Ask Jan
Q. I don’t have time to go through the entire teacher’s guide. How do I get students going in their workbooks?
A. I suggest that you take an hour or so to familiarize yourself with your teacher's guide because it includes a lot of information that will save you time and effort: daily lesson plans, tips, remediation tools, review and mastery sections, and more. However, if you are in a hurry and want a quick start, just jump straight to the lesson plans section of your guide. Each lesson is clearly planned and requires only 10 minutes of instruction time each day.
Q. Why do your 6s look like bs? Doesn’t this confuse students?
A. Children often reverse their sixes. So we teach a vertical style of six that starts in the top left corner to prevent reversals every time. When children can write the number six fluidly, without reversals, they can then start at the top center. Don’t worry; this will happen naturally over time.
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Comments (9)
Diane Fleming
— Diane Fleming on January 5, 2009
Dear Diane,
You mention that many students have low cognitive abilities in your classroom and have been learning capital letters over the last few years. Switching their writing to mostly lowercase may not be in their best interest because of their low cognitive status. Capitals are developmentally easier, and lowercase letters require much higher skill levels in cognition, visual, and motor areas. I recommend that you first decide if their abilities are on par with late kindergarten or 1st graders before you move forward. If not, their I.E.P. goals may need to be adjusted for writing.
If you decide that they are ready to move forward with lowercase, use the Kindergarten workbook and provide instruction in lowercase letters, words and sentences using the 3 Stages of Learning from the Teachers Guide. If you need additional guidance please contact HWT directly for assistance.
Lastly, writing in all capital letters is functional. There are many adults who choose to write in all capitals; this makes the process of filling out forms and job applications easier. Capitals are easier to recognize. Using lowercase letters may decrease the legibility of some of your students writing.
I wish you and your students success!
Sincerely,
Katrina
— Katrina Erickson on January 6, 2009
— Shirley Reynolds on January 21, 2009
— Tracy Carson on September 12, 2009
Please take a look at our Classroom Extras page, where we have a lot of great downloads, including our letter formation charts. You can find all the verbal directions for both print and cursive capital and lowercase letters here: http://www.hwtears.com/files/Letter%20Formation%20Charts.pdf
I hope this helps!
— Juliana Guzman on September 18, 2009
— Janet Coile on February 6, 2010
Slanted or vertical cursive is not a matter of correctness; it is just a matter of style. Most children, including most left-handed children, find vertical cursive much easier to learn. However, if your child has developed a slant, check that all the letters are slanted uniformly. If he “loops” certain letters (such as h, k, p), then his letter formation should be the consistent for those letters. Recognize that this is the child’s personalized style. Most importantly, the goal is legible handwriting.
— Juliana Guzman on February 9, 2010
— Janet Coile on February 9, 2010
— Joanne C. Crow on February 9, 2011
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