Denim Column

About The Author

My photo
Alabama, United States
Educator and Lifelong Learner, Asst Principal at @cmslions, #NBCT, #EdD from @ucumberlands, @Google Educator Lvl 1 & 2, Google for Education Certified Trainer

Thursday, December 1, 2011

A Farewell to Handwriting?

I'm afraid that penmanship is a dying art. My principal should this clip to our faculty to generate discussion. What do you think?





Do you still teach handwriting in your school? Do you feel it is important for kids to know how to write legibly in print or cursive? Many argue that technology is overtaking the necessity for penmanship. Think of the number of times you write a day: signatures on credit card purchases, checks, shopping lists, notes to your children, letters home to parents, information for your students on the board, etc. I am a tech fanatic, but I still have to write!


One resource I use is VocabularySpellingCity's Handwriting Worksheets. You can create free, printable worksheets with your spelling and vocabulary lists in print, D'Nealian print, cursive, and sign language. They are even looking to increase the number of available fonts. What font do you use with your students?


I would love to generate discussion on this topic. Feel free to state your opinion. I am very interested in what you have to say!


~Cara

3 comments:

Nancy said...

Thanks for mentioning VocabularySpellingCity's Handwriting Worksheets. They can be used to incorporate Dolch-Sight Word practice with learning to print, or practice writing Science Vocabulary words in cursive! The possibilities are endless. We'd love to hear feedback from other teachers on which handwriting programs they use with their students!

Shannon said...

My opinion is sort of "on the fence". I believe that we need to have neat and legible handwriting, but after teaching Kindergarten and 6th grade, I also understand that handwriting is essentially "personality". It is a unique thing that we are wasting time on IF we expect everyone to have the SAME handwriting. Everyone's handwriting turns out different.

This does not mean that I believe we don't need to teach it-we absolutely do. BUT-there has to be line drawn between handwriting instruction and overkill. I guess it has also been one of those things that has taken a backseat to everything else we have to teach-and don't forget the test that we are all teaching to! Unfortunately!

Shannon
http://6thgradescottforesmanreadingstreetresources.wordpress.com/

Vision Objects said...

First let me congratulate you for this truly excellent video. I do hope that handwriting isn't dying and with the emergence of tactical screens with no physical keyboards I can see a huge opportunity for an alternative input method. Yes, handwriting recognition isn't just a curiosity and combined with high quality screens and stylus will very often prove that it is far superior to a keyboard. There are obvious education areas where a keyboard isn't even an option such as mathematics but even note taking with the facility of mixing sketches and text are another proof that writing isn't incompatible with IT, quite the opposite!
But let's forget IT for a second, I really liked the last interview where the person says how amazing reading a handwritten letter is, I couldn't agree more.