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Wednesday, September 7, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
School expands handwriting program
By Erin Borla
Correspondent
Thanks to a grant from the
Sisters Schools Foundation,
Sisters Elementary School
will be able to expand their
Handwriting Without Tears
program beyond kindergarten
to first and second grade.
Tiffany Briggs, a parent at
Sisters Elementary School,
put together the grant for the
Sisters Schools Foundation
this past spring. Briggs writes,
“Research has shown the ben-
efits of handwriting go beyond
penmanship. Handwriting
skills help brain development,
reading, writing, and critical-
thinking skills just to name a
few. When a student becomes
confident in handwriting,
they pay more attention to
the lecture and retain more
knowledge because they can
focus less on their handwrit-
ing abilities.”
The Handwriting Without
Tears curriculum is designed
to make handwriting easy
to teach and easy to learn in
15 minutes a day. Each pro-
gram follows three principles,
including intuitive and engag-
ing materials, active teach-
ing, and teacher support. The
program facilitates instruction
and engages children so they
are active participants.
Handwriting Without Tears
has shown an improvement in
student test scores. When stu-
dents can write more fluidly
they are taking less time try-
ing to figure out how to write
the letters and are able to keep
up with note-taking.
“Students can get bogged
down with letter formation
rather than focusing on the
content of the lesson,” says
Kori Cantrell, a special edu-
cation instructor at Sisters
Elementary School.
With all of the upgrades
in technology in our world,
many believe handwriting is
a lost art.
“Even in a world where
we don’t have to hand-write
everything, there is still a
need for this skill,” says
Katie Diez, occupational
therapist that works with the
Sisters School District from
the High Desert Education
Service District (HDESD).
“People still have to fill out
forms, write within desig-
nated spaces, and even may
have a job that requires leg-
ible handwriting.”
Learning proper pencil
grip is one of the most impor-
tant lessons young children
can learn. Improper grip can
cause cramping and strain
on hands, which then leads
to difficulty taking notes and
falling behind in class.
“If students begin to learn
to hold a pencil in an inef-
ficient way they will end up
with hand fatigue,” says Diez.
“Writing may become painful
for them.”
Diez recommends parents
of young children work with
small, golf-size pencils so
children are encouraged to
hold the pencil with the cor-
rect grip.
The grant from the Sisters
Schools Foundation will help
provide implementation of
Handwriting Without Tears
to current K-2 teachers. The
program provides a multi-
sensory approach to learning
where students move, sing,
talk, and experience each les-
son. Teachers will have train-
ing, workbooks, online teach-
ing tools and manipulative
tools to use in the classroom.
One of the favorite meth-
ods to learn letters is “wet,
dry, try” — where students
use a small damp sponge to
draw the letter on a small
ACTIVE RELEASE
For pain & injuries that won’t resolve.
photo by erin borla
learning to write by hand remains an important skill in the digital age.
chalkboard, then dry the
wet letter with a small paper
towel, followed by a chance
to ‘try’ the letter with chalk.
“We teach it as a mix
of lines and curves – all on
the same plane,” says Diez.
“Using small tools, the wet,
dry, try method helps to teach
a functional pencil grasp as
well.”
Te a c h e r s u s e t h e
ood
G
-
y
a z
manuscript style of handwrit-
ing throughout the program.
This style uses basic line
forms —horizontal, verti-
cal, diagonal, and circular.
Students learn all the capi-
tal letters first, followed by
lower-case letters.
Handwriting Without
Tears will be expanded begin-
ning this upcoming 2016-
2017 school year.
Comfor t
F o o
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C r location
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Sisters Art Works Outdoor tent!
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