Cursive in Third Grade

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Home : 2005 : December : 3

Cursive in Third Grade
By lynn

I teach third grade. We are using "handwriting without tears". I do not allow my students to write in cursive outside of our cursive lessons at this point because we have not introduced all letters. The program begins with
the lowercase letters and teaches the capitals last. The idea being we use lowercase letters most frequently. The program also is very basic in the letter formation. The belief here being to teach the students a simple style which they can later add their own fancy flair to. The program consists of a teacher's guide and a workbook and is very cheap.

Once I have introduced

all letters I will allow students to write in cursive (after Christmas). I think I will still ask for printing on tests so that their effort can be spent on answering the question not perfecting their handwriting. I think journals is a great place to begin requiring cursive. This would also help make journal writing more fun for those who dread it. As far as next year (4th grade) I know the teacher will ask for cursive and most likely in 5th. After that I think the children get to choose what they are most comfortable with.

In the teacher's guide I have, it states that most children below 3rd grade do not have the fine motor development to be successful with cursive. They suggest saving cursive instruction for third and fourth grade. However I can see the theory behind teaching it early since children's scribbles do resemble loops. Does this interfere with their ability to recognize letters in print? Are they able to make the print/cursive conversion? My main concern with cursive is my students' spelling workbooks use cursive and they can not read the words in cursvie. Much like printing, cursive writing comes in various styles with different flairs. I am beginning to write on board some in cursive, outside of cursive instruction, but I can see this will be a challenge. Any suggestions? In the program we are using they have "silly spelling tests". This activity requires the students to practice writing words that have letters that have been introduced. There are three levels. One is they suggest a word and I write it in cursive on the board and they copy it. All can do that. Level 2 is they give a word, I print it on the board and they write it in cursive in their book. Most can do this, but the neatness definitely falls off. The third level is when they give a word or I do, I spell it out loud and they must write it in cursive. They love the concept because they help give the words and the words can only include letters we have introduced and are practicing, but making the conversion from print to cursive is tough. Even with a cursive ABC line, they struggle since cursive is suppose to be one continous movement and you only lift your pencil at the completion of a word.