Secondary teacher requiring handwriting help!

[englishteacher78]

A LOT of my students now seem to have handwriting so bad it is likely to affect their examination performance!
I'm hoping to get some tips on good resources for improving presentation and handwriting - they don't include that on the secondary PGCE!

isn't (just as well you can't put red ink on posts).

Seriously, it's a fine line between getting them not to scribble and them not just rebeling against being treated like primary DCs

That struck me as a most extraordinary statement! Are you implying that when children go to Sec. they think it's going to be Liberty Hall as far as handwriting is concerned (and spelling, punctuation and grammar, perhaps). None of that tedious attention to learning life skills properly which blighted their primary years?

Andwhy oh why hasnt english moved with tbe times and embraced tbe sort of teen books kids actually want to read.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they can read 'teen books' any time they please and that they should really develop a nodding acquaintance with our literary heritage and experience some 'great' writing.

And I know the awful curriculum isnt your fault (Gove lives in the dark ages),

The present English curriculum has nothing whatsoever to do with Gove. The proposed new curriculum is not yet in place.

@maizie I agree actually. It's my duty to broaden their experience not study something they'd read anyway. I don't have the right (nor does anyone else) to dent students 'access' to texts because people think they're difficult.

I'm not a teacher but I just wanted to say tha when I did English Lit O level a long time ago (obviously) my teacher insisted that we all used fountain pen because it improved handwriting. He wouldn't mark work that where we used anything else. He was probably a bit eccentric but I do think he has a point. There is a lot of choice in writing implements these days and I do think some help make handwriting look better than others. DS1 has appalling handwriting so we have to think about what he uses, particularly as he is left handed and prone to smudging things. Maybe you need to do some research on what might work best. DS uses handwriting pens which don't smudge a big plus for readability!

I do encourage them to try out pens but they often come without them. I may see if I can get my HOD to get a supply of handwriting pens

Gel pens are good; the ink flows more easily than a biro but they're not as potentially messy as a fountain pen!

I love that there is a teacher as passionate as you in our schools. Good luck.

I agree grand. I can't believe some of the negative comments you've had OP. I think it's great that you're trying to help your students.

When dd was in upper sixth, her English Teacher insisted all homework (not course work) and past-papers, were written by hand. Nothing was allowed to be done on computer. This really helped when they sat their exams.

I do that with my sixth form. They moan but appreciate it when we do timed essay practice

I.m not suggesting you don't do some classics.

I just wish the choice was more imagintive. DD1 has done Romeo and Juliet (which she likes) in Y9 and for GCSE and of Mice and Men (which bores her rigid) for lang and lit. Hardly much variety.

DD2 say they are doing myths and fairy tales at the moment and that unit she really likes, but she total fails to see the point of Shakespeare and the classic stuff.

This is what worries me, if the English curriculum doesn't fully engage the DD2 who has been top of her class for literature since Y1 and the set books bore, book worm DD1, what ever do the lower ability DC make of it?

And anyone who things that with long days, more HW, variable teacher expectations and the beginnings of teen social lives that Y7s are going to write and spell beautifully like they did at Xmas of Y6 (before too much long writing practice started the rot), your living on a cloud.

You're
(And apologies for spelling, Kindle spell check has vanished. I'm dyslexic, and like the Y7s, RL has long since got in the way of the few spellings my dear English master drilled into me)

They shouldn't go backwards though. Why on earth was she taught the same text in Year 9 and at GCSE.
I also know of students who adore Of Mice and Men. You're not going to please them all in the texts you study.

I've taught the Shakespeare in Year 2 primary ...The Tempest, MacBeth, Midsummer nights Dream our KS2 pupils study quality texts and whole books not extracts yet this doesn't happen in some secondary schools

I suggest you avoid handwriting pens ...