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Theresa
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 12:43pm | IP Logged
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We are just beginning copy work and my 9 yr ds has some errors. He forgot some capital letters and had some capital letters in the middle of words that should have all been lower case.
Do you correct the work and have them re-do it? Or just go over the errors and encourage him to pay closer attention?
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Theresa
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rashfordmom
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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I'm all ears too. We have been using the American History copywork at Serendipity and my 1st and 3rd grade boys are exhibiting terrible handwriting!
A few times now I have had them re-write words the next day or I have used my Startwrite software to make some letter practice pages with the letters they seem to miss the most in their copywork.
Everytime I hand them the copywork page, I tell them, "Best handwriting." But they seem to rush through it anyway just to have it done. 
All in all, I know I'm not requiring too much but if you asked them, I'm a terrible slave driver and I chain them to the table for hours on end.
Sorry, I know that doesn't answer Theresa's question. I look forward to hearing what others have to say.
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mellyrose
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 3:06pm | IP Logged
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I do not have my boys re-write copywork. I've been struggling a bit with it, but so far I haven't.
I go through the work, make the necessary corrections in red (capital letters, misspellings, punctuation) and then go over it with them so they can see the corrections.
I have been considering having them choose one piece per week to write out with corrections -- but haven't implemented that.
Curious to read what others do!
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Lara Sauer
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 4:44pm | IP Logged
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I think you need to ask yourself WHY you are having your children DO copywork in the first place.
I think the purpose of my children's copy work if for them to see and re-write sentences that are written well, grammatically and syntactically. This means I want them to notice things like the fact that well-written sentences begin with capital letters and end with appropriate punctuation. I want them to write complex sentences that are grammatically challenging that they wouldn't be able to think up on their own. I also want them to see and write words that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to that are spelled correctly and used well.
If all I wanted was penmanship practice, then a simple penmanship book whose wrting style that I thoug was attractive would suffice.
It seems to me that if they are supposed to be copying something CORRECTLY and they fail to do so, then they need to be corrected! I would definitely fall on the side of making them correct their errors. I might find myself in the minority here, but without corrections, it just seems to me that "copywork"easily turns into "busywork!" I also think that by having the kids correct their errors, they themselves become more attentive to the details that I WANT them to notice.
Peace.
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lapazfarm
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Yes. I think that is for me the whole point of copywork, to reinforce proper spelling and conventions, so I always have dd correct that in copywork. Handwriting is more flexible.
With my 1st grader's handwriting I focus on perhaps one main thing for her to work on--for instance, nice round a's, or nice straight t's, and she checks and corrects those. Eventually we get it all covered.
I don't do copywork with my older son.
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Theresa
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mellyrose
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 5:46pm | IP Logged
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Um, scratch my answer. We don't do copywork here. We do handwriting, and they do writing in their journals, etc. The journals is what I correct . . . but that's not really copywork is it?
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Theresa
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| Posted: Sept 22 2008 at 10:20pm | IP Logged
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Anyone have Charlotte's books and could share what she writes in this area?
I am of the understanding that copywork is to be their best work. They have the model in front of them to copy from, so they should be noticing when things are capitalized or not.
Here is link that a friend passed on to me when I asked her this question by e-mail today. She also said that yes, copywork needs to be corrected and re-done.
Copywork help from Ambleside
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hopalenik
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I have just finished reading Susan Wise Bauer's Easy Writer book (which suprisingly is light compared to her book on Classical Education). She was adamant that the point of copywork was to impress a memory of correct sentence structure in their minds. In the second grade year, she has you do a narration on day one, on day 2 do a one sentence copywork from the narrated passage, and on day 3 she does a dictation exercise on that one sentence from day 2. If they did not physically copy the entire sentence correctly on day 2, there is little chance that they will have the correct mental image of it in their mind for the dictation on day 3. Because it is only one sentence, if their is an error in capitalization, or punctuation-I make mine rewrite the sentence. She cried at first but now she just does it and she is far more careful about copying than she was 2 months ago-when I had never previously required her to recopy.
Just a thought...
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Copy work... do you correct it?
