What Is Copywork?

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”

-William Faulkner

My journey with teaching writing has been hard. I have a child who hated to write which has made things very challenging. I couldn’t comprehend why it was so hard. I mean I was teaching writing lesson to elementary school children way before I had kids- so why was this difficult?

The more that my child pushed back, the more I started to realize why teaching my child to write was so difficult. It is because there are so many components to writing. As adults, we don’t seem to consider everything it takes to write a sentence or two. It should be easy…. but it’s not.

Components to writing

• Content- you need to know what you are going to write
• Grammar/Mechanics- you need to remember to put spaces between your words, capitalize some works, punctuation, apostrophes for contractions, commas, quotations, etc.
• Spelling- you need to know how to spell words properly or how to sound words out. If you do not know all of your sounds, spelling words phonetically will be challenging.
• Penmanship- you need to know how to form your letters properly so it can be read.

That is a lot for little brains. The quote I used up above is obviously aimed towards people who are above elementary school. However, what if we looked at it from an elementary school standpoint- you must know how to read before you can write. This helps with the spelling aspect of writing. You must know how to decode before you can encode.

In addition, focusing on reading allows you to showcase amazing literature. This will help model great content which also will help with your child learning to write.

We still have penmanship and mechanics/grammar. This as well as everything I stated above is why I LOVE copywork!

What is copywork?

Copywork is literally copying down something. What your child copies can vary greatly which is why it is such an amazing tool for homeschooling!

• A word, sentence, or passage from a novel you are reading
• A funny/seasonal poem
• Fun/interesting/gross facts
• A dictation- perhaps a response to a book you are reading or maybe a sentence or two about a field trip you took
• A quote

Copywork can literally be ANYTHING!

Why include copywork?

Here are the benefits I see from copywork:

• It allows children to focus on their penmanship. If you remove all the other aspects of writing that I discussed above, the only thing they have to do is ensure their writing is legible.
• It exposes children to proper grammar and mechanics.
• Using copywork introduces children to new vocabulary and is a great way to practice spelling.
• When you pair copywork with quality literature, you are modeling stellar writing which will help children learn how to create quality content for their writing pieces.

How to implement copywork?

To do copywork properly, you will need the following:

• proper paper that is developmentally appropriate
• pencil- you need an eraser
• either a printout of what you want them to copy or have it written on a white board/chalk board/separate sheet of paper

Proper paper– If your child is struggling with penmanship, you MUST use primary paper. You can find this as loose leaf paper, a notebook, or a journal. Primary paper typically has a median dashed line and spaces between the lines.

If your child is practicing cursive, I would also suggest some sort of primary paper.

Check out my Just Write Journals for primary paper for every level!

Pencil– If your child is younger, you may want to use a thicker pencil. If your child is struggling with proper pencil grip, you may want to use a shorter pencil. Both of these suggestions help with children who are still working on strengthening their hand muscles.

Copywork piece– Once again, this can literally be anything. For shorter pieces, I tend to write it out on a white board or sticky note. For longer poems or passages that may take several days- I print it out for my children.

Now that you have all three materials needed for copywork, what should you do?

You simply tell your child to copy it down properly. When they are done, I usually pick out one or two things to correct. Depending on the age/ability, I may trace over the “g” that is not sitting on the bottom line correctly, have them erase the incorrect letter, and trace my letter correctly.

I DO NOT pick out every single little thing that is wrong…. That would be incredibly overwhelming for the child. However, I will pick out the letter (maybe two) that is written incorrectly the most or maybe the missing punctuation and have the child correct those.

The next day, I will remind the child that they really need to remember to put their “g’s” correctly. If they get them all correct, I praise and move on to the next letter that needs to be rewritten.

How often should I do copywork?

You can do copywork as often as you like! For my older kids, we do it daily. For my younger kids, we do it 2-3 times a week. To me, it depends on the balance you want for copywork and other writing pieces and the endurance your child has for writing.

What if my child’s handwriting needs a lot of work?

I would strongly suggest that you work on fine-motor skills to help build those little muscles in the hand. Things like:

• beads
• playdough
• clay
• stamps
• stickers
• tongs
• tweezers
• picking up beans/small pompoms
• anything small that requires your child to use their fingers

If you are really concerned, you may want to talk to your doctor.