Writing With Rhythm Handwriting Made Fluent! Authors: Ali Roemhild, - - PDF document

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Authors:

Ali Roemhild, Occupational Therapist & Cathy Angel, Literacy Consultant

Writing With Rhythm… Handwriting Made Fluent!

Getting Started—need paper and pencil/pen

• Write about a patient/student challenge and tell

us several reasons why it was difficult.

• If you need paper or a writing utensil, please

raise your hand.

• Do not do this on a computer or I-pad. You need

to physically write your answer.

Changing the topic—and the comfort level!

• Thank you for putting your thoughts on paper!
• Now we would like you to skip two lines and do one more writing.
• This time we would like you to write about a patient/student success

story and tell us why it was successful. Be as detailed as you can.

• However, we would like to add a new twist…

This time you must write with your non-dominant hand!

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Now find a partner and analyze your two compositions!

• Take several minutes with your partner to analyze both of

your compositions.

• Look with a critical eye at both pieces
• Talk about how they are different, how you would judge

the author of each of these, and emotions you experienced while writing the two pieces

Did you find this to be true?

• When writing with your non-dominant hand where your

writing was probably not automatized, you probably felt more frustrated and it probably took longer to write the words on the paper.

• Non-fluent writing tends to slow down the retrieval of

words, concepts and sentences due to the fact that letter formation is taking up brain space that might otherwise be used for composing thoughts and sentences.

How would you judge yourself as a student looking at both writings?

• Poor handwriting can give people misconceptions

about the author

• Poor handwriting can cause teachers to make false

assumptions about intelligence, creativity, vocabulary development, etc!

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All students need quality handwriting instruction!

People assume incorrectly…

• When we talk about handwriting instruction,

people assume incorrectly that our main goal is simply to improve the attractiveness of the product!

• That is a nice by-product, but it is not the main
• bjective!

The importance of understanding reading and writing reciprocity!

• William Van Cleave in his book Writing Matters,

references research that shows handwriting instruction improves students’ writing.

• The biggest concern is the legibility
• However, explicit handwriting instruction

acutally improves both the quantity and the quality of a student’s writing!

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Children with disabilities need explicit, sequential instruction

• Sensory Processing Difficulties, Autism, ADHD
• Direct handwriting instruction can positively impact children with

disabilities

• Must provide different ways to learn handwriting through large,

gross motor movements and small, fine motor movements

• Repetition, repetition, repetition!

Number of repetitions needed?

Gifted student: 1 - 4 repetitions Typical student: 4 - 14 repetitions Struggling learner: 14 - 40 repetitions Student with a disability: 40 - 200+

Research has given us powerful insight! Marie Clay, in Becoming Literate (1991)

“It would be reasonable that writing letters contributes to learning about them.” Here is data she collected from average children learning to write Russian letters… They were taught in three different ways:

• Given a model letter, told to copy it. (50 repetitions were required for mastery)
• The model was presented with the teacher’s verbal guidance for the actions for

writing the letter (10 repetitions were required for mastery)

• When the child had to describe the features and actions for forming the letters

providing those directions for himself, mastery was achieved after (4 repetitions were required for mastery)

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New writing and reading evidence!

• Virginia Wise Berninger encourages kindergarten teachers to have

children name lowercase letters and write named lowercase letters from memory.

• Research also says that children learn to read more quickly when

they first learn to write by hand!

• Systematic handwriting and spelling instruction can reduce the

number of children needing special education services!

• Writing With Rhythm teaches lowercase letters first!

What is the power of the beat?

• Writing With Rhythm has chosen to do all of our

handwriting instruction using a metronome beat.

• The power of a beat creates new pathways in your brain

with the beat plus the movement. The more you can give a child repetition of handwriting using different forms, the more successs the child will have in handwriting. Neuroplasticity is this exact process--creating new pathways in the student’s brain which strengths the child’s ability to write fluently.

• Combining auditory cues and large/small motor movement

= rhythmic fluid writing

Writing With Rhythm!

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What is Writing With Rhythm?

