By Sharon Galambos
‘Writing skills’ is the current ‘hot topic’ on the Family Education Department site. You can check out the ‘Grapevine Supplement #87 (Feb.1) for excellent tips to help teach writing. Then there’s the Grapevine Supplement #86 (HEF #14) and Grapevine Supplement # 85 (HEF #22) which has ‘the forum on writing cursive’ You’ll find the comments and perspectives on ‘re-discovering’ the lost art of writing very enlightening;. Grapevine Supplement #84 (Oct.15,05) has the very interesting ‘Cursive Debate’. You can check out the Home Ed. Flyer #21 for lots of good perspectives on both teaching children to print and starting children off with writing in cursive. As you address them in ’study mode’ (which is highly recommended) with your notepad and pen ready, you might also want to check out this resource for a list of ‘writing readiness’ activities to do with younger children.
Perhaps before getting into all of that, however, we need to take a look at what writing entails for the writer. In a nutshell the act of writing involves a very complicated sequence of pattern development between the hand, the fingers, the thumb, the eye (or the ear), and the brain. ‘Dexterity’ is when the ’signals’ are effectively coordinated and become automatically functioning ‘links’ – up and running back and forth, at incredible speeds, between the brain, skeleton, muscles, joints, nervous system, and senses ( eyes/ perception; ears/translation) .
There are actually two terms used to talk about the development of slowly building patterns onto neuropathways in a young writer (similar to setting up a website with links, updates, etc.). Let’s look at those terms: gross motor skills and fine motor skills.
Gross motor skills include lifting one’s head, rolling over, sitting up, balancing, crawling, and walking. Gross motor development usually follows a pattern. Generally large muscles develop before smaller ones. Thus, gross motor development is the foundation for developing fine motor skills. Development also generally moves from top to bottom. The first thing a baby usually learns to control is its head. Then development continues on to include: coordination of one’s limbs; development of strength, posture control, balance, and perceptual skills.
Fine motor skills include the ability to manipulate small objects, transfer objects from hand to hand, and various hand-eye-brain coordination tasks. Fine motor skills may involve the use of more precise motor movements on the way to achieving more delicate tasks. Some examples of fine motor skills are using the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) to pick up small objects, cutting, coloring, and threading beads. Fine motor development is what is needed in the writing process. That’s why many ‘early learning’ specialists emphasize a lot of practice with activities ‘“ first to develop the gross motor skills well ‘“ then to get the fine motor skills effectively patterned (the activities that are used to practice fine motor skills are called ‘manipulatives’) before expecting a child to ‘perform’ with pencil in hand ( which would be like putting the writer ‘on stage’ before rehearsing enough with them to memorize their lines properly.’
Motor skills are divided into two parts: · Gross motor skills include lifting one’s head, rolling over, sitting up, balancing, crawling, and walking. Gross motor development usually follows a pattern. Generally large muscles develop before smaller ones. Thus, gross motor development is the foundation for developing skills in other areas (such as fine motor skills). Development also generally moves from top to bottom. The first thing a baby usually learns is to control its head. · Fine motor skills include the ability to manipulate small objects, transfer objects from hand to hand, and various hand-eye coordination tasks. Fine motor skills may involve the use of very precise motor movement in order to achieve an especially delicate task. Some examples of fine motor skills are using the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) to pick up small objects, cutting, coloring and writing, and threading beads. Fine motor development refers to the development of skills involving the smaller muscle groups. Here are just a couple of examples of tips for developing good penmanship; you can find the rest in the GV Supplement #87 HEF #23. Tips and Activities for Teaching Good Penmanship
The following activities are from Fun with Handwriting by Clinton S. Hackney and William C. Hendricks. This book has many good tips and activities for teaching good writing, both manuscript and cursive. Each of these activities lists a recommended age and purpose to help you in choosing activities that fit the needs of your student. We pray that these activities will help make teaching penmanship fun. They may also be a springboard into other teaching activities that promote correct writing.
Large Shapes First Grades K’“2
Purpose: To build muscle coordination and control
Materials: Paints, painting paper, easel, paintbrushes, groups of different-sized items with the same shape (several balls or several boxes, for example)
Procedure: Set up the painting materials in an art or writing center. Schedule daily opportunities for students to paint. Ask them to use large strokes and free movements at first. Encourage them to add smaller, more precise lines as their coordination develops. On a table beside the easel, place two or three objects with similar shapes but different sizes (such as a golf ball, a baseball, and a soccer ball) and suggest that students use them as models when they paint. Change the items regularly, but try to keep the shapes simple and related to the basic manuscript strokes of vertical lines, horizontal lines, slant lines, and circular strokes.
Adults, Children, and Pets Grades 1-2
Purpose: To help students remember the size of manuscript letters
Materials: Chart paper; magazine pictures of adults, children, and pets with tails; paste or glue; crayons or markers
Procedure: Show the pictures of adults, children, and pets. Explain that tall letters are like adults, short letters are like children, and letters that go below the baseline are like pets with tails. Name several letters and ask volunteers to tell whether they are like adults, children, or pets. Distribute the chart paper and magazine pictures to small groups. Ask each group to paste the pictures at the top of a chart, then work together to classify uppercase and lowercase letters by size and write them under the pictures. Suggest that students draw more adults, children, and pets to illustrate their charts. Display the charts around the room. Discuss why letters that go below the baseline fit into more than one category (children and pets).
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