Can’t You Just Copy It?

Focus on what they’re going to copy.

Change the focus onto the piece of paper that they are writing on.

Remember what they saw.

Write it.

Back to the board – and now find where they were. Focus.

Read a segment and remember it.

Back to the paper – and now find where they were. Focus.

Write it down.

And again…

For some children this is incredibly hard. All that changing of focus! The eyes get more tired and they may get slower and slower, struggling more and more. All that remembering! How far did they get?

This is hard enough when just copying is involved, but even harder if they’re also expected to answer questions or try to understand new ideas. If they’re struggling to copy or focus on the board, they’re certainly not going to be processing anything they’re writing or anything they’re being taught.

A couple of very simple things to do to make it just a bit easier.

– Have them copy from a sheet that is on their desk instead of on the board. Use big, clear font like Comic Sans or Verdana.

– Offer them a highlighter so that they can highlight what they’ve already copied and not lose their place.

And there are things to do about developing flexibility in focusing near and far, and if needed – making handwriting easier. We’ll discuss those elsewhere.