Shannan Salvestro

Hello, I'm Shannan Salvestro from the Literacy and Numeracy team for the New South Wales Department of Education, and I'm joined today with one of our Literacy Advisors, Vanessa Hewitt. Hi, Vanessa.

Vanessa Hewitt

Hi Shannan.

Shannan Salvestro

Now our team is responsible for providing current advice on best practices for teaching literacy and numeracy skills and we are constantly putting together professional learning and assessments and resources for all of our New South Wales public schools and to do that, our advisors in our team, um, are constantly engaging in the latest research. Vanessa what are you working on at the moment?

Vanessa Hewitt

Uh, well, Shannan, I've been researching and writing a professional learning course on transcription skills, and it made me reflect on my own teaching practice over the years and how I was never fully aware of the evidence underpinning the effect handwriting has on learning to read, learning to spell, learning to write, and actually just learning in general. It's been such an eyeopener and now I'm really keen to share those messages with teachers so they understand the importance of handwriting instruction, right throughout primary school and not just in the early years of school. And also, we're noticing children are starting school very familiar with digital technologies, so they're very familiar with iPhones and iPads and tapping and swiping and this might just be for fun, but also might be for early learning activities. But I feel that technology in many cases may have replaced drawing, painting, puzzles, playdough, all of that kind of play the young children engage in that helps them develop their gross motor skills. And we know that those gross motor skills lead to fine motor skills, and that's what's required for pencil control and handwriting. So this makes explicit handwriting instruction and ongoing intervention even more important in the early years and right throughout primary school.

Shannan Salvestro

Yeah. And that's a really, um, interesting observation about children coming to school perhaps with some different, um, skills that they didn't have you know, even, I don't know, 10 years ago. So why is handwriting still very important?

Vanessa Hewitt

So important. Well, I feel there are two main reasons, um, why we need to focus very strongly on handwriting. The first one is that writing letters by hand involves complex perceptual motor skills requiring the coordination of visual, tactile, cognitive, and perceptual skills, as well as motor planning and coordination. So physically manipulating a pencil to write on paper, it stimulates these neural pathways in the brain, which have been linked to letter recognition, reading, writing, and spelling performance, as well as compositional quality and overall academic success. And secondly, writing is so complex and proficient writers must integrate multiple skills and strategies and techniques in order to produce a quality piece of writing. So when we look at the evidence base, um, the simple view of writing and the writing rope, they both identify components that contribute to skilled writing. So these components can be grouped into two main parts.

Vanessa Hewitt

Transcription and composition and transcription skills are the ones that include handwriting, spelling, and keyboarding. While compositional skills are the critical thinking, the syntax, the structure of the texts and the writing craft, and students must be proficient in both transcription and compositional skills in order to write effectively. You can't be strong in one area. It, it doesn't compensate for a weakness in the other area. So transcription skills, they're often referred to as editorial or secretarial skills considered to be lower order skills. But we know that handwriting in particular involves so many complex processes that students need to master. And once they learn to hold a pencil properly and form letters correctly, the main aim is for them to develop fluency and automaticity in their handwriting skills, so they can then focus their attention on the compositional skills, which are much higher order level skills. So if students don't develop the automaticity and they have to think about how to form each letter as they write the quality of their writing and the quantity, it's all affected. And it puts such a constraint on their, on their writing development overall. So it's essential that teachers support all students to develop fluent, automatic and legible handwriting as this greatly affects their ability to compose text as well as their overall writing ability.

Shannan Salvestro

That's so interesting. So what are the essential components of handwriting instruction?

Vanessa Hewitt

I feel there's three main areas that really contribute to the, to developing fluency and automaticity. And those are posture, pencil grasp, and letter formation. So the first component, posture, is the way students are sitting at their desks. So chairs in, back straight, feet on the floor and sitting correctly ensures that a child is comfortable in there, they're comfortable in the way that they're sitting. They don't have to consciously think about how they're holding their body in place. They can just concentrate on the writing task. And if they're sitting properly with their spine in alignment, they're not putting any extra stress on their back, on their neck, on their shoulder or arm or wrist. And surprisingly sitting with correct posture or has also been attributed to an increase in concentration and attention and some flexible seating options that we've seen introduced in recent years, um, or students lying or sitting on the floor while writing, it doesn't promote correct posture and it can lead to musculoskeletal issues if that practice is prolonged.

Vanessa Hewitt

So the second component is pencil grasp. So holding the pencil correctly, and we, we tend to use the tripod pencil grip in order to do that. It promotes correct letter formation and writing fluency. And this must be explicitly taught as soon as a child starts kindergarten, or is developmentally ready to do that, and then reinforced right throughout primary school. Uh, once a child develops, or even an adult has incorrect pencil grasp, it's incredibly hard to change it. So much better to get that real foundational skill and correct pencil grasp as, as early as we can, and then reinforcing it all the way through primary school. And then last of all, um, students need to form letters correctly. So correct letter formation is the most efficient way to write those letters and really promotes fluency in their writing. And as students move through primary school into, um, stage two and learn, start learning how to join letters and, um, cursive writing is introduced, they're not gonna be able to do that effectively if their letters are incorrectly formed while printing. So those three components, posture, pencil grasp, and letter formation, they should be a focus for all teachers right throughout primary school and I'm gonna add in there, in all writing tasks, not just in formal handwriting lessons.

