Developmentally Appropriate Practices and Picture Writing
By beginning this unit early on in the school year, I will be able to disconnect the link between printing and writing that is made in our district's ELA curriculum. It is clear to all of us that our students need to develop phonics skills and have a strong foundation of phonemic awareness, but as today's kindergarten pushes its students to read, write, and compute, we tend to forget about what they need when they walk in the classroom. There is so much we want to achieve with them that the curriculums tend to push students to master letter identification and production early on in the year. While these are two skills that we will cover, and hopefully master by the end of the year, this unit allows the students to tackle these skills at their own pace. It does not assume that they are all in the same developmental spot and will work at the same rate. In the article "Relationship Between Visuomotor and Handwriting Skills of Children in Kindergarten," Marsha J. Weil and Susan J. Cunningham Amundson discuss handwriting from an occupational therapist's point-of-view; they explain the penalties of beginning handwriting too early in the year, "Some children are taught handwriting before they acquire adequate prerequisites for handwriting skills. Children who are not ready to write may become discouraged and develop poor writing habits that could be difficult to correct later." 10 Not only is it inappropriate to begin handwriting so early in the year when the majority of students are not ready to tackle it, but it can cause handwriting problems that will need to be worked on down the road.
Comments: