It depresses me to see children who don’t enjoy writing because they find putting pencil to paper hard. It’s no good our saying, ‘Don’t worry about your handwriting, just write your ideas’ because children do worry. Any writing is hard if you’ve not been taught to handwrite.
Three reasons why children need fluent handwriting
- Good handwriting increases children’s motivation: their belief in themselves as writers is predicated on this, particularly in their first years at school.
- Writing involves many processes, so having fluent handwriting is one less thing to think about.
- And – however unfairly – teachers and children often judge a piece of legible, well-formed writing as better than one that isn’t.
My handwriting
I enjoy putting pencil to paper. My father (also my headteacher) taught his family and pupils an easy style of joined writing – closer to the Nelson script than the old-fashioned loopy writing that my grandmother used. He taught us to write using ‘picture hooks’ to help us visualise letter shapes and joins. I developed his ideas through my teaching career and for Read Write Inc.
I keep to this one rule:
Visualise to memorise. Do not ask children to copy. They will copy what they think they see – often starting in the wrong place and writing an approximation of the letter or join.
Teaching handwriting in Reception
In Reception we connect the letters they read with the shape they write:
Children read a: a-a-a-apple; they write a: round the apple down the leaf.
Read Write Inc. Speed Sounds Lesson plans give clear guidance how to teach children to write the letters. The Set 1 films with Ruth on the Portal also show you how to teach handwriting.
Importantly, once children can read the sounds, we continue to teach children correct letter
formation in a separate five-minute lesson every day.
To make the plans more accessible for teachers, the handwriting sections from the Speed Sounds lessons will be compiled in an online RWI Reception Handwriting Handbook on Phonics Online on Oxford Owl in Autumn.
Handwriting from Letter Village for children in Year 1 and above
We’re excited about bringing out our new handwriting programme: a series of films created to make teaching handwriting easy. Children learn to handwrite while teachers support children who need extra help. All in 10 minutes a day.
Our step-by-step films introduce new ‘picture hooks’ which help children visualise:
- letters that will flow easily into a joined style
- size and spacing of letters
- the two main joins and their three variations
- consistency, spacing and flow.
An introduction for the first stage films will be on the portal in July. Let’s help all children enjoy putting pencil to paper!