Dictation tests

Not sure where to start with your KS1 readers? This can be particularly difficult when teaching a class of children in the second year of primary school, when some children are ahead of others, and it may be a class you have inherited and have yet to get a handle on who is where.
Use these dictation tests (taken from the 1984 edition of the green teacher book) to determine where work needs to be done!

Test Dictation A

The dog with the pink drink felt sick. He sat next to the sink. The man held his neck to help him and his soft black felt hat fell into the sink. The cat jumped up from his bed and ran to sit in the mud.

Two or more errors in this dictation indicate that work should begin with the ‘a’ family and continue at the rate of one new family a week.

Test Dictation B

The free food at the zoo was too much for Tim. He fell asleep in the hot sun. His wife gave his arm a shake. He woke up with a start. They went to the car park and he drove his nice blue car forty miles home.

Two or more errors in this dictation indicate that work should begin with the ‘ee’ family and continue at the rate of one new word family a week.
The remainder of the class should begin with the ‘ai’ family and continue at the rate of one new family a week.