Charlotte Mason Transcription

After learning to do copywork, the next phase in the Charlotte Mason book-keeping is transcription. It is an important introduction to spelling, and usually happens between the ages of 7 to 8 years old. Of course, this is not set in stone and every child develops at their own pace, so do observe how your own child is progressing without being pressured!

What is Transcription? 

Transcription, the next step up from copywork, refers to copying a text word for word and not by individual letters.

Value of Transcription––The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work, for which the New Handwriting is to be preferred, though perhaps some of the more ornate characters may be omitted with advantage.

(Charlotte Mason Home Education Vol 1 Page 238)

Miss Mason says that transcription is the earliest practice in writing that is proper for a child between seven and eight years old. She describes it as “slow and beautiful work.” This tells us that from the very onset, our goal for our children’s writing is not just functionality, but also beauty. 

How does transcription differ from copywork? 

• In copywork, the child copies a word letter by letter, and in lines right below the model being copied
• In transcription, the child copies a sentence (or paragraph) word by word, or eventually, phrase by phrase, committing the word to memory before writing it down on his copy sheet. 

Transcription and Spelling 

Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory.

(Vol 1 Page 238)

Transcription is a solid foundation for spelling, because the child starts practicing remembering how a word is spelled. Because he doesn’t copy the word by letter, he actually takes a look at the whole word, takes a picture of it in his mind’s eye, and then writes it down on his copy sheet from memory. 

As the child progresses, he will soon move towards transcribing the text by remembering several words at a time, even towards transcribing it phrase by phrase. 

How To Do Charlotte Mason Transcription

Here are the steps for doing transcription in your Charlotte Mason homeschool.

1. Let the child choose his favorite passages to transcribe. 

Children should Transcribe favourite Passages.––A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favourite verse in one poem and another. This is better than to write a favourite poem, an exercise which stales on the little people before it is finished. But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure.

(Vol 1 Page 238) 

While copybooks are a great way to make things easier for the CM homeschool, in reality, Miss Mason’s recommendation for transcription really is for the child to choose his favorite passage. This way, he would appreciate his output so much better than if it were the homeschool parent choosing the passages for him to copy. 

2. Start with using double-ruled lines for small text. 

Small Text-Hand––Double-ruled Lines––Double ruled lines, small text-hand, should be used at first, as children are eager to write very minute ‘small hand,’ and once they have fallen into this habit it is not easy to get good writing. A sense of beauty in their writing and in the lines they copy should carry them over this stage of their work with pleasure. 

(Vol 1 Page 238) 

Because transcription begins at an age when the child is just improving his handwriting, Miss Mason recommends using double-ruled lines. 

3. Keep lessons short. 

Here we have again the principle of short lessons in a CM homeschool: 

Not more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour should be given to the early writing-lessons. If they are longer the children get tired and slovenly. (Vol 1 Page 238-239)

Miss Mason recommends ten to fifteen minutes for the transcribing lesson. Set your timer, and when it goes off, stop the lesson. Our goal is to keep the child from getting lazy and sloppy in his writing. 

4. Pay attention to writing posture. 

Position in Writing.––For the writing position children should sit so that light reaches them from the left, and desk or table should be at a comfortable height.  

(Vol 1 Page 239)

Note that Miss Mason is writing this for the right-handed student. If you have a left-handed student, feel free to adjust the recommendation, with the light coming from the right side of the student! 

Next, she talks about the proper way of holding the pen: 

It would be a great gain if children were taught from the first to hold the pen between the first and second fingers, steadying it with the thumb. This position avoids the uncomfortable strain on the muscles produced by the usual way of holding a pen––a strain which causes writer’s cramp in later days when there is much writing to be done. The pen should be held in a comfortable position, rather near the point, fingers and thumb somewhat bent, and the hand resting on the paper.

(Vol 1 Page 239)

Finally, she adds a note about supporting oneself with the other hand: 

The writer should also be allowed to support himself with the left hand on the paper, and should write in an easy position, with bent head but not with stooping figure. It would be unnecessary to say that the flat of the nib should be used if children had not a happy gift for making spider marks with the nib held sideways.

(Vol 1 Page 239)

5. Feel free to use a blackboard or dry erase board. 

In all writing lessons, free use should be made of the black-board by both teacher and children by way of model and practice.

(Vol 1 Page 239) 

Miss Mason was speaking to a time when the blackboard was a mainstay in schools and in homeschools. In our day, we might use a dry erase board more easily. The goal here is to know that these tools are used for modeling and practice. 

6. Use good quality desks to aid good posture. 

Do you know that Miss Mason even went as far as to make recommendations for the student’s writing desk? Many of us may not think so far as that. Here is what she says: 

Desks.––The best desks I know are those recommended by Dr Roth, single desks which may be raised or lowered, moved backwards or forwards, with seat, back, and a back pad, and rests for the feet. There may be others as good, even better, in the market, but these seem to answer every purpose. (Vol 1 Page 239) 

Isn’t this interesting? She already had a recommendation for a desk that may be raised or lowered and adjusted backwards and forwards—kind of like the more revolutionary desks we see being sold online these days that can be used in various heights! 

7. Be watchful of mistaken spellings as the child writes. 

Now, this next step is one of the powers of CM copywork/transcription work. We don’t just leave the child to copy on their own; the parent/teacher actually has to sit nearby, watching as the child writes, so that at the first sign of a misspelling, we erase the word and encourage the child to copy it correctly. 

Why is this important? Miss Mason has observed that one of the main causes for poor spelling is the eye’s inability to retain an image of the correct spelling of a word. She discourages a common practice in her day wherein a teacher will let a student write words with wrong spellings, then correct them with red ink, return them to the student, and expect the latter to write it correctly the next time. Instead, she emphasizes the need to have our student see the correct spelling as often as possible, and the wrong spelling as rarely as possible. 

This is how she puts it: 

The Rationale of Spelling.––But the fact is, the gift of spelling depends upon the power the eye possesses to ‘take’ (in a photographic sense) a detailed picture of a word; and this is a power and habit which must be cultivated in children from the first. When they have read ‘cat,’ they must be encouraged to see the word with their eyes shut, and the same habit will enable them to image ‘Thermopylae.’ This picturing of words upon the retina appears to be to be the only royal road to spelling; an error once made and corrected leads to fearful doubt for the rest of one’s life, as to which was the wrong way and which is the right. Most of us are haunted by some doubt as to whether ‘balance,’ for instance, should have one ‘l’ or two; and the doubt is born of a correction. Once the eye sees a misspelt word, that image remains; and if there is also the image of the word rightly spelt, we are perplexed as to which is which. Now we see why there could not be a more ingenious way of making bad spellers than ‘dictation’ as it is commonly taught. Every misspelt word is in image in the child’s brain not to be obliterated by the right spelling. It becomes, therefore, the teacher’s business to prevent false spelling, and, if an error has been made, to hide it away, as it were, so that the impression may not become fixed.

(Vol 1 Page 241) 

Include Transcription in the Daily Schedule

The power in transcription comes when it’s done regularly and consistently. We encourage you to include it in your daily schedule, possibly as a “break” in between stories, to give your child’s mind a chance to rest before going back to another reading or listening lesson.