Sharing Best Practice Wellington

Written by Heather Down
August 7

Sharing Best Practice – Wellington 2023

Here is post number three! Sharing information and knowledge is so important. The second workshop I attended at SBP Wellington was run by Dr. Helen Walls and was about The Significance of Handwriting to Writing (and Reading).

I was really glad I managed to get into this workshop. I’ve had a BIG focus on handwriting and writing within my practice in earnest this year. This was because I noticed that each time I had students complete an assessment, there didn’t appear to be any movement with writing. (Note I say writing here). Handwriting was going well for most students, but not writing).

So what is the difference between Handwriting and Writing? Handwriting is writing done with a writing instrument held in the hand. It involves being able to have a correct and consistent pencil grip and being able to produce correct letter formation with appropriate spacing. It should also be legible. Writing on the other hand is the process of taking the symbols and using them to communicate thoughts and ideas. Written communication is the end goal underpinned by the ability to compose well-formed sentences with correct spelling.

One of the stand-out items Dr. Walls spoke about was how writing is HARD to automatise Wait, what? I asked myself! One can automatise the handwriting and formation of letters, however when we write it is never the same, and so the thoughts and words we put together are not automatised. It lends itself to the understanding that the executive function skills involved in writing are a much much bigger subset of the skill of writing.

How can we support writing automatisation? If we address handwriting, we can free up working memory, and we can start to combat the forgetting curve. Handwriting needs to be practiced daily to create the automaticity that can support writing.

Aim for QUALITY, not QUANTITY! There is no point in writing three pages of rubbish. Aim for three quality sentences with correct letter formation, punctuation, and spelling.

I must admit I enjoyed Helen’s workshop so much, and here are the main points I took:

Good writers will evaluate as they go, check as they go, and change as they go.
Direct, explicit, and immediate feedback for learning writers so they do not learn bad habits. Pick up on the errors immediately and correct them.
Writing is hard to automatise, however, we can free up cognitive load by teaching handwriting to automaticity.
Handwriting (letter formation) can be automatised by daily practice.
Quality writing over quantity
Handwriting builds the brain’s architecture for reading and is essential for reading and writing development.