10/27/2019 Pencil to Paper Reasons and Rationale Why Handwriting Matters Bev Wolf, Bonnie Meyer 1 Special thanks to those who made this presentation possible : • to Bessie Stillman and Anna Gillingham who started us all on this journey • To Beth H. Slingerland, who adapted the[r approach for classroom use • To Virginia Berninger and her research teams, supported in part, by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the University of Washington Learning Disabilities Research Center. Has handwriting been left behind? People have thought that electronics would eliminate the need to write by hand. 3 1
10/27/2019 From the Greeks and Romans 428 B.C. to 100 A.D. • Plato instructed the master to draw letters for the student to copy • Seneca had the teacher guide the student’s hand as letters were traced • Quintilian stressed learning the name and shape simultaneously • Late 1800’s. early 1900’s -- Penmanship was taught as a separate subject • 1940’s -- Emphasis on language arts • The computer age made many think they need not teach handwriting • As a result: Many schools have discontinued handwriting instruction. Research is helping change those attitudes. The Zaner Bloser Company has worked to educate schools about the importance of handwriting. • Many states now mandate handwriting instruction The Idaho Senate passed a resolution requesting the addition of a cursive handwriting requirement to their state standards. North Carolina passed a “Back to Basics” bill that would make cursive handwriting a part of the curriculum in state elementary schools. The Indiana Senate voted to advance a “cursive bill” requiring schools to teach cursive writing. The Kansas State Board of Education unanimously adopted a policy statement encouraging public schools to teach cursive. Georgia now requires student proficiency in cursive handwriting. Ohio is looking at requiring handwriting instruction 2
10/27/2019 7 The Need For Multisensory, Multimodal Approaches Handwriting underlies all levels of written language— letters, written words constructed from letters, and written sentences constructed from multiple words. Teachers often judge students’ abilities and grade them based on the appearance of their written work. 8 The Common Core Standards have virtually ignored handwriting. • Common Core standards do not appear to be grounded in research on handwriting or writing development and effective writing instruction (Berninger & Wolf, 2016). • Research supports direct, explicit instruction in letter formation and guided practice to become proficient in the task of handwriting across the grades. In grade 1, children should be taught to form the letters so others can recognize them. In grade 2 they practice until they can form each letter automatically. This is not the case in the standards. 9 3
10/27/2019 The Standards • Kindergarten: • Print many upper- and lowercase letters • Capitalize the first word in a sentence • Write own name (first and last) and the first names of some friends or classmates • Write most letters and some words when they are dictated • First grade: • Print all upper- and lowercase letters (letter style is not indicated) • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English – • capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing. • Capitalize dates and names of people. • Use end punctuation for sentences. • Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series. 10 What Is Handwriting? Handwriting is partly a motor skill but not only a motor skill Letter forms stored and processed in working memory (temporary memory that supports language learning and use) also play a role. The ORTHOGRAPHIC LOOP from the MIND’S EYE (where letters and written words are stored and processed in working memory) to the MOVING HAND/FINGERS 11 The truth is … 1 in 5 children, with or without dyslexia, may struggle with handwriting and sometimes keyboarding. A ll children may benefit from handwriting instruction that teaches automatic letter formation because the brain uses its limited resources more efficiently when letter formation is automatic. 12 4
10/27/2019 • Some poor handwriting may be caused by students not having enough training to form letters automatically when rapid writing is needed. (Hamstra ‐ Bletz & Blöte, 1990). • For most students, grapho ‐ motor skills (planning and sequencing and fine motor control) used in handwriting can be improved with correct models and guided practice. • The part of the brain involved in these grapho ‐ motor processes is very near the somatosensory region of the brain that receives sensory input from sequential movement (kinesthetic sense). 13 The act of writing letters with a writing tool not only draws on motor output but also kinesthetic sensory input. A multi-modal approach to handwriting instruction integrates: Visual input from letter form Oral motor output from naming letters and producing their corresponding sounds 14 • The associated auditory inpu t from hearing those names and sounds from writing the letters • Kinesthetic input from writing the letters Moreover, these multimodal approaches need to be taught for the goals of producing written language to express meaning via words, sentences, and text. 15 5
10/27/2019 WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US 6 LESSONS More than two decades of research at the University of Washington have shown that handwriting is one of the most important skills in learning to express ideas in written language. 16 • Students with grade-appropriate handwriting skills are more likely to complete written assignments (McMenamin &Martin, 1980). • Handwriting legibility contributes to better spelling skills (Strickling, 1974). • Students whose notetaking is slow because of poor handwriting have difficulty with lecture comprehension (Blalock, 1985). 17 The first research lesson: Manuscript handwriting helps children learn to read. • It leads to improved word reading, even when only handwriting is taught.(Berninger and colleagues 1997). • Most of our reading material on paper and electronic format is in manuscript format. Learning to produce letters in the format children encounter when they read will help them read words which they identify more readily because they have learned to form and name (identify) the component letters. 18 6
10/27/2019 They’re words, Tommy, assembly required. 19 The second research lesson: Production enhances perception Producing letter forms stroke by stroke makes it easier for the brain to perceive the letters in written words during word reading (James, Jao, & Berninger, 2015, Longcamp, Richards, Velay, & Berninger, 2017). When first learning to identify letters, forming letters stroke by stroke results in greater transfer to improved word reading than does keyboarding (selecting formed letter on a keyboard). 20 This does not mean that keyboarding is never appropriate. They do call attention to the contribution of handwriting to the process of learning to read and write, even in individuals experienced in using thumbs and fingers for pressing to operate phones or laptops. 21 7
10/27/2019 The third research lesson Teach both manuscript and cursive. Students in first and second grades learning handwriting were studied (Wolf and colleagues, 2016). First grade students taught manuscript handwriting embedded in structured, multi-modal language system were compared to a business as usual control group. 22 In second grade students who received a second year of manuscript instruction were compared to second grade students who received an initial year of cursive handwriting instruction; in both cases the handwriting instruction was embedded in structured, multi-modal language system. Results showed the benefit of teaching manuscript in both first grade (to learn to write correctly formed letters that are legible to others) and second grade (an additional year of review and practice helps them learn to write the letters automatically). 23 Introducing cursive instruction without this additional year of manuscript instruction to develop automatic as well as legible handwriting was not as effective. Automaticity allows developing writers to use their limited working memory resources for generating ideas, choosing words, spelling words, and creating sentences rather than devoting their attention to how to form the letters (Berninger, 1999). 24 8
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