DD has brought home work from school that she didn't do

[mollycoo]

I was emptying the book bags this morning and DD had been given her writing lessons to take home.

It was a report All About Caterpillars, which is lovely, but she hasn't written a single bit of it herself. When I asked her she laughed and said she copied it from her teacher.

I feel a bit off about it. She can write CVC words and short sentences, but she definitely can't spell any of the words she's written down.

Is she behind? Should she be making more progress? Is copying something out like that beneficial? It's really playing on my mind.

It must have been blooming hard work to get her to copy it all down! It's just so far beyond what I know she can do herself.

Blimey calm down. I remember copying stuff in primary school. One A in higher English and a degree from a RG university later I think it’s fair to say I wasn’t held back

I mean this kindly OP, but let it go. You’ve got years and years of school ahead of you both. Getting worked up about something that probably has a very sensible explanation behind it is not a good use of mental energy. I say this as a teacher and a parent.

Sounds like a straightforward exercise in sequencing a sentence or paragraph, using a word bank.

It never fails to amaze me how little people understand about school. Literacy learning involves around 60 or 70 outcomes at that stage and they are delivered in various ways. The teacher usually has the assessment point, eg 'Can select words from supplied wordbank and create a short paragraph using correct punctuation and an adjective' or suchlike. Not every written task is a spelling or handwriting skill task.

It looks - and my kids aren't at this stage yet, so I'm coming from a position of ignorance - like they've been learning about caterpillar life cycles, and the teacher has distilled what they learned into some simple sentences for the children to copy out as 'neat' working, thereby practising their handwriting AND also, hopefully, helping the knowledge to stick (as hand writing has been shown to be good for learning).

I'd just enjoy what your little girl has produced! Tell her it's great, or that it looks like she worked really hard on it, or whatever aligns with your personal parenting principles.

With the best will in the world, op, I hope your seatbelt is secure - it’s going to be a bumpy ride, if this is how you are when your child’s in Reception!

No.

She's demonstrated a lot of ability there in being able to not just form letters clearly, but in observation, attention to detail and patience/focus in replicating what she saw. It also enhances her understanding of how words are constructed and extends her vocabulary along with the scientific knowledge she's gained.

And, in a normal household, this would also have led to receiving praise for the hard - in all senses - work she had done, not a lukewarm reaction or (in some homes at least) outright criticism or derision for 'you didn't do anything special, you just copied that off the teacher'.

I know online is a place where all Reception children are free writing treatises upon the emancipation of women in the context of Late 12th Century Soteriology complete with accurate replications of contemporaneous iconography and direct translations from the original Greek - but really, if it's legible and formed of complete sentences rather than the markings of a seven legged spider with epilepsy falling down a 60 degree slope through slurry, she's done really well and deserves effusive - and genuine - praise for what she has achieved. Not a 'meh, this is cheating'.

She is in reception. I remember doing similar stuff and I left school and this was over 30 years ago.

You're in for a long ride op if this bothers you! As others said it's reception, half the class won't even be able to write yet.

Some of you are the ones overreacting! I told her it was wonderful and pinned it up on the wall and asked if she did it with Miss X. I am not sitting here in floods of tears rending garments/reams of A4.

It honestly won't have been. I work in a primary 1 classroom and a lesson about caterpillars will have been largely good fun and informative. They might have read the hungry caterpillar, maybe even had caterpillars that hatched and released the butterflies or they will have watched something that shows the process. The leaflet will have been the end of the project and they'll likely have sat and discussed the process while the teacher writes the key sentences and discusses the key words. The dc will have been excited because I've yet to meet a 4/5 year old that isn't excited about this topic so most will have happily engaged with the task to the best of their ability knowing they can show their parents when they take it home. I hope you've hidden your feelings and been enthusiastic for dd. The point is the butterfly lesson. The writing practice is a bonus not the primary aim

Depending on where you live, spend some time looking into and learning about the curriculum. It sounds like you don't understand how it's being delivered and I imagine you will continue to be anxious about things like this. "Play based learning" is a complicated approach planned and tracked in great detail but children still apply skills in various ways during class tasks. It would help you if you understood more about the curriculum at your DD's stage, what is covered, what skills are taught. It could really put your mind at rest to learn a bit more about it and quell your anxiety.

