Cursive writing is important for many reasons, and its loss in America’s classrooms should raise concerns. Cursive not only differs from print in the way it looks, it connects letters to words in a meaningful and productive way. It has been shown to assist children with reading difficulties like dyslexia. All students benefit by learning […]
Ignoring Common Core Infomercials: 15 Better Ways to Teach Writing and Self-Expression
New York Times journalist Dana Goldstein, who isn’t a teacher but likes to write about them, recently wrote “Why Kids Can’t Write,” an infomercial for Common Core. A takeaway from the article is that Common Core may not be working to teach writing, but it’s the teacher’s fault. The real danger here, however, is the […]
The Power of Invented Spelling: Giving Children Control
What we’ve found over the years is there seemed to be something with kids who are doing invented spelling on their own that’s really helping them learn how to read. ~ Gene Ouellette, Associate Professor of Psychology at Mount Allison University It looks like it’s best to hand young children paper and pencil instead of […]