A multi-sensory handwriting curriculum that uses a metronome beat, as well as audio, visual, and kinesthetic support to enable students to achieve fluent handwriting skills.

VAK! (Visual, Auditory & Kinesthetic!)

• Visual: Our components provide many visual

models.

• Auditory: The constant use of the metronome

beat, and many forms of auditory prompting.

• Kinesthetic: Movement, beat, movement, beat!

This philosophy enables students to learn strong, steady, automatic strokes.

Components of the WWR program

• Manual, Assessments, and Metronome Audio
• Whole Body Video Links
• Skywriting Video Links
• Rap Scripts
• Letter By Letter Video Links
• Squiggle, lowercase and uppercase formation posters
• 2 x 3 foot laminated Squiggle Poster
• WWR Coloring Book
• Student Booklets with Audio Links
• WWR Templates
• K and 1st grade Dictation Manual and Student Booklet

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Writing With Rhythm’s Ten P’s to Amazing Handwriting!

WWR’s 10 P’s to Fluent Handwriting

#1: Posture

#2: Pencil Grip #3: Paper #4: Position on Paper #5: Pressure #6: Proportion #7: Place Spaces #8: Path #9: Pace #10: Persistence

10 P’s Activities:

• Following the initial handwriting evaluation, WWR provides

teachers with 3 activities for each of the 10 P’s.

• These can be done individually, in small group or as center

activities.

• This allows the teacher to hone in on the weaker areas to

improve the overall handwriting production.

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What are WWR Squiggles?

• Squiggles are the 12 pre-writing movements

needed to successfully form all the letters of the lower and uppercase alphabet.

• Squiggles are labeled for easy support and

common language

• Provide success for early learners

WWR’s Whole Body Alphabet

• Whole Body Alphabet videos allow students to learn

letter names and formations using gross motor movements

• This is a strong tool for therapist interventions
• WWR recommends either starting with lowercase letter

instruction or teaching both lowercase and uppercase simultaneously

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Sky Writing

• The next step in WWR are the Skywriting

Videos!

• Students progress from whole body

movements to large arm motions in the sky by following a “Magic Light”.

Skywriting with Squiggles!

• Students practice the Squiggle movements by

watching and tracing each movment

• Students provide their own verbal prompts of

each ‘Squiggle’ the second time they make it.

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Student Alphabet Training Booklets

• Student booklets consist of individual letter pages,

pages that contain the last 5 letters learned, and whole alphabet pages.

• Repetitions are provided to build confidence

Audio Lesson Support

• Uses the power of the BEAT!
• Assists with pacing
• Encourages strong, steady strokes
• Challenges students to finish with the audio prompt
• Encourages self-evaluation of their writing

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Letter By Letter Video Links

• This is our catch-all product
• Each letter is supported with Squiggles, Whole Body,

Skywriting, Student handwriting page with audio

WWR Templates

• WWR’s practice sheets used with a dry erase sleeve include:

○ Squiggle forms ○ Student booklet a – z practice for upper and lowercase ○ Star prompted individual letter practice

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WWR Dictation Sentences

• Kindergarten:

○

“ Clap, Touch, & Write” Closed and Open Syllable words

○

37 Outlaw Words

○

Sentences

• 1st Grade:

○

Clap, Touch, & Write” All Six Types of Syllable words

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48 Outlaw Words

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Sentences

WWR Coloring Book Sample OT lesson:

• Finding the beat

○ What beats per minute should I use? ○ Using your body ○ Bring in music, chants, nursery rhymes

and rap scripts

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Sample OT lesson: (continued)

• Pick a Video:

○

Have the student watch the video

○

Model it with student

• Skywriting:

○

Watch video

○

Model with student

Sample OT lesson: (continued)

• Writing using Student Booklet

○

Utilize the metronome beat (between 40 and 70 beats per minute)

○

Auditory prompts provided with letter formation

○

Hand-over-hand as needed to keep up with pace

○

Futher use of metronome beat in class

Thank YOU!

• Contact Information:

○ Website: makingreadingheavenly.com ○ Email: makingreadingheavenly@gmail.com

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