When it comes to teaching handwriting to wary elementary students, Paula Heinricher said yesterday, teachers might want to incorporate foot-tapping, scuba diving and ditties into the lesson.
"Capital 'C' is tall, tall, tall. Lowercase 'c' is small, small, small," Ms. Heinricher sang cheerily as about 20 teachers and occupational therapists waved their pencils aloft.
The group gathered in an Uptown hotel on National Handwriting Day to learn how to teach handwriting more effectively and creatively. As Ms. Heinricher tells it, the two go together like the intersecting lines on a lowercase "t."
Take the song about letters, for example.
"When we put things to music, we remember them better," said Ms. Heinricher, an occupational therapist.
Most of the seminar participants had been sent by their school districts for professional development. They seemed open to Ms. Heinricher's suggestions, even to the idea of singing to a roomful of preschool students or kindergartners.
"They don't judge you," said Stefanie Pastore, literacy coach for the Mifflinburg Area School District in Union County.
Ms. Heinricher teaches the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, designed 30 years ago by a Maryland mother and occupational therapist whose son cried over handwriting lessons. Her company now hosts 500 workshops annually for educators worldwide.
The program includes the basics, such as the proper way for children to hold pencils. It covers mnemonic strategies; the "magic c," for example, can be turned into other letters, such as "d" or "q," with an additional stroke. And the program offers tips for keeping children engaged.
At one point, Ms. Heinricher led the class in a burst of vigorous foot-tapping, with the goal of getting the participants' energy and attention levels up. If children are given the same opportunity to let off steam from time to time, she said, they're more likely to keep the optimal handwriting position -- "feet on the floor, tush back in the chair."
Teachers should "ham it up," she said, suggesting that they pull on imaginary wet suits when covering "divers" -- letters such as "r" that begin with a downward stroke, then require the hand to float back to the top.
These aren't the traditional ABCs. For example, Ms. Heinricher said the program teaches children the "F" before the "A" because straight lines are easier to master than slanted ones.
Children often view handwriting lessons as a "job or a chore," said Wendy Koster, a teacher and occupational therapist at Eden Christian Academy in Ross. She and other participants said they hope Ms. Heinricher's suggestions help to change the classroom tenor.
Educators are partly to blame for students' lack of interest, Ms. Heinricher said, noting boring repetition still dominates many handwriting lessons.
The subject has taken a backseat to other subjects in recent years, she said, but remains an important part of the education process. She would like to see more educators see the writing on the wall.
"If kids can't express themselves clearly, things get marked wrong," she said. Legible compositions get higher grades than hard-to-read ones, according to Handwriting Without Tears.
First Published: January 24, 2010, 10:15 a.m.
