Learning spelling through copywork

I’ll be happy to tell you a little more about how Charlotte approached spelling, and maybe that will generate some ideas of what you want to do with your girls. Oh, wait. I was going to type out this whole explanation, and then remembered that we have a blog post with the details. So read this article on Copywork, Transcription, & Dictation first, then my little thoughts below. 🙂

• Don’t worry about spelling lists and such for your 1st grader. Just encourage her to start looking at how words are spelled as she copies and as she practices reading. You can make a game of it by telling her that you are going to select one of her copywork/reading words at the end of her lesson and see if she noticed how to spell it. Choose a short one at first to build confidence and set her up for success. You might want to start building a different kind of spelling list for her: words she has shown you that she does know how to spell.
• Your 2nd grader might be ready to move on to transcription. It’s very possible to copy words without consciously looking at how they are spelled. So you may just need to encourage her to develop that skill. 
• For both girls, make sure their copywork/transcription selections are short. If the passages are too long, it’s hard to pay close attention to word spellings for the whole thing. Keep the lessons around 5 minutes with an emphasis on careful observation, and you’ll probably see improvement.
• As you build your list of words that each girl knows how to spell, you can always do a quick review of some previous words before they begin their next lesson. Again, nothing long or drawn out. Short, concentrated effort is your friend. 🙂

I have a question….How long or short should a passage to be copy to keep the emphasis on the words being spelled??

My second grader could very well be copying words, but like you mentioned, not consciously looking at how the words are spelled.  I’d like to have the short lessons with concentrated effort be my friend as well:)

For now, my son does appr. 1 page per day of copywork.  I type in the words (zaner-bloser site) on one line (about 4 words to a line, depending on the length of the words, of course, then skip a line, etc. I can fit about 23 words on a template, do you think that’s too many words at one time??   I don’t always have him do it all in one sitting, but try to break it up and keep it enjoyable.

Thanks in advance for your help:)

My son is a 3rd grader (just turned 9).  We bought Spelling Wisdom to use this year.  We are only on the first lesson, as we use other copywork also.  Yesterday though I noticed that he had a natural transition to transcription.  As he was copying the motto (I am; I can; I ought; I will.)  He told me “Mom I can do this without looking at the paper now, I know how the words are spelled.”  I asked him if he was remembering the punctuation and he said yes.  Sure enough he did. I knew that he could spell most of the words, the only one he didn’t know off the top of his head was “ought”.  He had only copied it two other times this week.  Literally two other times, once on Monday and once on Wednesday.  One time each in his best handwriting.  On Monday I will try to dictate the motto to him and see how he does.  If he doesn’t do well we may wait a few months on dictation, as he may not be quite ready for it.  Then just stick with transcription for a while.  We will move on to the next lesson in Sp. Wis.  on Monday, knowing that some words he will already know how to spell and there will be one or two that he will have to copy to learn.  I love it!

So I don’t necessarily think that you need to have them copy the passage many times over at each sitting.  It’s possible that the transcription will come as they are ready.  

I am really confused about how to do transcription.

I have given my children copywork to do, and they’ve been doing pretty well with that.  My 11yo ds is the only one whose handwriting is far from “beautiful” in the standard sense, but he has a slight hand tremor and has had developmental delays with fine motor skills, so I know it will take him a long, long time to move beyond mere legibility.

My daughters, however, can move on.  In fact, my oldest girl has begun using prepared dictation.  However, I’m not sure how transcription fits in between copywork and dictation.  Is it a must, or simply a bridge between the two?  How would you decide if you should move directly to dictation from copywork?  And, most importantly, how does the child actually do transcription?

I hope it’s not too obvious a question, but this is honestly the first time I’ve heard of transcription.  (Yes, I’m horribly behind on my Charlotte Mason readings….I’ve not gone much beyond the basics in order to get started this year.)

Transcription is the transition between copywork and dictation. With copywork, the child copies letter by letter. With transcription, the child studies (looks at until he knows it) and writes word by word, checking each word immediately to make sure he spelled it correctly. Then later, in dictation, the child studies and writes an entire passage. So it’s a gradual and natural progression.

It seems like most children start to transcribe on their own in many cases. Once they move from copying letter by letter to writing whole words, they are moving that direction. I think an easy way to tell if the child is copying whole words is to watch him while he’s copying. If he looks back at the model word while he’s in the middle of writing it, he’s still doing copywork. But if he looks at the word model, then writes the entire word without looking back, he is transcribing it.

Our goal is to encourage him toward transcription, as he is ready for it, by bringing to his attention that he can learn how to spell words by looking closely and carefully at them, and then writing them without looking back, then immediately checking them. As we mentioned earlier, it’s easy for children to start copying without their brains in gear once they have the mechanics of handwriting down. So at that stage, we want to present the next challenge to help them keep their heads in the game: transcription, which just happens to also be the bridge between copywork and dictation.

Does that help a little?

Definitely! Thanks Sonya!

I’m still not 100% I understand how to transition from copywork to transcription.  I don’t know if I could really tell just by watching.  Is it mostly in the way it’s presented?  Our copywork has been on lined paper with a blank line immediately below, so they can see the model right above it.  To enable them to transcribe word-by-word, would it be better to present the entire sentence or two without lines between, then provide the blank lines below that?  Or on a separate piece of paper?