretend you are an editor and proofread

this song for mistakes., or samples of non-

standard English.


Lesson

The Wonderland of Nature

Nuri Mass2007 The Estate of Nuri Mass (Downunder Literature)

Now, how does a worm loosen soil? First, he burrows

down into it and next, he eats large quantities of it. In these

large quantities are decaying leaves, flower petals and so on,

which are useful to him as food. The soil itself is not needed

as food, so it passes right through his body, but on its way

through, it is crumbled up into fine pieces. The worm then

comes up and casts it out on the surface of the groundand

this little mound of digested earth is known as castings. In

the early morning, if you look, you will probably find many of

these castings in your lawn and garden.

Four

Fact or Fiction: Is this story true? We call true stories non-fiction.

We call make believe stories fiction.

Select 10 books from your bookshelf. Are they real stories or

make-believe? Talk about how a library sets out its books into

non-fiction and fiction.


Lesson

Flynn of the Inland

Ion Idriess from Flynn of the Inland 1945 (ETT Imprint, Sydney 2000)

John Flynn, Australian born, was a dreamer of dreams.

One dream has awakened joy in the heart of a continent ...It

was a giant project, Flynns dream, nothing less than to

establish help, communication, and transport throughout

two-thirds of the continenttwo million square miles peopled

by an isolated few having no political voice. An empire would

hardly have tackled such a job. His dream hinged on the

cradle. First ensure that every Inland woman could have her

baby and her own life with it. Then educate those children,

annihilate loneliness, and bring a feeling of security to the

fathers, and see that all had that spiritual companionship

which smooths the path of life.

But he was merely a Camel-man with an empty pocket,

this empire dreamer, riding alone in the brooding Centralian

silence. How could he evoke the sympathy and active interest

of the population hugging the rich coast-lands, without which

his dream would remain only a dream?

Twenty-Seven


Lesson

Seven Little Australians

Ethel Turner 1894

In England, and America, and Africa, and Asia, the little

folks may be paragons of virtue, I know little about them.

But in Australia a model child is I say it not without

thankfulness an unknown quantity.

It may be that the miasmas of naughtiness develop best in

the sunny brilliancy of our atmosphere. It may be that the

land and the people are young-hearted together, and the

children's spirits not crushed and saddened by the shadow of

long years' sorrowful history.

There is a lurking sparkle of joyousness and rebellion and

mischief in nature here, and therefore in children.

Often the light grows dull and the bright colouring fades to

neutral tints in the dust and heat of the day. But when it

survives play-days and school-days, circumstances alone

determine whether the electric sparkle shall go to play

will-o'-the-wisp with the larrikin type, or warm the breasts of

the spirited, single-hearted, loyal ones who alone can advance

Australia.

Twenty-Eight


Lesson

Captain Cooks Journal (1769) James Cook (1728-1779) Captain Cooks Journal During The first Voyage 1893

Tuesday 15th August 1769: The farthest Island to the

Southward that Tupia hath been at, or knows anything of, lies

but 2 days Sail from Ohetiroa, and is called Moutou, but he

says that his father once told him that there were Islands to

the Southward of it; but we cannot find that he either knows

or ever heard of a Continent or large Track of Land. I have no

reason to doubt Tupias information of these Islands.

Saturday 7th October: Gentle breezes and settled weather. At

2p.m. saw land*. From the Masthead bearing West by North,

which we stood directly for, and could but just see it off the

deck at sunset.

Monday 9th October: Gentle breezes and clear water. P.M.

stood into the Bay and anchored on the North-East side

before the entrance of a small river.

Tupia spoke to them in his own language, and it was an

agreeable surprise to us to find they perfectly understood him.

After some little conversation had passed one of them swam

over to us, and after him 20 or 30 more; these last brought

their Arms, which the first man did not. We made them every

one presents, but this did not satisfy them; they wanted

everything we had about us, particularly our Arms, and made

several attempts to snatch them out of our hands.

*The North Island of New Zealand).

