 |
Traditional or Modern Manuscript? Handwriting without Tears or Zaner-Bloser? Lined paper or unlined paper? Uppercase or lowercase? These are some of the questions that I have pondered through my long career as a kindergarten teacher.
As is true about so many issues in education, there is probably no correct answer. If you ask a reading specialist, you are likely to hear that beginning readers need to be exposed to various fonts, that learning to write strengthens memory for letters and sounds, that knowledge of lowercase letters should precede uppercase letters since text is mostly lowercase. If you ask an occupational therapist, you might hear a strong preference for Handwriting without Tears and the relative simplicity of uppercase letter formation. If you ask a learning disabilities specialist, she will likely tell you that some children benefit from learning to write along with learning letters and their sounds while others struggle so much with the handwriting that they experience no benefit as readers.
In my 23 years of teaching kindergarten, I've been able to experiment with different approaches to teaching handwriting. From 1995-2008, I taught handwriting in conjunction with learning each letter and its sound. I used the Modern Manuscript form, or D'Nealian, because I knew research showed it reduced reversals and eased the later transition to cursive. I taught both uppercase and lowercase letters as I focused on each letter and its sound. Here is what D'Nealian manuscript looks like:
I used Smart Start writing paper because I found its "sky" and "grass lines" were helpful reference points in teaching letter formation, as was the red broken line that I named 'the butterfly line." I also used the sun/cloud formation as a reference point for making the "rainbow" that starts the lower case letter f, as well as numerals like 2 and 3.
In 2009, a new principal with a strong background in literacy coaching, recommended that we switch to traditional manuscript because of its closer approximation to print. We learned to teach lowercase letters first because of their preponderance in print. We followed a teaching order and verbal directions suggested by Jan Richardson:
Letter Formation – Start with one group and stick with it before moving on
Group 1: Letters that start like a c
c‐ around like a c
o – around like a c and close
a – around like a c and down
d‐ around like a c, up and down
g – around like a c, down and hook left
q ‐ around like a c, down
Group 2: Letters that start like an l
l – start at the top, down
t – start at the top, down, cross
h – start at the top, down and hump
k – start at the top, down, in, out
b – start at the top, down and around
r – start at the top, down ,up, and over
n – start at the top, down, up, hump
m – start at the top, down, hump, hump
i – start at the top, down, dot
j – start at the top, down, hook left, dot
p – start at the top, down, up and around
Group 3: Unique Letters
e – over and around like a c
f – down, cross
s – around like a snake
u – down and up
v – down and up
w – down, up, down, up
x – like a cross
y – down, down
z – across, down, across
I've followed this approach with some modifications these past seven or eight years and found it to be successful with all the students-- except those students for whom it was unsuccessful! Each year, there seemed to be about a quarter of the class that persisted in writing letters from top to bottom, or backwards, or who didn't transfer what we did in handwriting practice sessions to other writing tasks.
This past summer, I gave some more thought to handwriting instruction. I decided to combine what had been successful prior to 2009 with what I had learned in more recent years. So, what does this look like? I am explicitly teaching a couple of letters and their sounds each week. I am teaching the lower case letters first, in an order that will quickly lead to decoding. For starters, the first 12 letters are c, a, t, d, g, s, f, m, t, l, h, p, and n. I am referring to letters that start like a c as "two o'clock letters" and including a drawing of a clock face on modified Smart Start paper. This is an idea I adapted from Preventing Academic Failure. Here is a link.
I hope all goes as planned and I will be through the lowercase alphabet before Winter Break. I'll reassess written alphabet production in January and see to what extent the uppercase letters need to be taught. I'm excited at the outset of this combined phonics and handwriting program and will update this blog on its progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment