Dictation in schools - help me appreciate it!

[SSShakeTheChi]

Hi, since we're in Germany, this means dd has to do dictation as of year 2. I have a real bee in my bonnet about this dictation business. I just find it so outdated but I know we will have to deal with it, so please help me to see the value in it!

I got freaking this morning listening to two mothers discussing dictation and how many mistakes their dc made. One dm from Poland said she spends 3 hours a day practicising German dictation with her dd till she doesn't make any more mistakes. How can you spend 3 hours on dictation?

This seems so wrong to me. I really don't like the sound of it. Have you been practising dictation with your dc at home? Have you found it a useful/valuable exercise? Do you just keep reading it out again and again until they can do without errors?

Just think of it as a spelling test but with a group of words that make sense instead of a random collection.

A-ha. That's a good point. Since German is so much more phonetic than English, they probably just don't need to approach spelling in the same way.

I can imagine French schools do a lot of dication too but I have no experience of it.

Don't know if it'll make you feel any better but as a teacher in Scotland I sometimes use dictation as part of spelling lessons. For some children it is easier to work out spelling when it is in context. Not sure how this works when it is a second language though.
As for spending hours on it at home, nothing is that important - you'll just make the child stressed and miserable.

Thanks dodgy, it does help.
Think those 3 hours a day were really worrying me, you know. I'm coming round from a position of total rejection to sort of open-mindedness about it. I don't think I'll practice it at home much but I suppose I will have to do a bit otherwise dd will have problems coping with all the dictation tests at school.

Think what I dislike so much is that there's no creativity involved on the part of the child, whereas writing an essay, paragraph or letter involves creativity on the child's part and seems so much more valuable an exercise IMO. You use it as an occasional exercise but here it forms a large part of primary school work - as far as I know.

Come to think of it, I've never heard of dc here receiving spelling lists to learn at home so I will think of it as a spelling exercise.