Handwriting SUCCESS FOR ALL.

Easy strategies and activities to help children of all learning styles practice and perfect their handwriting

Row upon row of wobbly, cursive lowercase w's were spread across Matty's paper, like pointy waves in an ocean of blue lines. The rips and smears of repeated erasing were all too visible. As I looked over his work, I made notes on his progress: "Matty responds well to an active, bands-on approach. He is a tactile learner who seems to enjoy experiencing new things in the classroom."

What Matty clearly did not enjoy was practicing the new cursive letter forms. Laboring to fill his page with "perfect" letters left him restless, frustrated, and unsuccessful. He needed a different approach.

How can we simultaneously teach children to copy from a model, while at the same time honoring their individual learning styles? Visual learners, for instance, may respond well to copying from a model, but tactile learners respond well to incorporating their sense of touch, exploring letters through texture and shape. Auditory learners need to hear descriptions of letter formation. Physical learners can better remember letter forms if they experience letters using gross motor movements. Attention to all styles of learning is, as in every area of the curriculum, a necessary part of handwriting instruction.

Easy Ways to Handwriting--Practice Success

When you begin handwriting practice, you'll want to teach to children's strengths, keep children creatively engaged, and not overwhelm reluctant writers. The teaching of handwriting varies depending on the grade level, but a step-by-step initial lesson might proceed as follows:

1) Preview the letter you'll be teaching by writing it on the board.

2) Demonstrate its formation on the board as you verbally describe it.

3) Have students "air trace" the letter with their fingers in the air.

4) Have students pick up their pencils and try the letter once on their paper. Monitor, checking to see if they have understood the basic strokes. If not, take the student's hand in yours and guide him or her through the strokes one by one.

5) Invite students to complete one row of the letter and then circle their "best" in the row.

Regardless of the children's grade level, there are certain helpful guidelines to follow whenever you teach handwriting skills. Adapt your lessons to incorporate the following suggestions, which will give learners of all styles a better grasp of the art of handwriting.

Combine modalities. Visual learners will respond to copying from a model, but auditory learners will benefit from "talking through" a letter's formation, tactile learners from tracing it in sand, and physical learners from having the letter traced on their back or palm by a partner.

Bring it together. Children learn letter formation by actively exploring letter names, the sounds the letters stand for, each letter's arrangement of curves and lines, and the movements used in its formation. (See Further Resources, Bear et al.) As you introduce letters, refer to their names and sounds. Use physical descriptions such as, "b has a bat that goes down, and a round ball at the bottom."

Put practice rows in their place. Practicing rows of letters certainly serves its purpose, but so does experiencing the sheer fun of letters. Balance rote letter practice with engaging and meaningful activities that integrate all the senses (see Activities, pages 38-39).

Guide self-assessment. Help children learn to critique their own handwriting ("My t is not tall enough") by either comparing it with a model or having an assessment checklist to read against. (See Assessment Strategies, page 38.)

Provide media other than pencil and paper. Writing on or with easily erasable materials such as sand, rice, clay, or finger paint takes away the need to erase, and therefore frees up reluctant writers. It also reaches children who learn kinesthetically. Writing on a chalkboard allows children to use gross motor movements and see letters at eye level; and practicing on dry erase boards takes away the need to erase mistakes on paper.

Write for a purpose. After children finish their practice rows, have them use writing for a real-life purpose. If they've just learned W have them address an envelope to a friend whose name begins with W.

Introduce letters according to similarity of formation. Most handwriting programs order the letters so that children can organize their visual perceptions; for instance, l, b, h, and k all begin with the same first downward stroke. Pointing out similarities and differences between letters is helpful.

Make time for independent practice. Explicitly teaching a letter's formation to the whole group takes a short time; children can then work independently or practice at the writing center as you focus on other areas of the curriculum. You might also send worksheets home with students for extra practice in trouble areas.