Shannan Salvestro

Yeah, that's important, isn't it? That this is, you know, it happens, it's embedded throughout any, uh, any time when, um, a student is, is writing, um, so from all your reading and research what is our advice on how do we teach correct letter formation?

Vanessa Hewitt

So correct letter formation, and the instruction on it will include aspects such as letter size, the position, directions, and the, and each letter's starting and finishing point and this level of detail ensures that students understand the specific features and characteristics of each letter. So the idea of forming a mental image of each letter and using it as a guide for writing is an effective strategy for developing motor memory. So by visualising (the) letter in their mind, students can translate that mental image into the corresponding movements required to create the letter. And then over time and with practice, uh, these movements become ingrained in their motor memory, enabling them to write the letters more automatically and fluently. And as teachers provide these demonstrations, they should also verbalise, say aloud, how they are forming that letter correctly. And then when students are learning to write, the correct letter formation in terms of direction and shape of the letter, is much more important than the size and position of the letter.

Vanessa Hewitt

So initially, students should work on blank paper, and it doesn't matter how big the letters are, they just need to master, um, the letter formation, the direction and shape, um, before they then, uh, lined paper is introduced and then they work on the size and position of the letters on the paper. And I know a common practice in primary schools is using the handwriting textbook or handwriting worksheets, but something I found particularly interesting in the research that I've done is that there's no evidence to support that tracing over letters helps students write these letters on their own. So initially, students may write over letters, u- sorry, may write letters using numbered arrows as a guide to show the order and direction that they should write, but gradually, that model should be removed so the letter formation is committed to memory. So tracing should be used purposefully and specifically. So tracing may help the student learn the plan for each letter and practice the letter formation in their minds, but teachers should watch the students carefully if they are tracing or copying the letters, to ensure that, ensure that the letters are formed correctly and don't just look correct, if that makes sense.

Shannan Salvestro

Yeah. Yeah, it does. And that's a really interesting point about tracing because, I do know that that's a strategy that you will see in a lot of classrooms for learning handwriting. But, uh, something that sort of, I guess, stuck out the most in what you said there is that really the learning will come from the explicit teaching that in explicit instruction on handwriting, is first and foremost. And what I took from that is that if we do use tracing that's just purposely and, specifically in order to practice the skills that have been explicitly taught, is that sort of a fair summary?

Vanessa Hewitt

Yeah, that's correct. It's one, yeah. It can be used as one part of the process. Yeah. But ideally, we want students to commit that, what the letter looks like and how to produce it to memory and to be able to produce that independently.

Shannan Salvestro

Yeah. Yeah. So then I guess leading on from, in talking about how do we teach that just specifically letter formation, how, what's our advice then in, you know, how handwriting should be taught?

Vanessa Hewitt

So in kindergarten and in the early years, explicit handwriting instruction should be included with a systematic teaching of phonics. So when this occurs, it's, children develop a strong connection between graphemes and phonemes using visual, auditory, and motor skills, um, at the same time as learning correct pronunciation and letter formation. So it's all combined, all mixed in together. So daily revision of phonemes and graphemes should include instruction and practice of collect correct letter formation as well. And once all the single letter sounds have been introduced, then teachers need to systematically revise letter formation while at the same time reinforcing the pencil grasp and correct posture. And there's lots of different ways or suggested ways that teachers could do this, and I think people have different ideas on how to do it. So some suggested groupings might be that you teach all anti-clockwise letters or diagonal letters or straight line letters, and you teach all of those together.

Vanessa Hewitt

But what's important to remember here is that the order that they're taught is not as important as the regular and explicit instruction to support the development of fluency and automaticity. So once all the single letter sounds are introduced through phonics instruction, it's just important that they are continually revised, and that's the message. So, handwriting is also best taught in short, focused lessons. So these should occur daily in the early years of school, and then three or more times a week from years three to six, and then in the later years, so in primary years, small group instruction is more effective than whole class lessons, um, just because it gives the teachers a chance to focus on students' specific areas of need rather than that blanket lesson to the whole class.

Shannan Salvestro

Mm mm What about upper and lower case letters? Should they be introduced together?

