Every school year, I have a handful of students with terrible printing. Over the last several years it has slowly deteriorated. A combination of things contribute to the demise of handwriting – The emphasis on standardized testing has greatly limited the amount of time we spend working on handwriting technique. Academic preschool is also to blame. Three- to - four year olds are assigned class work and homework that includes paper and pencil tasks without being shown how to correctly hold a pencil and form letters. After two or more years of preschool the bad habits have formed and they are EXTREMELY hard to break, especially in a test-heavy curriculum. This year, there are a couple of students who hold their pencil in a fist and many who make their letters from the bottom up and therefore have very little control of their pencil. Both scenarios end up with sloppy handwriting.
But in the scheme of things, is it that big of a deal? I go back and forth with worrying about it. Those who have been teaching since before No Child Left Behind (the beginning of test prep) overwhelmingly think that printing/cursive instruction is essential, that it’s an art form and needs to be preserved, and it’s important that our kids have neat, legible printing. To me, they are valid points. On the other hand, how often in our lives do we actually write by hand anymore. As a teacher, I probably print more often than most, but even then it’s not that often. Our kids can text and scroll like nobody’s business nowadays. They are becoming technologically literate earlier and earlier, some far more literate than many adults I know. We regularly communicate using technology, so wouldn’t it seem putting pencil to paper is just about obsolete?
It’s a debate that continues year after year. Until it’s decided upon by the powers that be, I’ll continue to cringe when I see fist writing.
I knew cursive writing is on the way out, but didn't know printing was too.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of funny that when we used to introduced cursive at the end of 2nd grade the writing of my worst printers always improved because they were actually taught how to form the letters rather than the way they learned to print before starting school. They always wrote nicer and enjoyed writing when they could use cursive. It was starting a new habit basically. Between everything else required (and tested), being particular about it is nearly impossible.
DeleteI just started writing in a diary again for the beauty of words on paper.
ReplyDeleteKaishon and his classmates write a lot at school because they take notes constantly. I know the high school now supplies laptops to every student so perhaps they no longer take notes on paper but just do so with their computers.
Interesting topic!
I hope you have a great week.
I loved handwriting as a kid and wrote letters all the time all the way through college. Since, email and more recently texting has taken it's place. I have actually heard that in high schools here, they are not allowed to turn in handwritten work. It HAS to be done on the computer.
DeleteGet em picking up sweets and chopped up fruit with kids chopsticks and they'll learn at lightspeed. Or maybe not for they might put out an eye.
ReplyDeleteI remember the hell of learning to form letters and frankly anything that'll rid the world of that torture I'm all for. Of course, the kids will need to know how to write script when they are answering test papers. And then by the time these kids at taking those type of exams it will be adjudged vastly more economic to have the test written to screen and transmitted to a central hub for marking.
In a way I feel grammar is vastly more important and given the choice of the two I would teach it before handwriting.
The question is will handwriting become like embroidery or crochet, the preserve of a few dedicated stalwarts and the nuts like me who make things hard and sometimes write with a nib believing I've more control.
On the kids with the fist grip. You'd have to wonder if it's a muscle development issue with the kids so young for what else would you use the P+I+M in that combo of push pull up down over back. Except of course chop-sticks, and the funny thing is they use a type of fist grip to run a writing brush.
I like what you've done to the apartment. Do it your self did you ?. Hmm, Yes. Well done indeed.
I'm not sure I love the new look. The middle is so plain in comparison to the sides. I haven't had time to play around with it anymore and to be honest really had no business spending the time at all. :) But thanks. I like the sides.
DeleteYou are right, the smaller the pencil the more control and that's actually a technique we use for kids who write with their fist. If it's too small they've got to hold it correctly. There are tons of other things we used to try and now those things have been pushed to the back burner because there is never any time to get it all done. They don't have to print correctly on multiple choice test. Even with our new Common Core curriculum which is supposed to get away from the bubble-in tests towards short answers and essays will be tested on the computer. So any time we did have for printing work now has to go towards keyboarding starting early...we're starting it in Kinder.
I think those who write with a fist initially did so because of their lack of fine motor skills. They adapted because they couldn't hold a pencil correctlyat that time and they were never shown any differently. By 2nd grade they SHOULD have the skills to do so, but by then it seems normal for them and the correct way is now much more difficult.
I'll have you know I've not been Right in me life. :-D
DeleteI didn't realise thin pencils were the thing. How thin. Sorta silver stylus thin ?, like you'd see in the slot on one of those costly filofaxes.
Do some kids hit the ability with fine motor skill later, I should say much later than others.
:)
DeleteI don't think they are any thinner than the regular pencil. Are they different here?
http://www.amazon.com/Dixon-Ticonderoga-Wood-Cased-Pencils-13882/dp/B001AZ1D3C
The younger grades use a thicker pencil while they are learning due to those fine motor skills, or lack thereof.
Of course, kids hit that stage at all different times. I would say most are capable by 2nd, but there are always a few outliers, for a variety of reasons.
I haven't hand written anything longer than a grocery list in years.. in fact even my grocery list is now on my phone.. it's sad reality but no one writes any more.
ReplyDeleteI have found that my own writing, not for work, has gotten so sloppy because I'm always trying to do it so fast. The computers and phones are so fast and I get too impatient to write with a pencil. If I do, I end up with some sort of short hand that I hope I can read later.
DeleteI hate it when I get a note or a letter that is poorly written...especially when I have to try to guess on the numbers if it is a phone number or address...or an email address...seriously how do people think you will email them what they need if it is so difficult to decipher?
ReplyDeleteBottom to top writing still in 2nd grade? Yikes!!
Today was my first full day of 2nd...and some poor little 1st graders were looking for their teachers at lunch when I went to the lunch room 20 minutes after lunch began...one had road rash on her elbow and needed her teacher to help her...I directed her to the office, but the boy, he needed to know if he could "go." Finally after 3 minutes I realized he meant, "if he could go play on the playground." He was waiting for his teacher to come dismiss him! The other kids were all playing...another reason 2nd grade is easier than 1st or K!
Ah, what a good boy to wait to be dismissed. So cute. I've been seeing all my nutty kids from last year and I think, "Oh, look how grown up you are now" while I'm dealing with babies again. Looping would be fabulous for a lot of reasons, just continuing on where you left off being the most beneficial.
DeleteDon't you hate that with the writing of numbers. Is it a 9 or a 4, a 5 or a 6?!?! Gah!