Hi.
my name is Anne Glass.
I'm a reading and learning specialist at a private school in New York City and I work
with Kindergarteners through 3rd graders on Reading, Word Study, and Writing Skills.
In addition to be a reading specialist and learning specialist, I'm also a parent and
today I'm going to talk to you about topics in reading
Instruction in handwriting used to be an important part of kindergarten and first grade curriculum
and even for older students as well.
Unfortunately, it's somewhat of a lost art now and we encourage our children at a very
young age to experiment with writing on paper.
We support and honor inventive spelling.
If children know the motor plans for the letters that they want to write, then they're going
to be much more able to access the letters and the letter sounds to spell the words that
they want to put down on paper.
If the motor plans are automatic and they know them well, then they're going to be able
to make the connection from the content in their minds to the words on the paper.
Handwriting practice is also critical for reinforcing knowledge of letter names and
sounds.
When you can learn a concept through multisensory means - and handwriting would be putting something
in muscle memory, having the tactile feedback of the pencil on the paper while you say the
letter name, while you practice the letter sound - all of those concepts and all of that
knowledge is going to be much more secure, and your child is going to become more fluid
and automatic at the word-level sooner.
And that word-level automaticity is really foundational to acquiring later reading skills
and becoming a good, fluent reader who can construct meaning from text.