 What is Copywork?Copywork is copying a piece of well-written work, from any variety of sources, onto paper or into a notebook. The student copies from a written selection using his best penmanship to create a "perfect copy" that is properly spaced and includes all proper capitalization and punctuation marks. It is a method, that when used consistently in your homeschooling studies, will improve your child's penmanship, grammar, and punctuation skills as well as expose him to a variety of writing styles, structures, and techniques. Do not mistake copywork for mindless handwriting practice. There are a variety of ideas of what exactly copywork is depending on what source you are reading. I am referring to copywork that is based on copying great sources of literature. Copywork is giving your child time with great writers by copying their finest works. It's a bit of a mentoring session as the child sits down to focus on the flow of words and mechanics of the piece he is copying. Yes, it seems a very simple skill, but use it consistently and you'll be impressed with its subtle effect on your child. |
   |
Getting Started with CopyworkWhere do you start with copywork? You start at the beginning which with the youngest child means you begin with the alphabet. You can use our notebooking pages to create his own Alphabet Notebook. First, you'll need to write the letter(s) being practiced for him to copy. Then, he will form them himself on the line(s) that follow. The goal is for him to copy these letters as perfectly as possible and leave an appropriate space between them. You will not want to exasperate him by requiring too much during this exercise. Only require as much as can be accomplished in a five to ten minute period for a young child.
After mastering his letters, you will move on to words, then sentences, then paragraphs, and so on. A great way to add to his first Alphabet Notebook would be to have him add a scripture for each letter of the alphabet! Gradually add length to the copywork as he matures and his abilities improve. Occasionally, or as he has time, add artwork to the pages as well. Continue to save these notebooking pieces in his copywork notebook. If he starts off well on a particular piece of copywork and begins to become sloppy by the end or is making multiple mistakes, then you may have chosen a selection that is too long. Break the selection into smaller chunks and divide it up over a number of days. The goal with copywork is not to produce large volumes of writing. Instead, our goals are to improve his penmanship, to increase his ability to give his best efforts, to improve his ability to pay attention to details, and to make him naturally more familiar with grammar, the usage of punctuation/capitalization rules and a variety of writing styles, structures, and techniques. How Often Should I Assign Copywork?Copywork may be done daily. When my children are first learning to form letters, both manuscript and cursive, I assign it daily remembering to assign appropriate amounts that challenge them without exasperating them. When they are proficient in forming letters and words without assistance, then we cut this back to about 3 days a week. Sometimes the kids will get excited about a particular notebooking topic and will want to add more copywork during their free time - so of course, this is allowed! What Should We Use for Copywork?
How to Find and Correct Mistakes in CopyworkIt is really best to train your child from the beginning to find their own mistakes. Their copy needs to be letter perfect as well punctuation perfect and of course written in their very best handwriting. After my child is sure she has found all of her mistakes, she places a reusable sticky tab in the book where she was copying from and a sticky tab in her copybook where she did her work that day (if you will not be able to look over it right away this is a tremendous help!). Then, when I sit down to look at the children's work for the day, I can quickly open up to the passage and to their own copywork. I use a pencil to lightly put a dot at the end of each row of copywork for each mistake I see in the copying. I do not point out what kind of mistake they have made. I just put a dot for each mistake. Then, they have to go back to compare their work with the original to find their mistake(s). This helps to train them to be better editors of their own work. Then they bring it back to me again. We continue this process until it is perfect. When the copywork is letter perfect and punctuation perfect, I lightly write my initials at the bottom of the copywork section so that we know it is finished. It is imperative that the work be checked and corrected in order for copywork to be an effective method for your children. It is a training process. I find that helping them to become better editors in the way I've explained here has been extremely helpful in making copywork a more natural part of our day.
Our Resources for CopyworkAny of our notebooking products will work wonderfully for your student's copywork. All you essentially need is lined paper! Our products have lots of different layouts to choose from all with varying amounts of lines for his writing and spaces for his artwork. Check out our Copywork Notebook Pages which were created specifically for the varying lengths and literary styles of copywork. For your beginning student, you will want to choose pages that have primary-lines (the ones with the dotted center). We have some of these in our free homeschooling resources section of the site and we also sell 100 primary-lined notebooking pages in our combined Basic Lined Set in our Notebooking Pages Store. For older students, purchase any of our Copywork Notebook Pages sets. Or you may also choose our Basic Lined Set which offers a variety of notebooking pages that can be used for any subject or activity including copywork. If you would like topic-specific pages for your student's copywork or notebooking, check out our growing selection of specialized notebooking sets. |
|
| |||||||
| |||||||
|
| |||||||