Job Discussion Forums

[JimDunlop2]

I'll make my question today quick. In my (fairly standard) junior high school, I have students who have learned (are learning) how to write cursive letters -- but on their own time. I certainly have no time to teach it to them, although if they approached me after school wanting to learn it, I'd certainly help them with it... There IS a letter chart at the back of one of the Sunshine English textbooks, but sometimes I wish it weren't there....

I remember reading somewhere that allowing kids to write cursive is counterproductive to teaching phonics, spelling and is generally just a bad idea....

Considering the above, (my kids really cannot spell worth a damn nor are they anywhere near the level I feel they should be) as well as the fact that the penmanship is already quite atrocious (in general) even printing letters, let alone decyphering their cursive heiroglyphs, should I forbid my students from writing their assignments/notebooks/etc using cursive writing?

What do you think? Would disallowing cursive writing cause more problems than it would solve? I'd say that such a prohibition would only affect anywhere from 5 to 20% of my students at any one given time anyway....

[Celeste]

I wouldn't forbid writing, but I might insist on neatness. I might insist that students double space writing, leave a pencil width space between words, and that they use lined paper. I would also insist on dark blue or black ink(I hate trying to read something written in silver or pastel ink!). Give bonus stickers for neat notebooks, and request that students rewrite any illegible pages. They will soon decide that printing is the way to go.

[markle]

I would certainly encourage printing over cursive, simply because it's a skill not really recognised anymore. It was important up until 10- 15 years ago when everything was hand written but with word processors everywhere there is not as much call for it.
In fact it could be argued that it is just as important that the students be able to use an English keyboard, so you might start asking for everything to be handed in typewritten, especially essays etc.

[JimDunlop2]

Interesting you should say that, regarding English keyboards. Last year I held an "English contest" where the students had to e-mail me in order to participate....* It was amazing to see how much trouble some students had with basic typing skills even though most of them had some kind of e-mail address and Internet access.




*(As an aside, I run about two English contests a year... Students must communicate with me in English outside of the classroom in some way... Last year, students received a "point card" with my e-mail address on it, and for every sentence they wrote, they received 1 stamp. Those students who didn't have e-mail access were free to pass notes to me -- but not during class. After they earned 20 stamps they could drop the point card into a draw box. At the end of the allotted time (2 months) I pulled out the prize winner (3 movie tickets to the local cinema) and awarded McDonalds gift cards to the 2 students who participated the most in the contest).

[Vince]

Japanese seem to think cursive handwriting is more dignified and regard printing as childish. You'll probably encounter some resistance, but I think you're right to force them to print or use a printer until they're ready for cursive writing.

[moot point]

Interesting thread.

In my experience the junior high kids who try cursive wriiting tend to be the stronger kids in the class (i.e. stronger English skills, more motivation than others). I don't think you should ban it as that will inevitably lead to lower motivation on their part but rather steer their efforts towards a PC where they could make use of a keyboard. Another idea is to have them send you messages via their mobile phones (if they have them).