We can think of handwriting as a tool for writers with the goal of developing writing to communicate.  Handwriting is strongly connected to students’ writing skills. According to Dr. Louisa Moats, using the Simple View of Writing, handwriting is a lower level writing skill. Other researchers support teaching handwriting:

“Both legible letter writing and automatic letter writing contribute uniquely to amount and quality of written composition in grades 1-6.” (Berninger & Wolff, 2009)

“Once lower level writing skills are automatized, a student’s cognitive desk space is able to focus on higher level writing skills.” (Lousia Moats, LETRS)

“Handwriting fluency is causally related to writing” (Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2002)

To help young learners develop their writing skills, and to eliminate the difficulty of using the circles/sticks method, with its starts and stops that often interrupts the flow of writing, many children are taught D’Nealian handwriting developed by Donald Neal Thurber. Advantages to teaching students handwriting and that it goes from left to right and builds fluency with reading and writing.

Using all information about handwriting, analyze 1 handwriting sample.  Determine and explain the next steps for the student in handwriting instruction based on strengths and areas of concern. 

Please look through the different types of handwriting that uploaded and pick 1, you will then look at the MDE Standards to check and see which grade level the handwriting is on and make a lesson plan using the MS State Standards.

MDE Elementary ELA resources at  https://www.mdek12.org/