I'm actually really glad you posted this op, as I would not have known that this is something that 5 year olds would do.
If the child cannot read what they have written afterwards, what is the benefit ? I know it must seem surprising that some parents know nothing about school but if you're not in it- you don't know! I am a secondary teacher and I would not have realised that children are encouraged to copy long texts in some lessons.

This was my thoughts exactly. Someone posted that half of the class won't be able to write... so what's the point? Could they not draw pictures, or paint, or cut up egg boxes or something instead of copying a heading and 6 sentences?

Kids copy down words they don't know all the time. That's how they learn what the words are, what they mean, and how to spell them.

I honestly have no idea why you would be bothered by it.

Maybe some of them did do pictures and other tasks more suited to them? You don't know what the kids who can't write did.

They will have done those fun things. Then they'll maybe have dictated facts that they learned to the teacher, who wrote them up.

Then there'd be differentiation for the next part of the lesson. Those who can write might copy the sentences. This who can't might be given the words cut up, and put them in order to make a sentence. Some might just have over-written or underwritten the word caterpillar.

Then she is probably really pleased she copied it all down!!

It's contributing to her learning. Relax.

If it's just one piece of work, so I wouldn't worry about it. The teacher may have had some extra time so Googled spring worksheets and printed it out. Unless it's part of a pattern of unsuitable work, I think it's ok.

Perfectly fine. She's learned a true fact, at least one new word, and she has seen words and copied them accurately . She might not have been able to decipher "beautiful" or "chrysalis" all by herself, but now she knows what they say . Word recognition (of a whole word) is an important part of learning to read.

Copying is a classic way to teach vocabulary, eye-hand co-ordination, and practise basic skills used in reading ; letter recognition by name and sound; the importance of letter order in words, and whole word recognition.

Unconsciously, a learner registers that "beautiful" and "butterfly" both contain a sequence of letters and sounds b, t, f, l ......but they form two different words. Both are words whose meaning she knows well. Her brain is sorting that information without her being aware if it.

In a few days time, write that sentence on a new piece of paper (use the same script she's learning at school) . Don't ask her to read it. Just say "do you know what that says?". She may give you the whole sentence; but if she doesn't, ask " do you know one of those words? "

You'll be surprised.

Someone posted that half of the class won't be able to write... so what's the point?

Copying words is an important part of learning HOW to write. Holding a pencil; making marks on paper, focussing attention, eye to hand co-ordination.

@mollycoo · Today 10:31

It must have been blooming hard work to get her to copy it all down! It's just so far beyond what I know she can do herself.

You underestimate what she's capable of.

Encourage her; if she draws a picture, ask what it is and write or spell the word for her. Let her copy it onto her drawing.
Before long, she can start to "help " you write shopping lists. She may not be able to spell "Bread" but she can probably manage the first letter.

Yabu because you don't understand pedagogy. As a parent, you either learn the science behind learning OR leave it to the trained experts.

Have you ever learnt a new language with its own alphabet? For example, I used to have Cantonese lessons. We did spend time copying out sentences as part of the lessons, that was how we learnt how to write the unfamiliar words.

As I say, you could make the effort to read some books about how children learn. Piaget, Vygotsky etc might be good starting points.

OR just leave it to the experts.

(Obvs I don't mean if you feel your kid is unhappy or ill treated. But that's not the case here. Here, you are weighing in criticising teaching methods with no knowledge base at all)

(I know Chinese doesn't have its own alphabet, it's a script. But I also used to learn Greek and the same applies).