Cart is empty
Home Reading & Spelling Comprehension Syllable Division Creative Writing Handwriting Shop
Tutor Manual Our Philosophy Our Story Review Testimonials Tutoring Videos Become a Tutor Need a Tutor? Contact Us
Our recognizable Tutor Manuals are named




The name is part of what makes Tracey Tutor unique.



Birth of Dictation Imagination


Layout & Progression

How to Effectively Use

Birth of Dictation Imagination

I was a private tutor for twenty years. I always needed an "Early Reader" dictation book that would be a quick resource for board work and spelling dictation, but could never find one which met all my "wants." Nothing was comprehensive.

I didn’t need enough dictation material for one day ... I needed enough for one year!

I knew what I wanted ...

A large number of Words, Drills, and Sentences. I needed sufficient dictation material to use until my student reached the mastery level on that particular letter pattern ... no matter how long it took! I wasn’t averse to repeating drills. I just wanted to have enough materials so the kids wouldn’t remember the repeated drills.

Specific Lists. For example, when I was teaching tch/dge, I wanted a chapter exclusively on tch/dge.

Sequential Learning. I didn’t want to jump all over the book to find what I needed to dictate for that day. I wanted a resource that progressed in a logical order of increasing difficulty. I wanted to begin at the beginning and work through the whole book, knowing that my student was learning in a logical sequence with each lesson building on former lessons.

Consistent Reinforcement of Previously Learned Material. I wanted previously learned material to be interspersed with new material, especially when there was the potential for confusion. I wanted to ensure that mastered letter patterns could be spelled correctly not just when isolated, but also when scattered among various letter patterns.

Challenging Spelling Drills. I wanted drills of both real and nonsense words, drills which were specifically designed to test my student’s mettle. I wanted drills to be carefully created so as to reveal and remediate confusion in spelling patterns such as: cat/ket/kit/cot/cut, crab/carb, brun/burn, back/bang/bank, clam/calm, batch/branch, badge/barge, crunch/crutch, clamped/clapped, silt/slit.

I never found such a book, but it had always been my hope to create one. Twenty years ago this book was only in my imagination. Today it is an invaluable resource available to parents and educators. Tracey Tutor offers a different colored Dictation Imagination Tutor Manual as the centerpiece - blue for our Early Reader program, red for our Intermediate Reader program, and tan for our Advanced Reader program.

Layout & Progression

Your student is introduced to Dictation Imagination! in Early Reader. This Tutor Manual is user friendly for anyone.

Proceed one chapter at a time. Follow the Tutor Instructions on each page. The pages within Dictation Imagination are not daily lesson plans. Rather, they are goals to be achieved. Dictation Imagination guides you as you take your student to the "Mastery level" before moving on.

Each chapter contains Four Prongs - WORD LIST, DRILLS, NOUNS & VERBS, SENTENCES - appearing purposefully in the same order.

WORD LIST

GOAL - Your student will master the READING of the words.

The Word List introduces the words/nonsense syllables your student will be working with in the chapter.
Your student must learn to read the words on this page before moving on.
It is suggested that you use DICTATION Companion! with its hundreds of multi-sensory manipulatives
to maximize learning.

In addition, the Tracey Tapper is invaluable in hastening mastery in both reading and spelling.

DRILLS

GOAL - Your student will master the SPELLING of the words.

The Drills Page gives word groupings which will be used as dictated drills
for your student to write on board or paper.
Continue drilling until your student is spelling these words with 85% accuracy.
Only then can you move on!

NOUNS & VERBS (in Early Reader)

Your student will learn to form sentences using the words in the chapter while learning early grammar.

The Nouns & Verbs Page lists the words of this chapter according to part of speech.
This will aid you and your students as you guide them in using these words to create sentences.
In addition, you can use this page to begin teaching early grammar to able students.

SENTENCES

GOAL - Your student will master writing dictated sentences using the words from the chapter.

Even though your student has mastered the spelling of the individual words in this chapter,
it is a much greater challenge to correctly write an entire dictated sentence with
correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization! This page includes an abundance of sentences to use as your student works toward a goal of 85% accuracy in sentence dictation. Sometimes a student’s handwriting lags behind their reading and spelling, and hinders their ability to write sentences effectively.
Extending grace is advisable with these studens until their abilities "catch up."
Tracey Tutor offers a variety of tablets and
handwriting products.

The Dictation Imagination Tutor Manuals are similar, but distinct, in formatting.

EARLY READER
Introduces Closed Syllables with short vowels and vowel-r syllables with an r-influenced vowel sound.
INTERMEDIATE READER
Introduces Open Syllables, Magic-e Syllables, And Vowel Pals Syllables, all with long vowels, as well as Tricky Vowel Pals with diphthongs.
ADVANCED READER
Introduces the more difficult Smart Syllables such as tion, ture, cial, and tient, and various less common letter patterns.

How to Effectively Use with Other Tracey Tutor Products

Dictation Imagination Tutor Manual is our central product. Its conversational directions are written to the Teacher, Tutor, Teacher’s Aide, and Homeschool Parent. All reading levels contain a variety of products purposefully designed to work together as a unit. Our Dictation Imagination Tutor Manuals clearly guide you when and how to integrate all our auxiliary products, providing specific page numbers and clear directions. Dictation Companion is the companion resource to our Dictation Imagination Tutor Manual. Companion provides an abundance of reproducible tactile templates. These templates include worksheets, sort boards, flashcards, word cards, sentence cards, sentence strips, and assorted multi-sensory activities. All Companion templates correlate specifically to the chapters in the Dictation Imagination Tutor Manual. Clear directions in the tutor manual guide you how and when to integrate the two. Tracey Tapper - our Visual Recognition product, and Radical Reader - our Comprehension product, also correlate chapter by chapter with the Dictation Imagination Tutor Manual.