Whether you're teaching novice writers, older children or adults, you'll benefit from Julie Bennett's enthusiasm and expertise. She presents handwriting as both an art and a science. Either way, it can be mastered. Julie covers all bases: teaching, improving and troubleshooting handwriting. Starting with the basics - seating, posture, paper and writing implements - she then fixes the goalposts with a handwriting checklist. This is the reference point for remedying a range of common problems (e.g. uneven spacing between words and letters or inconsistent slope and slant) using Julie's multi-sensory 'Key Notes' method. A chapter on teaching beginner writers moves through the stages of writing from pre-literate to fluency, and a section on solving handwriting problems (e.g. for left-handers or those with dysgraphia or arthritis) is followed by a treasure trove of resources: schemes, aids, software, websites and books. Sign up for your copies now!

A thorough guide to making your cursive writing efficient, legible, and expressive.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

The future of handwriting is anything but certain. Its history, however, shows how much it has affected culture and civilization for millennia. In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures--far from John Hancock’s elegant model--have become scrawls. In her recent and widely discussed and debated essays, Anne Trubek argues that the decline and even elimination of handwriting from daily life does not signal a decline in civilization, but rather the next stage in the evolution of communication. Now, in The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, Trubek uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity--from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today. Each innovation over the millennia has threatened existing standards and entrenched interests: Indeed, in ancient Athens, Socrates and his followers decried the very use of handwriting, claiming memory would be destroyed; while Gutenberg’s printing press ultimately overturned the livelihood of the monks who created books in the pre-printing era. And yet new methods of writing and communication have always appeared. Establishing a novel link between our deep past and emerging future, Anne Trubek offers a colorful lens through which to view our shared social experience.

`I found this a fascinating book to read, I could identify with my time at school when I would often write with my paper almost in at right angles to my body because I found this comfortable, and the teacher′s insistence that the paper be "straight" in front of me. This then made me twist my body into a ridiculous shape, and would sometimes result in punishment for not "sitting on the chair correctly"....if only the teacher had understood the same principles as Rosemary Sassoon, who in this book emphasizes "flexibility and clear thinking about essential issues, rather than to impose solutions′ - Spare-Chair `Handwriting: The Way to Teach It should be required reading wherever Primary school teachers are trained, then perhaps there would be fewer young people still struggling to communicate in legible writing in Secondary school and later life′ - Handwriting Today `This is a comprehensive textbook, and an extremely accessible and practical guide which should be on the bookshelf of every practitioner. I recommend it highly′ - Jeni Riley, Head of Early Childhood and Primary Education, Institute of Education, University of London This book is an essential classroom guide to the teaching of handwriting. It covers all aspects of the subject: from whole-school planning, to classroom management and the teaching of letters in a highly illustrated and practical sequence; and from initial letter forms through to joined writing. The author presents many examples and imaginative ideas to make learning to write more effective and interesting for children and for teachers. This Second Edition includes material on problems which children can have with handwriting, and how to diagnose and remedy them. The author offers strategies for better teaching, and her aim throughout the book is to encourage flexibility and clear thinking about essential issues, rather than to impose solutions.