Why do students just copy worksheet text instead of answering?
Students struggle to comprehend reading material and lack the vocabulary or strategies needed to process it, leading them to mechanically hunt for exact matching phrases on a worksheet. This prevents them from deducing answers or formulating responses in their own words.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Modeling and scaffoldingDid this help you?
- 2Showing videos and personally explaining conceptsDid this help you?
- 3Having students use AI to answer warm-up questionsDid this help you?
- 4Switching to no-tech classrooms using paper, textbooks, worksheets, and mini-group presentations instead of laptops and digital platforms.Did this help you?
- 5Setting clear standards and enforcing themDid this help you?
- 6Requiring key assessments to be done in class where AI cannot be usedDid this help you?
- 7Teaching students how to use AI properly and ethicallyDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“One half uses it on a daily basis, unable to come up with their own thoughts and ideas. Because in their eyes; what’s the point of it when AI can do it for you.”source ↗
“After multiple AI problems, computer shenanigans, and many students copying answers straight from Google, I decided to switch my classroom to no tech unless absolutely necessary.”source ↗
“the inability to answer questions without in their own words without copying from a worksheet - usually incorrectly - is INSANE.”source ↗
“Cue frustration because “idk what the word means!” and flipping the paper back and forth to look for the exact words, “A PlayPump is…””source ↗
“Yep. Experiencing this too. A lot of these kids don't immediately seem brain dead when you speak to them, but if you ask them "what is x" on a worksheet, they act like it is impossible to deduce.”source ↗
“Instead of actually learning, students would just have AI do the work for them. So if AI wasn’t able to be used, the students wouldn’t know how to actually do the work. Even simple stuff like writing a short-form argumentative paper.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why do homework questions have no explanation or poor wording?
- 4What tools detect cut-and-paste and LLM cheating on assignments?
- 2How to help kids understand what test questions are asking
- 4Why do my child's school grades make no sense?
- 5Students constantly forgetting materials, am I overreacting?
- 8Why won't students do the reading assignments?