Idea 222: Paired Handwriting

handwriting

Struggling to improve the handwriting of your pupils? Find handwriting sessions to be a bit boring and really not helping the children who need it the most?

Try paired handwriting!

This is a simple idea but very effective. One handwriting sheet is shared between two pupils (pairs with mixed-current-ability in terms of handwriting works best).

Children take turns with their partner, writing a letter or word at a time. This really promotes engagement and is great for children unknowingly modelling correct letter formation to each other. Pupils who might be demotivated now want to match their classmate’s standard of writing, and children who have better handwriting get a boost being able to help out their classmate and from having their handwriting appreciated.

I must say the results were pretty impressive straightaway, with some of my boys who had fairly shocking handwriting stepping up their game immediately.

After we have finished our handwriting time (15 minutes or so), I let my children walk around and look at other pairs’ sheets. They return to their desks and I randomly select a few pupils who get to choose another pair that they think deserves praise (such as a cheer from everyone or a small reward like a team point).

TIP: Make sure to write one example of the words that are your focus onto the handwriting sheet as a model, just so your children don’t start in the wrong place on the lines (easy to do if you’re a child!). I HIGHLY recommend the amazing handwriting worksheet maker, available for free at:

http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

The nice thing with these handwriting worksheets is that they have the dotted middle line for guidance in terms of sizing upper and lowercase letters, but they’re not massively different in style from normal lined paper. This means your children should be able to translate their improved handwriting across to their regular writing easily.

TIP: Early finishers are generally moved onto individual reading OR they can be challenged to draw a picture of something they have learned today (with their partner) on the back of the handwriting sheet.

TIP: If you have an odd number of pupils then one group can work as a 3. Alternatively if you have a pupil who doesn’t need the practice you could have them skip this short activity and help with a classroom task.

TIP: I often set my children off on this task then call children up one at a time to read with me. While they are gone, their partner continues alone.

BONUS: One sheet between two means you only need to print 16 copies of a sheet to have enough for a 32-child class!

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