Assessment Strategies

Do you know anyone whose writing looks like the samples in the handwriting books? Of course not! When guiding children's letter-formation practice, consistency and legibility are the goals. Do children make the same letters the same way each time? Are all the tall letters tall, and all the small letters small? And most important, can you or another child read what the child has written?

Especially with older children who are refining their techniques, it is helpful to remember the "five S's": size, slant, shape, spacing, and smoothness. (See Further Resources, Zaner-Bloser.) For samples and guidelines, see pages 35 and 36.

Five Quick and Easy Activities for Manuscript or Cursive

Glitter Templates. Help tactile learners reinforce letter shapes by writing a letter on a large index card. Include guiding horizontal lines (top, bottom, and dotted middle). Children can glue yarn on the top and bottom lines, glue short pieces of plastic straw to the dotted lines, and squeeze glue along the letter's lines and cover in glitter. When the work is dry, children can close their eyes and feel the orientation of the letter within the lines.

Sidewalk Chalk. Take letter practice outdoors! Invite children to use sidewalk chalk to decorate the sidewalk or playground surface with letters. They might make a giant letter and take turns walking on it in the directions the letter is formed; or the whole class might stand on the lines to make a human letter.

Calligraphy Demonstrations. Invite a calligrapher to visit and demonstrate "fancy" letters, and let children try their hand at forming them. Children might also write with quills: Use craft feathers from a craft-supply store and dip (either end) into tempura paint. In addition, you might invite a parent whose first language does not use the Roman alphabet to demonstrate how letters are formed in his or her native language.

Letter Cafe. Spread out foil or wax paper and let children practice letters with various foods: squeeze cheese or cake frosting, licorice strings, cooked and raw spaghetti, and so on. Or, spread pudding, yogurt, or whipped cream in a thin layer on wax paper and let children trace letters onto the surface with their fingers. Melt chocolate chips, and use a thick paintbrush to "paint" chocolate letters onto wax paper. Refrigerate, peel, and eat the letters!

Invisible Ink. Use lemon or grapefruit juice and cotton swabs to paint invisible letters onto plain white paper. Let the paper dry, then sandwich it between two sheets of newspaper and iron with a medium-hot iron. Watch the secret letters appear!

Further Resources

* Handwriting: A Way to Self-Expression, Zaner-Bloser www.zaner-bloser.com

* D'Nealian, ScottForesman www.scottforesman.com/Ian guage/dnealian.html

* Handwriting Without Tears www.hwtears.com

* Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print, by Marilyn Adams (The MIT Press, 1994). Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary & Spelling, by Donald R. Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, and Francine Johnston (Prentice Hall, 1995).

Kama Einhorn is the author of Cursive Writing Made Easy & Fun! (Scholastic, 2000), and two upcoming Scholastic books on teaching manuscript to children in grades K-1.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

* Cursive comes from the Latin currere, which means "to run." it is usually taught in second or third grade and perfected in fourth.

* Script, as cursive is often called, comes from the Latin scribere, "to write," and can be used to describe any system of writing.

* Print refers to the stick-and-ball formation of letters that students learn before cursive. Many kindergartners know how to print uppercase letters, while lowercase letters are commonly introduced in first grade.

* Manuscript is the technical name for print.

HANDWRITING INSTRUCTION: It Makes Sense

Even in the age of computers, handwriting is still an important skill. If our ideas aren't expressed legibly on paper, we lose ground in a main form of social communication. Also, practicing single letters leads to faster letter recognition, which allows for more cognitive energy to be spent on higher-level thinking. Being able to read our own writing gives us quick and easy access to our own thoughts. And on many of the new language-arts tests, children must respond in essay form to open-ended questions, which requires competent, quick, and legible handwriting.

Research has shown that learning about letters and their shapes often turns into interest in their sounds and how they are used in words. In practicing letter forms, children develop and strengthen fine motor skills. In addition, many learners will "imprint" the letter model and use it for forming their own letters--by writing the same letter over several times, children help to seal it in their visual and physical memory.