cursive handwriting

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cursive handwriting
By Carolyn

I start the day at the beginning of the year having my fifth graders practice a cursive letter a day. I have to do this, since so many of my students of the past didn't really have the grasp of the letter formations and
connecting them. I show them where the letter begins by putting a dot at the place where it starts, then I put an x where it ends. I used to assume that by fifth grade kids should have good cursive handwriting and that all I had to do was say, "Write in cursive." We can't assume that about the kids, unfortunately.
My kids have groaned quite a bit over cursive in the past, complaining

even that it hurt their hand, but by the end of the year the handwriting is good and the kids stop groaning. They just need practice to get good at it.

Good handwriting has to be practiced often, just like everything else. It is especially important in states which have a writing test! Writing which cannot be read scores a zero!