ALT Research Report What Research Has Been Conducted on Cursive Handwriting Instruction? In recent years, cursive handwriting has been reintroduced into the academic standards of several states, including Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky, and California. This renewed emphasis has created a need to identify effective and efficient ways to teach cursive. Researchers at the IRRC conducted a systematic review of all research on cursive handwriting instruction to examine the differences between print and cursive as well as how cursive instruction affects writing outcomes.

ALT Findings Cursive Handwriting Instruction, Motor Instruction, and Technology Generally, studies focused on cursive instruction alone showed positive effects on handwriting outcomes, especially legibility and fluency. Findings for motor-based instruction from six studies were mixed. In some cases, embedded movement activities improved some measures of performance, but in others, additional handwriting practice without motor exercises produced stronger results. Technology-based instruction also showed promising but still preliminary effects in five studies. The use of technology such as tablet and stylus activities, video models, and other digital technology often improved handwriting performance

ALT Cursive or Other Types of Transcription Four studies found that students in print conditions outperformed those in cursive conditions on some handwriting, spelling, or writing measures. At the same time, cursive handwriting outperformed keyboarding on handwriting and writing productivity outcomes. Taken together, the results section suggests that cursive instruction can improve handwriting and may support the development of related writing skills. Sentence- and Paragraph-Level Writing Skills Five studies examined whether cursive instruction has an impact on sentence- and paragraph-level writing outcomes. Compared with non-handwriting conditions such as drawing instruction or no treatment baselines, cursive instruction was associated with stronger holistic quality, longer clauses, and more story elements, although gains in total words written were less consistent.

ALT Discussion These findings should be interpreted cautiously, given the relatively small number of studies and the uneven methodological quality across the evidence base. The results support providing explicit and sustained cursive instruction to support handwriting outcomes, while recognizing that students may require more time and practice to develop automaticity in cursive than they do in print handwriting.

ALT Where Have All the Spelling Lists Gone? In the 21st century, many students complete their schoolwork using technology such as spell check to automatically correct spelling errors. While online spell checkers provide instantaneous support for students, they do not offer long-term impact for students to spell effectively (Yen et al., 2022). This technology cannot observe and remediate the close relationship between decoding skills, developed through reading instruction, and the establishment of encoding skills, learned through spelling instruction (Frisby & Wang, 2018).

ALT Read the blog to learn more Researchers have consistently found that the mastery of spelling is essential for acquiring other English language skills and developing literacy, (Yen et al., 2022). These spelling skills establish critical connections between the processes of learning to read and the processes of learning to write (Frisby & Wang, 2018). Additionally, spelling skills have been shown to support reading comprehension and fluency (Ritchey, 2008). Spelling skills, too irreplaceable to leave in the hands of spell check, prove crucial and predictive of future literacy skills.

ALT What is grapheme- phoneme mapping? Grapheme-phoneme mapping is an element of phonics that requires knowledge of the letter-sound correspondences. This enables readers to decode words. Graphemes Phonemes Graphemes are the letters that represent a single sound (or phoneme) in a word. This could be a single letter, such as the letter “s” for the sound /s/, or a combination of letters such as “sh” for the sound /sh/.

ALT MOTR-Cycle Measuring Opportunities to Respond– Cycle of Coaching and Feedback Rate: How many opportunities to respond did the teacher provide per minute? Modality: Did students provide written, oral, or motor responses? Number: Did an individual, a small group, or the whole group respond to the OTR?

ALT Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Using the POSSUM Approach The POSSUM acronym describes six different elements of word recognition: phonology, orthography, syntax, semantics, understanding, and morphology.