Teaching page · Grade 2 · Lesson 20

Copy a sentence worth copying

Copying a good sentence puts its shape into the hand.

What it is

Copying a sentence exactly is not busywork. When your hand makes the shape of a good sentence, the shape starts to be available to you when you write your own. Exactly means exactly: the capital, every comma, the spacing, the period. What you are practicing is noticing, and a copied sentence with a comma missing means you did not see the comma.

Watch it built

1
Choose one sentence from the page you would be pleased to have written.
The wind had been rising all evening, and by dark it was loud.
2
Copy the first half, checking the capital and every mark as you go.
The wind had been rising all evening,
3
Copy the rest, then read yours against the book once, mark by mark.
The wind had been rising all evening, and by dark it was loud.
Remember
Exactly means exactly — every capital, every comma, the period.
Ask yourself: “Is mine the same as the author's, mark for mark?”

Remember

Copy it exactly — every mark.

59