Welcome to Mrs. Perry’s 1st Grade Class!
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“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Why Handwriting Instruction?
Good handwriting produces better reading, writing, and testing results. Research shows that handwriting instruction:
- helps develop letter recognition and phonemic awareness to support reading comprehension.
- improves legibility and speed to give students an advantage in composition writing and essay testing.
- allows students to focus more on expressing their ideas rather than on the task of transcribing the words.
According to a recent article in Newsweek, evidence is growing that handwriting fluency is a fundamental block of learning. Emily Knapton, director of development at Handwriting Without Tears, believes that “when kids struggle with handwriting, it filters into all their academics. Spelling becomes a problem; math becomes a problem because they reverse their numbers. All of these subjects would be much easier for these kids to learn if handwriting was an automatic process.”
Research shows that from kindergarten through 4th grade, kids think and write at the same time. If they have to struggle to remember how to make their letters, their ability to express themselves will suffer. The motions have to be automatic, both for expressive writing and for another skill that students will need later in life; note taking. According to Stephen Peverly, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, “Measures of speed among elementary-school students are good predictors of the quality and quantitiy of their writing in middle school.”
excerpted from: Nov. 12, 2007 issue Newsweek Magazine ”The Writing on the Wall: by Raina Kelley