STRATEGIES ON TEACHING HANDWRITING

Discussant: Zerene Joy S. Concepcion

There are four main aspects of handwriting instruction: pencil grasp, formation, legibility, and pacing.

Pencil grasp

When it comes to how a child holds a pencil, there are correct and incorrect grasps. The correct
grasps—in which the index finger and thumb hold the pencil against the middle finger—result in
comfortable and efficient handwriting, while incorrect grasps can cause poor letter formation and
fatigue.

Formation

This refers to how a student goes about forming letters. Straight lines are easier for students to
write than curved ones, so it’s developmentally appropriate to teach students to write capital letters
before moving on to lowercase ones.

Legibility

An important factor impacting legibility is spacing between words. It’s helpful to encourage
students to use a “finger space” between words—right-handed students can put an index finger on the
line after one word before writing the next one.

Pacing

If students are using an appropriate pencil grasp and forming letters correctly, that will often
solve any pacing challenges. Another factor to consider when looking at pacing is the press: Students
should not be pressing the pencil down on the paper too hard as they write because doing so can lead to
writing fatigue and a greatly reduced rate of letter production.

Teaching Handwriting

Part I: Practicing Pre-Writing Patterns

1. Show your students how to position their paper. The paper should be placed at a 45 degree
angle towards the dominant writing hand. This creates an open space where the student can
easily see the paper.
2. Ask your students to sit properly. Students should sit up straight in their chair with both feet
flat on the floor. Sitting up straight with feet flat on the floor also helps to keep the body in
balance, and strengthens the core muscles, which support the student’s trunk.
3. Allow them to trace the letters with a pencil. As with finger tracing, this will help them to
understand where the letter begins and ends, but with a more realistic experience.
4. Start with drawing lines. Start with vertical and horizontal straight lines followed by diagonal
lines and then curve and tunnel patterns. The point of these pre-writing exercises is to give the
student a chance to practice the strokes of pulling and pushing that are involved in writing.
5. Finish with drawing patterns that join together. Having the students practice joining patterns
together will give the students a chance to practice the directional pushes and pulls of
handwriting.
Part II: Teaching Letter Formation

1. Provide the students with a diagram of each letter of the alphabet. This should be provided
with both lower and upper case letters (and the numbers 0-9 might also be included). This will
help the students to remember what each letter looks like and will also allow them to copy the
letters.
2. Ask the students to trace each letter of the alphabet with their finger. This will help them learn
the starting and stopping point of each letter, as well as how the letter is slanted
3. Begin with a few letters. Don’t assign them the whole alphabet. Instead, focus on a few letters
at a time.
4. Practice more and more letters. As the students master the initial letters you gave them, you
can move on to more and more letters of the alphabet until, eventually, the students will master
drawing each letter of the alphabet.

Part III: Teaching Letter Size and Spacing and Slant

1. Use guide paper. Guide paper is paper that has two horizontal, parallel, solid lines running from
one side of the paper to the other, with a dotted line that is in the middle of the two lines. This
paper will help the student focus on making the letters the correct sizes. Large letters should
reach from the top solid line to the bottom solid line, and lower-case letters should reach from
the dotted line to the lower solid line.
2. Practice letter and word spacing. It is important that students also learn to pay attention to the
spacing between each letter and each word, and to try and be consistent with the spacing.
Students can use their pinky fingers or a popsicle stick to help them learn how much space
should be between each word.
3. Observe the slant of the letters. At first, students will have a hard time focusing on this, but as
their motor skills develop, they should practice keeping all letters slanted at a uniform angle.
One way to help the students check whether the slant is uniform is to draw a vertical line
through the center of each letter.

STRATEGIES IN TEACHING WRITING

Students struggle with writing because they are stuck for ideas. Other students struggle because their
writing is disorganized and lacks structure. These students will often write, but their writing is
disorganized and hard to follow. Finally, another group of students struggle with writing because they
feel disconnected from the assignment. They may feel it is not relevant to them or they may not have
the background knowledge or expertise to write on the topic.

1. SHARE IDEAS BEFORE WRITING

Students who struggle with coming up with their own ideas might get inspired by their
classmates’ thoughts.
2. COLLABORATIVELY WRITE
This is an opportunity for the whole class to get involved. Instead of having students start
writing on their own, first, collaboratively write together as a class.
3. USE SENTENCE STARTERS
These are really helpful for triggering ideas in struggling writers. Example: I love to…, I’m afraid
of…, I’m happy when…, etc.
 4. WRITING WARM-UP
Using a writing warm-up like Power Writing or Freewriting: (where students write without
stopping or without worrying about spelling or grammar)
5. CHUNK TOPIC WITH GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
Breaking writing up into more manageable chunks (i.e.. breaking a paragraph into sentences)
6. TEACHER LEAD MODELING AND GUIDED WRITING
Before having your students begin a writing assignment, show them models (either teacher
created, or exemplar student examples from the past).
7. MINI WRITING LESSONS
Take 10 - 15 minutes to teach and practice a writing strategy. Once you teach the skill, have
students immediately practice it in their writing.
8. PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH WRITING TOOLS
Giving students a writing toolbox will give them a resource to get support with their writing. For
instance, provide students with a list of transitional words and phrases for the writing they are
tackling. Or give students a list of Dead Words that they should avoid using in their writing and a
list of alternative words to use instead.
9. STUDENT CHOICE
Give students choice with what they write about. When students feel invested in a topic they
will have more to say, thus more to write.
10. SENSE OF PURPOSE
it is important to create an authentic writing situation for students. When there is a greater
purpose to their writing, even struggling writers invest more in the assignment.
11. CONFERENCE WITH STUDENTS INDIVIDUALLY AND IN SMALL GROUPS
it is important to find a time to meet with students in small groups or individually to identify
each students’ strengths and weaknesses. Knowing which areas to target for each writer will
allow you to scaffold and support each student in the area in which they could benefit the most.

REFERENCES:

https://www.teachwriting.org/blog/2017/6/14/12-strategies-to-support-struggling-writers-in-
elementary

https://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Handwriting

https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-teach-handwriting-and-why-it-matters