Teaching Handwriting

[barefootcook]

Due to the appalling handwriting of some of our Y7 and 8 students we have decided to reteach them how to write! Some have missed out on handwriting lessons early on and others are just sloppy. We have created a good resource, however no one in the department has ever been trained in actually teaching handwriting. Does anyone have any hint or suggestions to help us?

For older children, I have found that teaching calligraphy works well. It isn’t seen as a ‘boring and babyish handwriting lesson’. You can play up the art and graphic design elements.

Calligraphy highlights the tops and tails of letters for joined up writing. Even if students don’t learn the calligraphy styles successfully, handwriting generally improves because of the focus on appearance.

As a pp suggested, ten minutes per day rather than an hour a week. Practise makes perfect!

Oh, and calligraphy pens are obviously not biros. Biros make it difficult to write neatly.

Do they still have handwriting exercise books? When we were in school, they were purple A5 exercise books, and they were compulsory until kids showed mastery…

This website is excellent. Loads of resources, techniques and ideas to support children who struggle.

www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/

As someone said above, do screen for underlying issues - all of my DC are hypermobile and handwriting has been hard and painful for them.

Hypermobile fingers mean you need a different grip for control (resting on the fourth finger) so schools insisting on the triangle grip is unhelpful. Also dyspraxia - do some children need a writing slope? This has been game changing for one of my DC, as the junior school forbade holding the paper still with the other hand due to fingerprints. Or, indeed, tilting it to the left or right.

Also, pay careful attention to left-handers - the world is stacked against them anyway in writing terms. It really is easier not to ask them to use wet ink that smudges everywhere; and practice books should be bound at the top, not the left or right hand sides.

One of my DC had a handwriting intervention in Y9 which was largely useless because it took account of none of the above and was just copying passages of text for 10 minutes day. I did speak to the English teacher about the pointlessness of asking a hypermobile lefthanded dyslexic to copy cursive text in a lefthand spiral bound book, but she just shrugged and said that's what they used. Amazingly, his handwriting did not improve.

He now uses a keyboard for everything, as a medical adjustment for all the above issues.