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

2. 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?

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

4. 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)

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

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

7. 4 ‘P’s (Process)
Posture
Paper position
Pen grip
Pressure

8. 7 ‘S’ Rules (Product) Shape Size Spacing Sitting on the line Slant
Speed
Sustainability

9. 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

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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
4. Add the 4th. Practise on its own then add

15. Hop 2. Lesson 1 Moving across the page

16. Hop 3. Lesson 2 Rounding letters

17. Hop 4. Lesson 3 Correcting mis-alignment

18. Hop 5. Lesson 4 Making vertical strokes parallel

20. 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).

21. 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

22. …and tri-grams (in order)

the and tha ent
ing ion tio for
nde has nce edt
tis oft sth men


23. Hop 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

24. 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

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

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

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

28. Hop 9
From Headwork 2

29. 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 a very strange thing happened. A hand came of the radio and got hold of Jo’s face. Jo was very She the comic she was reading. She her cup of tea off the arm of her chair.
Jo picked up the She stared at it. Then the came out again. This time is got hold of Jo’s left 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 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

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

31. Writes the story using clue words

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

33. 10 hops = 1 leap

34. Billy six months later