Handwriting to Writing: one leap or many hops? Angela Webb 22nd March 2014

A FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION… “How is it that a child can write well in a handwriting lesson but does not transfer that skill into classwork?” What can we do about it?

The Simple View of Writing Translation Words, sentences, paragraphs. Working memory Transcription Handwriting, keyboarding, Spelling. Executive functions Planning, review Adapted from Berninger & Amtmann (2003)

2.How do we solve this? (A two-pronged approach) 1. Modify the expectations of the teachers while you work (particularly in the short term)

2. Move the child forward in a series of graded and highly structured hops.

Suggested ‘hops’ Assess: The process – how the child writes The product – the written script Target intervention only to those parts which need fixing.

4 ‘P’s (Process) Posture Paper position Pen grip Pressure

7 ‘S’ Rules (Product) Shape Size Spacing Sitting on the line Slant Speed Sustainability

A Case-Study “Billy” Age 12 years Mainstream secondary school Left-handed Problems of legibility (but not of speed) DASH percentile ranking = 64% Copy Best-Copy Fast difference = 12 wpm

Hop 1. Look at the finished product. Use the ‘S’ rules. 1 Excellent 2 Good 3 OK 4 Not so good 5 Poor Shape/legibility Size Spacing Sitting on line Slant Speed Style

Evaluation of Billy’s handwriting 1 Excellent 2 Good 3 OK 4 Not so good 5 Poor Shape/legibility Size Spacing Sitting on line Slant Speed Style X X X X X X X

Prioritise what to work on Extending the writing horizontally. Rounding the curved letters. Correcting mis-alignment. Keeping ascenders and descenders parallel.

You can’t achieve everything at one go: practise by building Begin with the most important and practise. Add a 2nd element. Practise on its own then add it to No.1. 3. Add a 3rd element. Practise then add it to 1 + 1. 4. Add the 4th. Practise on its own then add 1 + 2.

Hop 2. Lesson 1 Moving across the page

Hop 3. Lesson 2 Rounding letters

Hop 4. Lesson 3 Correcting mis-alignment

Hop 5. Lesson 4 Making vertical strokes parallel

Further ‘hops’ Set him/her a series of graded tasks in which the cognitive load of each (in terms of spelling, sentence length, composition, etc.) increases gradually. (N.B. Ensure that the correct handwriting is used at each stage. If it is not, do not proceed to the next level of difficulty).

Hop 6. Most common bigrams (in order) th he in en nt re er an ti es on at se nd or ar al te co de to ra et ed it sa em ro

…and tri-grams (in order) 
 the and tha ent ing ion tio for nde has nce edt tis oft sth men


Hop 7. 100 most common words the of and a to in is you that it he was for on are as with his they I at be this have from or one had by word but not what all were we when your can said there use an each which she do how their if will up other about out many then them these so some her would make like him into

100 most common words (cont.) time has look two more write go see number no way could people my than first water been call who oil its now find long down day did get come made may part

Keep writing tasks simple Copying (but move on quite quickly). Short dictation of CVC words better (see below). Simple close exercises (see below).

Hop 8. CVC sentences for dictation (from Alpha to Omega)

Gradually increase task complexity Simple stories – cloze. Simple narrative. More complex narrative. Free writing.

Hop 9 From Headwork 2

JO AND HER RADIO   Jo had a radio. She got it in a jumble sale. It was a very strange radio. One day when Jo was listening to the six o’clock 1 a very strange thing happened. A hand came 2 of the radio and got hold of Jo’s face. Jo was very 3 . She 4 the comic she was reading. She 5 her cup of tea off the arm of her chair. Jo picked up the 6 . She stared at it. Then the 7 came out again. This time is got hold of Jo’s left 8 . Jo jumped back. Jo got very upset. She grabbed the radio and ran into the kitchen . She put the radio in the sink and turned on 9 taps. The water filled the sink. Jo heard a voice coming out of the radio. It said, “Help me! Help me! Please help me. I’m 10 .

The child reads and selects words. Then retells the story orally.

Writes the story using clue words

Hop 10. Ask the child to create their own narrative. You scribe. S/he chooses the key words. S/he writes it.

10 hops = 1 leap

Billy six months later