Y7 and copying from board

[Westcoastlover]

Is it normal for Y7s to do lots of copying from the board? DD is bright and in a mixed ability class. Her written work frequently involves just copying from the board, even in subjects such as Literacy which I would have thought requires quite a lot of personal opinion. DD seems quite unchallenged and complains of having to copy so much. She never copied from the board in primary school, but is it quite a widely used method in KS3? Many thanks for any thoughts.

ds(15) has complained of this too since starting secondary (we are in Scotland). It makes content heavy, but should be interesting, subjects like Modern Studies, History and Geography especially boring.

Although I understand writing something down (correctly!) helps commit it to memory, in an ideal world they would be given text books home to study and in class discuss debate and practise the topic instead of writing out the whole curriculum by hand. He doesn't even get the English books they are reading home, they do it in class (we have bought our own copies, for most subjects but some wont/cant do this).

I suspect schools just can't afford the costs associated with keeping copies of books or photocopying for pupils anymore.

Yes my Y7 has this too. He is dyslexic so it's really hard for him - his teachers are meant to give him handouts or he types it. His handwriting is terrible when he copies too so he may as well not bother!
I think it's a waste of time. They should receive a hand out of the notes to stick in their books if they really need them and then carry out a task surrounding them. I don't think they learn anything from copying and their time could be spent much more productively!

I work in a secondary and actually think that writing for a board is a good thing. This is because it encourages good writing. My schools favours worksheets and a sticking in the book approach. And handwriting has been negatively affected as a result.

Perhaps the idea as well , is to think of sentence structure and getting a used to writing in prose which are both important skills

As a secondary teacher, I agree copying from the board is boring and feels like a waste of time. Unfortunately, due to lack of money, we cannot afford textbooks or texts for every child to take home. We also have limited photocopying which we need to use for things like assessment papers and practice exam papers rather than print-outs of class notes. That means when there is key information that pupils need, we often have to get them to copy it down. It's a pain but sometimes our only choice.

@Gogolego couldn't disagree more. As I said my DS's handwriting is awful when he copies from the board and doesn't take anything in. It's lazy teaching in my opinion - just keeping them busy rather than making sure they have a good understanding of the content.

@KatnissK understand your point. Could they take a photo of the notes to stick in? Or file on a device? Depends I suppose how much technology is a part of the school's set up.

Also, there's evidence that the writing and the thought process means that you actually have to think more about what you are learning. Whereas, reading just means that it goes in one eye and out the other so to speak.

Also, at our school like many they start gsces in year 9. Which means they will need to start answering 6 mark questions. And in some earlier tests too. This means that if they've not got much experience of this until year 9. They're not used to writing that much, and not as much effort will be given to answering as they haven't got the stamina do it so to speak

My son has dysgraphia . Year 8 and doesn’t but no idea if he is meant too🤔

Literacy in Year 7? Is this a middle school? Not that it matters as a whole just to get an idea. I wouldn't say copying from the board in good or bad practice. It depends on the situation.