Curriculum — Page 2 — Home School Support Network

Sherry Osborne August 13, 2012

Cursive First Handwriting Samples

This is a follow up to our podcast episode on Cursive First. I am going to lay out, in a series of pictures, a rough outline of the process that I used to teach cursive writing and phonics to my five year old son. You will see writing samples for a one and a half year time frame.

The reading program that I incorporated the Cursive First into is called STEPS (Sequential Teaching of Explicit Phonics and Spelling). Handwriting is included in STEPS but it was easy for me to take out that part of the program to use the Cursive First. I did switch to STEPS handwriting paper that does not have “skip lines” as soon as we were done with writing the numerals. Some children have a hard time transitioning to regular lined paper so I went ahead and taught that early on.

Cursive First fits more neatly with the SWR (Spell to Write and Read) curriculum. The author of Cursive First, Elizabeth FitzGerald, is a trainer for the SWR program. This program is easily obtainable, in fact I got my copy off Amazon. I do like that SWR has a Biblical base whereas STEPS was created for public school use. Perhaps I will do a more thorough curriculum review of both in the future….

I give you a brief description of these two reading methods to acknowledge that the writing samples of my son’s will look a little different than both these methods because I blended the two together. Beyond the writing, I find both the SWR & STEPS to be very similar in their method, phonograms, and spelling rules. STEPS just happened to be the curriculum I already had from my previous teaching days.

*Disclaimer: My son is not “gifted” in reading and writing. In fact, he really dislikes writing to this day & would much prefer to do math! He does love to read, and has consistently read above grade level, but I attribute that more to an effective reading method rather than “giftedness.”*

I started with teaching the appropriate “tripod” pencil grip, sitting posture, and writing position. I taught the clock face reference tool (or the handwriting circle reference tool used by STEPS). Then I used a variety of tactile and kinesthetic activities such using a salt box as shown below.

Salt Box for Cursive Teaching — The *Cursive First* book provides instructions for creating a salt box.

Salt Box showing lower case letter A — This is an example of a cursive letter “a” written in the salt box.

Cursive Work of a 5 year old — This is some of Riley’s very first pencil and paper work back on 6/6/2008. I used stickers to highlight for him his best work. (Age 5 yrs. 7mos.)

Number practice — I continued by teaching numbers with tactile then pencil & paper practice. This is a review practice sheet Riley did once I completed teaching all the numbers. We spent one week learning numbers.

Teaching Cursive Strokes — We worked on cursive strokes using the salt box (shown above) and sidewalk chalk before moving to pencil and paper.

Teaching Cursive Strokes with Phonics — It is important that the child know the names of the strokes. (i.e. “up and over”) and positional terms (i.e. “base line”) to be able to progress to writing the phonograms. Learning positional terms is a great school readiness activity.

Cursive First Phonogram Quiz — I began introducing the phonograms at a rate of 4 per day. Every day started with a “quiz” of all the previously learned phonograms (and in the beginning, the cursive strokes too). *STEPS* and *Cursive First* recommend the order in which to teach the phonograms based on the strokes that are used. As you can tell, some of his letters are shaky but coming along.

Spelling Test with Cursive First after 1 year of kindergarten — This is a spelling test sample at the end of kindergaten almost exactly one year after initial instruction began. Riley was 6 yrs 7mos at the time. The phonograms shown in the lower right corner had progressed to more complex multiletter ones.

1st Grade Handwriting After 1.5 years of Cursive Teaching — This is a sample of Riley’s work half way through his 1st grade year. He had been receiving instruction since the beginning of kindergarten.

Hank Osborne August 2, 2012

Teaching Reading and Writing with Cursive First

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Elizabeth FitzGerald author of Cursive First — Liz FitzGerald

In this podcast episode we interview Elizabeth (Liz) FitzGerald, M.S. the author of Cursive First. Liz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wonderful husband David and three children. She is an Endorsed Spell to Write and Read (SWR) Seminar Trainer, a credentialed Special Day Class teacher, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology. Before becoming a stay-at-home Mom, Liz had ten years of experience working in the public schools. She is currently homeschooling her own children as well as serving as an Educational Consultant to other educators.

Questions answered by Liz FitzGerald in this episode:

– Would you share some of the statistics on our nation’s literacy failures?

– Why is handwriting important?

– What is the history of handwriting in our country?

– How/why the shift in our educational system for reading and handwriting?

– What are the advantages of learning cursive first?

– Why cursive when we are a society filled print from computers and printing presses?

– Is it confusing to switch from print to cursive if you have already begun?

– Can this be used with special needs where they have weak or tired hands?

– Introduction for homeschool parents on how to begin cursive. (i.e., tactile practice of strokes using a salt box, sidewalk chalk, etc.)

You can order a copy of Cursive First at SWRTraining.com

Images used with permission from SWRTraining.com

Sherry Osborne April 30, 2012

Notebooking Lessons Learned

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At the Teach Them Diligently Homeschool Convention I attended a session led by Jeannie Fulbright. This episode of our podcast will feature some of the things I learned from this session.

1st Grade Notebooking Page — Timeline example completed at the end of 1st grade. Riley summarized what he learned about Martin Luther after reading a couple of quality books.

Podcast Episode 15 Show Notes

I briefly mentioned Notebooking in a Methods of Homeschooling blog post with a promise to go into more detail. I went to this session and for the first time received a good understanding of what “notebooking” is and the curriculum that uses this method.
Jeannie Fulbright uses “a methodology of education that employs a child’s comprehension, critical thinking, and creativity to produce a permanent work of artistic and academic value.” This method is based on a Charlotte Mason approach (see previous blog post) which can be linked back to how many great thinkers of the past kept a learning notebook (IE Leonardo & G. Washington).
Highschool lab manuals are basically Notebooking.
You can use Notebooking with ANY curriculum.
It uses “narration” which is telling back in your own words what you have learned.
Is a great way to retain what is learned. You would read a book then the child draws a picture and writes what they learned or a summary. The child has to mull over the material. They forget what is read/learned if they don’t do anything with the information other than taking a quiz.
It becomes a record of learning for the year.
The child “owns” the book AND the knowledge that is in the book he/she created.
Include in the Notebook: maps, mini books/lapbooks, photos of trips or projects, field trip reports, copywork, timelines, summaries, newspaper articles, brochures, and charts/diagrams.
Notebooking does take more time than a test or quiz.
Don’t go overboard by doing one everyday.

Lets look at typical assessments for a minute.

Notebooking replaces “artificial assessment” with authentic learning. Typical assessments don’t increase learning potential and they do not engage the child.