Copying accurately and quickly from a board at the front of a classroom can be a challenge at the best of times. For young children and those with specific learning difficulties it can be near on impossible. It is amazing how many children lose some, if not all, of a break time because they could not complete the copying task quickly enough in the lesson time.
The practise of taking information off the board has its uses and there are times when there is just no other alternative but it can be made more manageable, here are a few ideas which may help.
- Make sure the child is sitting facing the board.
- That they can see the board clearly.
- That light is not reflecting off the board so that the writing disappears.
- Try using a different colour marker pen for each line of writing (this way a child will be able to quickly locate the line they were copying from).
- Or try numbering the lines so the child can more effectively find their way around the text.
- Leave more of a gap between each line of writing so that each line is clearly visible from the back of the room.
- Ask those children, who struggle copying, to start the first line of writing as you transfer the text to a smaller board which can then be placed at a more appropriate distance and level for them to continue copying from.
- If you know the information that will need to be transferred to the child’s book then pre-prepare a text that can be given to the child to copy from. It may be in a different order or layout to that on the board; but it is the information and the child’s ability to access it, that is important.
- Is a full sentence explanation always required or could the information be presented in another way such as a mind map or diagram which would be equally, or even more, useful to the child.
It can be surprising how frustrating and upsetting being asked to copy from the board can be for many children. So, anything that can help to alleviate these emotions and difficulties has got to be worth a try!
teachhandwriting.blog 
Do you have a font that can be downloaded which matches the scheme? I am keen to have a consistent font used for PowerPoints in school as well as other learning resources. Is this something that can be purchased?
Thank you
We do not have a downloadable font. Please remember that just because a child see’s a font on a screen it does not encourage or show them how to form the font for handwriting. We and others would recommend on your PowerPoints you use a good clear font as it is a reading task (sharing information) on a large screen that you are doing and that it is when you are handwriting something yourself that then you model the correct font.
Thank you for your response. We consistently model handwriting when teaching on flip chart paper. I understand and appreciate the importance of this. I was just looking at the options of a consistent print to be used as all have inaccuracies that can lead to cognitive overload and confusion, such as the different ‘a’ formation. Especially for ks1 I was hoping to find a font that would be inline to support this.
Hello Jasmine, If you are using Microsoft product I would suggest looking at the font styles available to you and as a school decide on the one that best suits your needs. My personnel preference is Comic Sans MS when working in KS1. A couple of other you might want to look at are Beatnik SF &
Bradley Hand ITC. These are only suggestions but I hope it helps.
I think these methods will work miracles and I trust it’d proffer solutions.