Teaching Beginning Reading
Step #7 Handwriting Is Here to Stay So Please Learn the “Write” Way
Estimated time to complete this step: 35 minutes
If you are like many other people, reading and writing have become so automatic that you don’t have to think about it. You probably don’t notice how the 
and 
in the newspaper or books are in a typeface which is different from the way we usually write them in manuscript form 
and 
. Good readers don’t notice that these letters are different and skip over them but they could confuse a beginning reader who cannot do that yet. Make sure to point out this difference to your students when they start reading decodable text or learning to write letters so that they don’t become confused.
Handwriting Basics
Technique matters! If you are teaching someone else how to write, you need to know how to properly hold a pencil and how to form the letters for ease and legibility. Most of us have let our handwriting degenerate. Now is the time for an overhaul. These next three videos are excellent and really important but are kind of like “eating your vegetables.” Please watch all three of them so you can enjoy the two “dessert” videos at the end showing that “the devil’s in the g-tails.” These two videos are a fascinating look at how our brains process print on a subconscious level. The fourth video is about how to deal with common letter reversals.
When learning how to read, it’s very important to go back and forth between reading (decoding) and writing/spelling (encoding) so that the phoneme/grapheme connections stick. Typing on a keyboard does not give the same kinesthetic experience so learning to write by hand when learning to read is superior. It’s much easier for students to write correctly if they are taught the most ergonomic way from the start. It is extremely difficult to correct improper pencil grip later after it’s become ingrained.
There will be more handwriting tips in the Teaching and Learning section on this landing page/website. Please grab a pencil and watch these five videos.
Video:
Teaching Handwriting
Denise Eide
Video:
Teaching Letter Formation Using House Paper – IMSE Orton-Gillingham
Video:
Pencil Grip/How and Why to Teach It/The Good and the Beautiful
Letter Reversals
The way our brains are wired can lead to some early letter confusions which are very common. Confusion of b and d is the most common as well as p and q. Here is a nice way to deal with this kind of confusion. Please read the following document to make life easier for everyone.
How to Solve Letter Reversals by Marie Rippel
For some entertainment and seeing how your own mind automatically skips over letters:
Video:
The Elusive Letter G Game from Johns Hopkins University, April 2, 2018
Video:
The Elusive Letter G from Johns Hopkins University, April 2, 2018
Evolving Resources for Reading Success
We strongly believe in staying up-to-date with the latest reading research and incorporating valuable user feedback to continuously improve our resources. Our goal is to adapt and evolve, ensuring that we provide effective teaching methods for everyone to learn how to read.
If you have a source with excellent information about reading, please share it with us!
