How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey

A random sample of primary grade teachers from across the United States was surveyed about their instructional practices in handwriting. Nine out of every ten teachers indicated that they taught handwriting, averaging 70 minutes of instruction per week. Only 12% of teachers, however, indicated that the education courses taken in college adequately prepared them to teach handwriting. Despite this lack of formal preparation, the majority of teachers used a variety of recommended instructional practices for teaching handwriting. The application of such practices, though, was applied unevenly, raising concerns about the quality of handwriting instruction for all children.

[1]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Which manuscript letters do primary grade children write legibly , 2001 .

[2]  J. Marshall,et al.  WRITING NEATNESS, COMPOSITION ERRORS, AND ESSAY GRADES , 1969 .

[3]  Steve Graham,et al.  HANDWRITING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: A UNIFIED APPROACH , 1980 .

[4]  Carol A. Christensen,et al.  Relationship between automaticity in handwriting and students' ability to generate written text , 1999 .

[5]  D Colledge,et al.  Linking home and residential school. , 1982, Special education: forward trends.

[6]  S. Graham,et al.  Primary grade teachers' instructional adaptations for struggling writers: A national survey , 2003 .

[7]  Martin Nystrand,et al.  What writers know : the language, process, and structure of written discourse , 1982 .

[8]  S. Graham The Role of Production Factors in Learning Disabled Students' Compositions. , 1990 .

[9]  William D. Schafer,et al.  Development of Handwriting Speed and Legibility in Grades 1–9 , 1998 .

[10]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Coordinating Transcription and Text Generation in Working Memory during Composing: Automatic and Constructive Processes , 1999 .

[11]  D. Diaper,et al.  Knowledge Elicitation: Principles, Techniques and Applications , 1989 .

[12]  S. Graham,et al.  Prevention and Intervention for Struggling Writers. , 2002 .

[13]  A. W. Blöte,et al.  A Longitudinal Study on the Structure of Handwriting , 1991 .

[14]  R. Abbott,et al.  Role of mechanics in composing of elementary school students: A new methodological approach. , 1997 .

[15]  S. Graham,et al.  A review of handwriting research: Progress and prospects from 1980 to 1994 , 1996 .

[16]  S. Graham,et al.  Writing Legibly and Quickly: A Study of Children's Ability To Adjust Their Handwriting To Meet Common Classroom Demands. , 1998 .

[17]  Elaine Traynelis-Yurek,et al.  Spelling practices in school districts and regions across the United States and state spelling standards , 1999 .

[18]  S. Graham,et al.  The Role of Self-Regulation and Transcription Skills in Writing and Writing Development , 2000 .

[19]  Alan M. Wing,et al.  Development of graphic skills: Research perspectives and educational implications. , 1991 .

[20]  Mark R. Shinn,et al.  Interventions for academic and behavior problems II : Preventive and remedial approaches , 2002 .

[21]  S. Graham Handwriting and Spelling Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Review , 1999 .

[22]  R. Abbott,et al.  Treatment of Handwriting Problems in Beginning Writers: Transfer from Handwriting to Composition. , 1997 .

[23]  N. Rubin,et al.  Two sides of the same coin: variations in teaching methods and failure to learn to write. , 2007, Special education: forward trends.

[24]  S. Graham Issues in Handwriting Instruction. , 1992 .

[25]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Theory-Based Diagnosis and Remediation of Writing Disabilities. , 1991 .

[26]  S. Graham,et al.  Is handwriting causally related to learning to write? Treatment of handwriting problems in beginning writers , 2000 .

[27]  Daniel B. Willingham,et al.  A Neuropsychological Theory of Motor Skill Learning , 2004 .