How to have a great cursive rollout

www.acsa.org

July 22, 2024

The following article was written by Jasmine Bassilious, director of Instructional Services at Fruitvale School District.

Cursive is making a comeback in California schools. In October 2023, the California Legislature unanimously passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, a law requiring handwriting instruction in cursive or “joined italics” for grades 1-6. It hasn’t been a requirement since 2010, when it was left out of the Common Core National Education Standards.

The new “cursive law” took effect on Jan. 1 and calls for all elementary schools in the state to implement cursive instruction in their classrooms.

In this age of digital literacy, where most students are typing and clicking throughout the day, why is cursive important? Well, teaching our youngest students handwriting skills is a formative part of their literacy development. When students learn to write by hand, there’s a lot more going on in their heads than memorizing letter formations. In fact, handwriting influences a student’s reading, writing, language use and critical thinking. Results from several studies back this up, confirming that handwriting yields brain connectivity patterns that are far more elaborate than when typing on a keyboard — patterns that are crucial for memory formation and encoding new information.

At Fruitvale School District, where I serve as the director of Instructional Services, we focus heavily on letter formation and writing in addition to phonics, decoding, fluency and comprehension. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we noticed variances in teaching methods for writing across grade levels and classrooms.

To remedy this, we implemented a systematic approach to literacy instruction, using a universal screener to access our elementary school students’ reading levels and developing a program called “Walk to Learn,” where students received targeted instruction based on their reading level for just shy of one hour each day. In addition, we also adopted Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) for our students in transitional kindergarten through second grade to streamline instruction around letter formation.

Despite the nationwide challenges in student growth, I’m happy to share that Fruitvale has experienced consistent progress in our students’ literacy scores. At the end of the 2022-23 school year, 84 percent of our students were above or at their benchmarks for phoneme segmentation fluency, with significant gains in retell, retell quality, accuracy and words correct.

It’s on the heels of this success that we’re planning to formally implement cursive instruction for the 2024-25 school year. We plan to utilize HWT’s cursive platform for grades 3-6. As we’ve been preparing our teachers for this rollout, here are three strategies that we’re utilizing to ensure a seamless implementation this fall:

Provide our teachers with early insight into the curriculum. Although formal professional development for cursive instruction won’t commence until August, we’ve proactively engaged our teachers in familiarizing themselves with the platform. This allows them to raise any queries or anticipate challenges ahead of time.
A baseline of professional development, with more as needed. Recognizing the demanding schedules our teachers already manage, particularly upon returning to school, we will focus on providing foundational PD with Handwriting Without Tears while listening to our teachers about where they may need additional support, and supplement as needed. Often, teachers receive an overwhelming amount of information without the opportunity to discern its impact on their classrooms. My goal is to empower them to express their needs, enabling us to tailor our support accordingly.
Share the “why” of cursive instruction with parents. Beyond the mandate, we want to ensure that parents understand why cursive instruction is valuable, especially for students who may be struggling readers. We intend to achieve this through a series of back-to-school events, providing parents and guardians with the opportunity to inquire and gain clarity.

“Putting pen to paper accelerates learning, and although cursive takes a bit more time for students to master, I’m confident it will help cement their grasp of letter/sound relationships, which supports their development as writers and readers.”

As we embark on this journey of integrating cursive instruction into our curriculum, I’m eager about the impact it will have on our district’s progress in student literacy growth. Putting pen to paper accelerates learning, and although cursive takes a bit more time for students to master, I’m confident it will help cement their grasp of letter/sound relationships, which supports their development as writers and readers. Let’s view the cursive mandate as an invaluable addition to educators’ toolkit — one that can enrich the educational journey of our youngest learners.