Twenty-Nine


Lesson

Mutiny on the Bounty (Part One)

Blighs Narrative of the Mutiny On Board HM Ship Bounty (1788)

In October 1788 Captain William Bligh set sail on his

return journey to England. Some of his crew had other plans.

Just before sun-rising, while I was yet asleep, Mr Christian

with the master-at-arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burkitt,

seaman, came into my cabin and seizing me, tied my hands

with a cord behind my back and threatened me with instant

death, if I spoke or made the least noise. I however called as

loud as I could to alarm everyone. They had already secured

the officers who were not of their party, by placing sentinels at

their doors. There were three men at my cabin door besides

the four within; Christian had only a cutlass in his hand, the

others had muskets and bayonets. I was hauled out of bed

and forced on deck in my shirt, suffering great pain from the

tightness which with they had tied my hands. I demanded the

reason of such violence but received no other answer than

abuse for not holding my tongue.

Without further ceremony, with a tribe of armed

ruffians about me, I was forced over the side where they

untied my hands. Being in the boat we were veered astern by

a rope. A few pieces of pork were then thrown to us, and some

clothes, also [some cutlasses]...

Thirty


Lesson

Old New Zealand.

A Tale of the Good Old Times

F E Maning 1863

Many years ago, Hongi Ika, the great warrior of New

Zealand, was dying. His relations and friends and tribe were

collected around him, and he spoke to them these words:

Children and friends, pay attention to my last words. After I

am gone, be kind to the missionaries. Be kind also to other

Europeans. Welcome them to the shore, trade with them,

protect them and live with them as one people. But if ever

there should land on this shore a people who wear red

garments, who do not work, who neither buy or sell, and who

always have arms in their hands, then be aware that these

people are called soldiers, a dangerous people, whose only

occupation is war. When you see them, make war against

them. Then, O my children, be brave! Then, O friends, be

strong! Be brave that you may not be enslaved, and that your

country may not become the possession of strangers. And

having said these words he died.

ThirtyTwo


APPENDIX II

GRAMMAR & LITERARY TERMS CHECKLIST

The Parts of Speech

Nouns What is a noun?

Define the different types of nouns Common

Proper

Collective

Abstract

What is a plural or singular noun?

What do we mean by gender of nouns?

Pronouns What is a pronoun?

What is a personal pronoun?

What is a relative pronoun?

What is an interrogative pronoun?

What is a demonstrative pronoun?

Verbs What is a verb?

What must every sentence have? What is a finite verb?

Verbs and their subjects.

Verbs and their objects. What are direct/indirect objects?

Tense and verbs. Can you change the tense of a piece of writing?

What are regular verbs? Name some regular verbs? Are there any in your copywork piece?

What are irregular verbs? Name some irregular verbs? Are there any in your copywork piece?

Auxiliary verbs (helping verbs). Underline all the verbs including the helping verbs like 'was' and 'had'.


Imperatives What are imperatives?

Adjectives What is an adjective?

What is a comparative adjective? Find all the adjectives in a piece of copy-work?

What is a superlative adjective? Remove all the adjectives from a piece of copy work. How does it sound?

Articles What is an Article?

Adverbs What is an adverb?

How is an adverb different to an adjective?

Adverbs can tell us manner, time and place? What does that mean?

Prepositions What is a preposition?

Conjunctions What is a conjunction?

Sentences What is a sentence?

What must every sentence have?

What are the parts of a sentence? What is a subject/predicate?

There are types of sentences Identify the 4 different types of sentences.

Clause What is a clause?

What is a noun clause?

What is an adjective clause?

What is an adverb clause?

Phrase What is a phrase?


Literary Terms

Genre What are the different types of genres?

Identify the genre of your dictation extract.

Text Types Identify text types in your dictation passage.

Antonyms

Similes Look at Lesson 8 and 18

Metaphors Look at Lesson 8 and 18

Clichs

Homonyms

Homophones Examples Lesson 1

Slang Lesson 6 Shearers slang

Jargon What is the difference between slang and jargon?

Compare and Contrast. Lesson 6 and 23.

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