Do public schools ever do copy work?

[Aspasia]

I've been out of school for so long and immersed in homeschooling literature and discussions so much that I don't remember. Do public schools ever do copy work?

 

I guess I had to copy spelling words. And I was also a little too social for our trusty socialization system, so I did a lot of copying of sentences like, "I will not...." But do they do it with literary passages or things like that?

Edited January 8, 2012 by infomom

[zenjenn]

Many teachers run something in the morning, a daily written language exercise. A sentence/story starter the student must complete, a quote to copy, or editing practice; an incorrect sentence on the board that the student must copy (making the corrections while they do so.) That kind of thing.

 

So in short, yes, though there is rarely much time devoted to it. (Frankly, I don't devote much time to it either.)

[Dmmetler]

I remember doing it in 3rd grade when we were learning cursive, in one of those black marbled composition books. We also had to memorize and recite much of the stuff we copied. As a kid with a 3-5 yr motor skills delay and a severe speech impediment, both were torture for me.

[FairProspects]

Ever? Probably. Common? No.

 

I subbed in a number of elementary classrooms while looking for a full-time teaching job and I never saw it on any of the lesson plans.

 

We did tons of copywork in my private school growing up though.

[MinivanMom]

Copywork does happen sometimes, but it's pretty uncommon.

When I was in 5th grade we copied a poem in cursive every morning. The purpose was to improve our cursive handwriting, since we were headed into a Junior High where all writing was required to be in cursive. That same teacher also read aloud to us from a chapter book for 30-45 min every afternoon. I don't think many teachers would take that sort of time out of their schedule nowadays. There are too many other pressures and many districts require teachers to account for every minute.

[Acorn]

I remember a 6th grade teacher that assigned a full page a day. I thought it was inane. Most days we got to choose our own material, but sometimes it was from an assigned book that we were reading for literature.

 

My son is at a public K and everyday there is copy work of common words for handwriting practice.

[Hadassah]

The only copywork I remember ever doing in ps was spelling words, and even that was only in elementary school. I did do a fair amount of copywork in secondary school, but that was more of a punishment than anything else (i.e. it was only assigned to the "bad kids"... including me :lol:).

[Bootsie]

We did a lot when I was in school, but I graduated in 1981. I remember my teacher having a five-fingered chalk holder used to draw lines on the chalkboard. The teacher would then write the "board work" which we copied.

 

I never saw my kids do anything like that. I imagine that parents would complain if their kids had to copy something like that. It would be boring and it would be viewed as "nonproductive." Some is a changing view of learning; many of my kids' teachers said that there was no benefit to having kids write spelling words. A few teachers made them write their spelling words three times each (never any more) and usually that had to be done in some "fancy" way of different colors, upside down, or other gimmicky way.

 

I think the advent of the copy machine has also led to the decline in this.

[boscopup]

I think most schools use journaling instead. Copy a journal prompt, then continue it.

 

In K my son had a bit if copywork off the board, just because they weren't ready to journal yet. In first grade, they only had journaling.

[BearWallowSchool]

In K and 1st I remember copying the paragraph the teacher wrote on the board every morning. It was something like, "Today is Monday. It is sunny outside. We have art today at 2:00." It was already on the board every morning and it was the first thing we did.

[TXMary2]

I don't remember doing any copy work, other than spelling, but I do remember doing dictation.

 

When my boys were in public or private school, they didn't do copy work either, but they did dictation and memory work.

[Aurelia]

We didn't do copywork, but did dictation in third grade, with possibly a little in fourth and fifth, as well. The stuff we copied was for "handwriting" and really had nothing to do with anything other than trying to make neatly formed letters.

[Shellers]

Many teachers run something in the morning, a daily written language exercise. A sentence/story starter the student must complete, a quote to copy, or editing practice; an incorrect sentence on the board that the student must copy (making the corrections while they do so.) That kind of thing....

 

This is what my kid's school did with them.

[Sahamamama]

What I noticed was not copywork, but "editing." :tongue_smilie:Sorry, but this is my personal pet peeve. Instead of having a student copy a correct sentence, what the public schools around here usually do is have a student edit an incorrect sentence. Here's an example of a website promoting this type of horrid exercise.

 

The student is given a page that looks like this:

 

Do you own a Pluto Platter. if you have a Frisbee in you're closet, you do! The original flying discs was actually pie tins from a bakery. In 1948, Fred Morrison manufacture the first flying discs made of plastic. Then, in January 1957, a company called Wham-O introduced the Pluto Platter. The Pluto Platter was later renamed the "Frisbee" its estimated that more Frisbee's are sold each year than basketballs baseballs and footballs combined!

 

Or this:

On a stormy journey in the North Pacific ocean, thousands of rubber ducks and other bathtub toys were lost when a container was sweeped off a ship. Free to rid the ocean waves since January 1992, many of those ducks have found their way to Alaskas shores others still remain at see. Scientists continue too search for lost ducks as a weigh to study ocean currents. Lucky finder's of one of the ducks may claim a $100 reward!

The idea is that correcting this mess will improve the student's editing skills. What I have seen it do is destroy the young child's sense of correctly written English -- spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar -- all get assaulted by this method, before they are adequately built through exposure to ONLY correct models.