Vanessa Hewitt

There's so many different schools of thought when you, um, when you read all of the research. Some people say definitely upper case letters, because students have become more exposed to that in their, in environmental print. They see stop signs and brand names that all have capital letters in it, whereas other schools of thought think that lower case letters should be introduced first because that's what students most experience in their early reading, in their early reading experiences, and exposure to print. And our syllabus doesn't really, it says that students need to become familiar with both uppercase and lowercase letters. So I think, I think the answer and, and, and kind of combining both schools of thought is that yes, upper and lowercase letters should be introduced together. Um, they're both essential for literacy development, and they serve different purposes in reading and writing. So lowercase letters provide a strong foundation for understanding the basic letter sound relationships in letter formation, as we've already discussed. But then upper case letters are really important as they indicate the start of a sentence and proper nouns, and attention should be drawn to uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences as soon, as soon as students are exposed to print. And then also considering that a student's name is often the first word that they learn to write. And so teaching uppercase letters and when to use them is really essential as well.

Shannan Salvestro

Mm, absolutely. So what about, so thinking about the teaching and learning cycle, we've talked a lot about instruction and, you know, best effective, approaches for teaching. What about assessment? How should handwriting be assessed?

Vanessa Hewitt

Well, a very simple answer is through observation. And that being the observation of students as they write, as well as samples of the work that they produce, and observations as they write, give us information about their posture, how they're holding their pencil, about how they're forming letters, as well as the size, position, spacing of their letters, and the fluency and speed at which they're writing. Whereas work samples more demonstrate how students plan, organise and present their writing, so it's legible and able to be read by others. I think also teachers really need to provide very specific feedback to students about their handwriting, which then gives them specific goals and areas to work on in order to improve.

Shannan Salvestro

Mm, yeah, so feedback's really important for that, you know, explicit instruction as part of that. And I really like that you said that observations are so important because those observations of students as they're writing could really point out some specific things that a student might need to work on. Let's move on. Vanessa, how can teachers cater for students who have difficulty handwriting?

Vanessa Hewitt

I think it's really important to look at different interventions, because handwriting difficulties can really impact how students write and, and the work that they produce to, to demonstrate their learning. Some students struggle with motor planning, with speed, um, their fine motor skills might not have developed to the point where they can control the pencil appropriately, um, might be about letter formation, organisation, even hand fatigue can impact, um, handwriting. And then those other underlying conditions such as dyslexia or attention and coordination disorders, or working memory issues can all lead to handwriting difficulties. So in the classroom, um, interventions and targeted strategic programs, um, might help those students improve their skills and then develop strategies to overcome the challenges that they face. So things like in the classrooms, specially lined paper called dotted thirds pencil grips that you put on your pencil to help you hold the pencil correctly and reduce hand fatigue.

Vanessa Hewitt

The numbered arrows that I spoke about before to indicate the direction of the, um, letter formation and even a focus on developing hand strength and control may assist students. But for some students, alternative methods to record their writing may be necessary for them to move past, um, the handwriting difficulties they have in order to develop their compositional skills and it reduces the attention that they require the mechanical aspects of writing to be able to focus on the higher order skills of writing. And I guess we just have to ensure that all students are given the appropriate tools to communicate if handwriting difficulties are impeding their creation of written texts.

Shannan Salvestro

Okay. So, in summary, Vanessa, what do you think are the key takeaways from this discussion? What are the key points that you would like people to know and remember?

Vanessa Hewitt

Well I think the aim of handwriting instruction if is for students to be able to write fluently and legibly with automaticity so they can focus on the higher order compositional skills needed for writing. And if students don't develop that automaticity and fluency, it puts a constraint on their writing development as they move through the later grades of schooling. The next point, one that I'm gonna harp on forever, is that posture, pencil grasp and letter formation are essential because they really contribute to that handwriting fluency and automaticity. Um, something I didn't mention before is how important practice is. So we can explicitly teach the skills to the students, but they need time and regular planned practice for them to be able to commit those letter formations to memory in order to develop that fluency and automaticity. And I, I guess the last point, so students with handwriting difficulties require interventions and targeted programs, or those alternate tools and resources in order to support their writing development and text production.

Shannan Salvestro

Oh, well, fabulous. That's some really strong messages, Vanessa, to really explain, I guess why handwriting is just so important and, and a skill that, um, that really needs to be explicitly taught. Now we have got, um, things from the Literacy and Numeracy, um, team. You can have a look at our effective writing professional learning, which you can find on the Literacy and Numeracy website. And the, um, handwriting lesson advice guide also has some great tips in alignment with our, um, discussion today. Now, of course, as usual, all of our professional learning and resources that we point you to are really for the New South Wales Department of Education staff and teachers. And, um, if you have a look at the podcast notes, you will find some links on, on where to go. So thank you, Vanessa, for that discussion today.

Vanessa Hewitt

My pleasure. That was so much fun.

Shannan Salvestro

Fantastic. And I'm sure, uh, we'll all be looking at handwriting and thinking about it, you know, through another lens after that discussion. Thank you so much. Okay, everyone, that's all from us. Bye for now.

Vanessa Hewitt

Bye.