cursive or print in middle school

[workingmom]

DS (9 5th) learned both cursive and print with HWOT. But since we finished the cursive book over a year ago and haven't done any formal cursive. He's back to printing everything. Is it useful in high school to be able to do cursive instead of print or just leave it at him being able to print nicely?

 

He said instead of another workbook I should just print his spelling words out with the worksheets.com in cursive and he'll copy it but at least this week he still ended up doing the actual spelling test in print?

 

suggestions

[Arch at Home]

IMO it is most important that my children can read cursive and if they desire can sign their names in cursive. In this age where most writing is done on computers and studies have shown that printing can be faster than cursive I think that it is important that they can read Grandma's letters but I let them choose how they want to write other than that.

 

To that end I have them do their copywork in cursive. We started out with me providing their copywork in cursive to copy. Later as their cursive skills improved I moved to giving them their copywork in print and having them write it in cursive. As I think about it now I should probably close the loop by providing the copy work in cursive and have them copy it in printing.

[moosemomma]

I have a friend who is a retired language arts specialist. He strongly encourages using cursive a lot in the lower grades and middle school. First, it is less exhausting. Writing in sweeping movements is less physically strenuous that the constantly picking up the pencil/pen for block printing. So you can write longer in cursive than in printing, which will be important when a student is doing high school and college level work. Secondly, once they have mastered cursive, which may take several years, you can write faster in cursive that standard printing. [Arch, which studies have show printing is faster? I was taught that cursive was always faster.]

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest went to ps for 6th and 7th grades and was shocked to find that NOBODY wrote in cursive except for signatures. She immediately dropped cursive.

 

My two older girls worked on cursive and both had decent, legible cursive, but that was it. After learning it, they dropped it.

 

My youngest is dyslexic and has visual processing issues, so she has extreme difficulty just reading cursive. She can't write it either.

[regentrude]

I have a friend who is a retired language arts specialist. He strongly encourages using cursive a lot in the lower grades and middle school. First, it is less exhausting. Writing in sweeping movements is less physically strenuous that the constantly picking up the pencil/pen for block printing. So you can write longer in cursive than in printing, which will be important when a student is doing high school and college level work. Secondly, once they have mastered cursive, which may take several years, you can write faster in cursive that standard printing. [Arch, which studies have show printing is faster? I was taught that cursive was always faster.]

 

:iagree:

Writing cursive, especially with a good fountain pen, is much less strenuous, does not lead to cramping, and looks neater. (Not cheap ball point pens, though - but a pen where the ink really flows and you glide instead of scratch)

I, too, am sceptical about printing being faster; as somebody who has been writing cursive almost daily for decades, I find this hard to believe.

[wapiti]

I, too, am sceptical about printing being faster; as somebody who has been writing cursive almost daily for decades, I find this hard to believe.

:iagree: As someone who has terrible cursive handwriting LOL, but even more terrible printing, my guess is that printing is only faster for those who have not written much cursive. I have been told by numerous OTs (for one of my kids) that cursive is the way to go, and that has proven to be true for us. I recently started another one on cursive, and it amazes me how much neater it is than his horrible printing.

 

Plus, as we look toward high school, I thought I read a post where someone stated that cursive on the SAT writing generally receives slightly higher scores :tongue_smilie:. That is one situation in which writing faster is critical, but note-taking would be my main concern.

 

A related question: regentrude, or anyone else, can you recommend a specific brand and model of pen? Dd10 learned the basics of cursive last year and now I need to make her use it so that it'll get faster and easier for her. She is reluctant, and I'm hoping maybe a fancy pen might entice her (I can't get her to give up the pencil - perfectionism issues).

[regentrude]

A related question: regentrude, or anyone else, can you recommend a specific brand and model of pen? Dd10 learned the basics of cursive last year and now I need to make her use it so that it'll get faster and easier for her. She is reluctant, and I'm hoping maybe a fancy pen might entice her (I can't get her to give up the pencil - perfectionism issues).

 

Lamy or Pelikan make student pens, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Pelikano-Junior-Fountain-Pen-P67/dp/B000FKNP5W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1313248375&sr=8-4

 

Another brand name is Online.

 

In Germany, students begin writing with pen in 1st grade, so there are a variety of inexpensive models for younger students - we usually buy ours overseas because they are much cheaper there.

[1Togo]

Thank you for the pen suggestion. We are doing some school work in pen this year, so I've been looking for pens that write smoothly.

[wapiti]

Lamy or Pelikan make student pens, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Pelikano-Junior-Fountain-Pen-P67/dp/B000FKNP5W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1313248375&sr=8-4

 

Another brand name is Online.

 

In Germany, students begin writing with pen in 1st grade, so there are a variety of inexpensive models for younger students - we usually buy ours overseas because they are much cheaper there.

 

Thank you! We're going to try the Pelikano.

[gracyomalley]

My dylsexic sons tutor ( a specialist) strongly recommends cursive for all kids, but ESPECIALLY for kids with language based learning disorders - its easier to read in the end, and faster for them, and gets them thinking in whole words, etc...

 

What we have done, is once they have done a year or two of cursive handwriting books, written work must be in cursive...all of it. As we hit middle school work, I will let them type some work, but anything else - cursive!

 

Erin

[Arch at Home]

Interestingly you can articles which cite studies supporting that cursive is faster than printing and others that says that printing is faster than cursive. I suspect the one that it the fastest is the one you have the most practice with. I find cursive too loopy any more and feel like it slows me down. I actually can do cursive, print and letter (an architectural style of writing). At one point or another I have almost exclusively used each style and at that point thought that the style I was using was the fastest style. At this point in my life I print because I have an 8 year old who is still working on printing. When I have to go fast I prefer to type.