For Teachers

Handwriting Without Tears® is ideal for the busy educator. This flexible program is easy to teach, easy to integrate, and developmentally appropriate. The curriculum helps you make handwriting instruction a successful and rewarding part of your classroom.

Recommended Handwriting Instruction Time

Handwriting without Tears instruction easily fits in your day. The program is flexible; teach handwriting during an allotted time, during language arts time, or even during math lessons when working on number formation. All it takes is 15 minutes a day. Here are some tips for making the most of your time in the classroom:

• Spend 5 minutes giving the lesson, then allow for 5-10 minutes of practice. Short practice sessions help children remain excited, alert, and eager for more.
• Consider starting the day with handwriting instruction so you can incorporate the new lesson with other handwriting practice throughout the day.
• Teach handwriting every school day to ensure consistency and success. You could use Friday for review without introducing new material.
• Spend some extra time on practice before moving on if students are struggling with certain letters or lessons.

Finishing a Workbook

There’s no hurry to finish the workbook. HWT aims to teach children to master and love handwriting, not to complete a prescribed number of lessons or pages. When children know how to write, they want to write.

• Pace your teaching so students can move at a comfortable speed.
• Be flexible about moving through the program. The key is for children to USE letters (whether print or cursive) in functional words and sentences for writing assignments.

It’s okay to complete the workbook before the end of the school year. Handwriting practice and instruction continues outside the workbook. The functional transition can be fun for your students.

• Completed workbooks can be confidence builders and showpieces of the child’s work.
• The teachers’ guides have many ideas for lessons and activities to continue handwriting instruction once the workbook is completed.
• Fun student assignments can include writing about pictures they draw; writing notes about friends and/or family; identifying and labeling things in the classroom, etc. Our Double Line Paper is ideal for these types of activities.
• If children have difficulty with a particular letter, review the specific lessons in the workbook.

Download Line Generalization Handout

Multiple Handwriting Programs in Your School

Handwriting Without Tears works. However, schools and districts may use multiple curricula. Even within one school, teachers may be allowed to choose a handwriting program. You can make the best of it by focusing on elements that are common among diverse programs:

• Focus on program elements that are similar to the HWT curriculum. These characteristics may include teaching letters from top to bottom and teaching from left to right.
• Never criticize a child’s writing style. If the handwriting is neat and legible, the letters start at the top, the formation is consistently flowing left to right, then there is no need to force changes.
• You can introduce Handwriting Without Tears into a system one grade at a time. Focus on the problems that students may be having and use the HWT recommended techniques to correct the problems.
• The Double Line Paper can help students correct many bad handwriting habits. The HWT cursive program can be introduced any time after any printing program.
• The vertical style, clean, clear presentation, and unique teaching techniques will help students master and enjoy cursive writing.

Referring Children to Occupational Therapy

If you think a child without a suspected disability could benefit from occupational therapy, talk to an occupational therapist. The OT may be able to suggest measures to help the child become more successful in school. Refer a student to occupational therapy if he or she:

• Consistently demonstrates difficulty with cutting, writing, manipulating small objects and toys
• Has difficulty with gross motor function, sitting upright at a desk, playing on the playground, or moving specific joints during an activity
• Needs adaptation to his or her environment to make a task easier
• Has a difficult time self-feeding in the cafeteria, manipulating clothing during school activities or while toileting
• Does not demonstrate hand dominance, thus affecting work (speed, neatness, etc.)
• Has difficulty with perceptual skills, hindering academic performance (i.e. copying from the blackboard, recalling what objects look like, reversing a great deal in written work, copying designs)