 

This type of exercise is, IME, destructive and contributes to what I call "5th grade boy syndrome." :toetap05: He can read, but he can't write. He is bright, but he can't spell or punctuate. He never capitalizes, sometimes not even his own name. It's amazing, but when you think about it, some children WILL encode whatever they SEE -- think about what it means for these children to be exposed repeatedly, from the early grades, to written English that looks like the above sample. I have tutored these children, and their parents tell me that the teachers tell them, "Mrs. _____, we don't know what you're doing with ________, but whatever it is, it's working! Keep it up!" :001_huh:

 

Does anyone see the irony here?

 

I have consistently seen copywork straighten these kids out, especially when I convince the parents to DESTROY any assignments they see coming in from school that are full of errors. These kids can't sort out what is correct or incorrect, until they've had years of perfect models. HTH.

[fenni]

I remember doing copywork in elementary school in the 80's. In first grade, we copied off the blackboard a simple sentence about that day. ("Today is Sunday, January 8, 2012.) In second grade, we copied poems. We also had dictation sentences on our spelling tests.

[ErinE]

Ds had dictation sentences for spelling and journal prompts.

[4maybabies]

My dd7 had to edit a sentence that was written incorrectly on the board. She just exclaimed to me how none of the kids liked this part of the day:) She was in first grade.

[....]

Do public schools ever do copy work?

 

I get grilled by a ps teacher everytime we go to my son's cub scouts pack meetings. She asked me, "How do homeschooled kids learn to write?" I mentioned copywork and she went off. She said that would NOT be allowed in public school, because it is a copyright infringement.

 

So, there's an answer according to this lady!

[TXMary2]

I get grilled by a ps teacher everytime we go to my son's cub scouts pack meetings. She asked me, "How do homeschooled kids learn to write?" I mentioned copywork and she went off. She said that would NOT be allowed in public school, because it is a copyright infringement.

 

So, there's an answer according to this lady!

 

 

:001_huh:

[MinivanMom]

In K and 1st I remember copying the paragraph the teacher wrote on the board every morning. It was something like, "Today is Monday. It is sunny outside. We have art today at 2:00." It was already on the board every morning and it was the first thing we did.

 

I remember doing that in 1st grade! Of course, my 1st grade teacher was in her 60's in the early 80's, so she would have started teaching back in the 40's. I taught school before my kids were born and I can't imagine any new teachers doing this kind of "morning board work" today. All the kids write journal entries to start the day. Not that journals are horrible or anything. My kids write in journals in addition to doing copywork.

[4Kiddos]

What I noticed was not copywork, but "editing." :tongue_smilie:Sorry, but this is my personal pet peeve. Instead of having a student copy a correct sentence, what the public schools around here usually do is have a student edit an incorrect sentence. Here's an example of a website promoting this type of horrid exercise.

 

The student is given a page that looks like this:

 

 

Do you own a Pluto Platter. if you have a Frisbee in you're closet, you do! The original flying discs was actually pie tins from a bakery. In 1948, Fred Morrison manufacture the first flying discs made of plastic. Then, in January 1957, a company called Wham-O introduced the Pluto Platter. The Pluto Platter was later renamed the "Frisbee" its estimated that more Frisbee's are sold each year than basketballs baseballs and footballs combined!

 

 

Or this:

 

On a stormy journey in the North Pacific ocean, thousands of rubber ducks and other bathtub toys were lost when a container was sweeped off a ship. Free to rid the ocean waves since January 1992, many of those ducks have found their way to Alaskas shores others still remain at see. Scientists continue too search for lost ducks as a weigh to study ocean currents. Lucky finder's of one of the ducks may claim a $100 reward!

The idea is that correcting this mess will improve the student's editing skills. What I have seen it do is destroy the young child's sense of correctly written English -- spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar -- all get assaulted by this method, before they are adequately built through exposure to ONLY correct models.

 

This type of exercise is, IME, destructive and contributes to what I call "5th grade boy syndrome." :toetap05: He can read, but he can't write. He is bright, but he can't spell or punctuate. He never capitalizes, sometimes not even his own name. It's amazing, but when you think about it, some children WILL encode whatever they SEE -- think about what it means for these children to be exposed repeatedly, from the early grades, to written English that looks like the above sample. I have tutored these children, and their parents tell me that the teachers tell them, "Mrs. _____, we don't know what you're doing with ________, but whatever it is, it's working! Keep it up!" :001_huh:

 

Does anyone see the irony here?

 

I have consistently seen copywork straighten these kids out, especially when I convince the parents to DESTROY any assignments they see coming in from school that are full of errors. These kids can't sort out what is correct or incorrect, until they've had years of perfect models. HTH.

 

I remember doing these editing exercises. They used to confuse me so much!

[Roadrunner]

All I know is 1st grade in CA. There is no copywork other than spelling. There is a lot of writing and it's mostly journaling. There is also a ton of writing homework.

Dictation is part of spelling tests.

I was also told that there is no separate grammar instruction (at least in our school) and grammar is taught through editing.

[Sahamamama]

I remember doing these editing exercises. They used to confuse me so much!

 

Do'nt feal bad. Your knot the only won. :tongue_smilie:

 

[Find the errors in the above sentences.... gag.]

[MinivanMom]

I remember doing these editing exercises. They used to confuse me so much!

 

These were the rage when I was first teaching. Not because they are the best way to teach grammar, but because they are the best prep for grammar problems on standardized tests. My oldest took the ITBS last year and I know there was a grammar section that required her to figure out which line of a paragraph had a grammatical, spelling, or capitalization error. Editing exercises are the perfect prep for these kinds of standardized testing problems.

[deeinfl]

The only thing I remember copying were full questions and answers in our English program.