April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
WRITING, TYPING, TEXTING
THE WRITE STUFF: Today's students struggle with handwriting
Writing has been replaced by texting, emailing and phone calls. Computers are in almost every school classroom. But is all this technology hindering the handwriting of future generations?
Teachers in Catholic schools around the Albany Diocese seem determined to keep students "writing on."
"A good balance is very important," said Noreen Harris, a third-grade teacher at St. Mary's/St. Alphonsus School in Glens Falls. "I think we can collaborate and put both technology and handwriting to great use."
Mrs. Harris uses computers in the classroom to teach lessons on the geography of the United States and believes "technology is great" - but she also makes sure that her students write every day, stating that "handwriting is vital in literacy development. You have to practice letter development, slant and formation.
"It is very important that we don't give away that skill," she stated.
Online and in writing
Karla Eichelberger agrees. The third-grade teacher at St. Kateri Tekakwitha School in Schen-ectady uses technology to track current events: "When Bishop [Edward B.] Scharfenberger became the bishop, we followed that [online]. When they were [electing] a new pope, we followed that."
Ms. Eichelberger also regulates the amount of time her students use computers. "They don't have access unless I put them on it," she said.
Eva Adams, a second-grader at St. Kateri's, told The Evangelist that writing isn't quite as much fun as typing: "It's a little faster than when you write."
However, Eva is looking to practice her handwriting more in the future. She's of the opinion that it would help her "write happier stories [with] happier endings."
For Kathryn Grimmich, an English/language arts teacher at All Saints Catholic Academy in Albany, having her students avoid the computer is beneficial: "Your ideas are very much yours when you're writing. You take more pride in your work when you write it; there's much more of a connection."
Area Catholic schools still start teaching handwriting early on. Even in pre-kindergarten, children learn "writing approximation," adding hand-drawn pictures to short, handwritten phrases, said Theresa Mueller, a second-grade teacher at St. Kateri's. Ms. Mueller enjoys looking at the results hanging in the hallways of the school.
Sloppy skills
After 30 years of teaching students from second to sixth grade, Ms. Mueller has noticed one particular change that technology has wrought on younger generations: Students "are relying on spell-check, and it isn't always foolproof."
Some children have "sloppy" handwriting, she added - although others "come in with these refined skills that has convinced me that we must have a human gene [for] neatness."
St. Kateri's second-grader Olivia Lanese tries to combat messy handwriting by practicing her skills outside of school, but admitted, "I only practice on Wednesdays."
Nine-year-old Mia Sanchez of St. Mary's/St. Alphonsus School is a fan of handwriting over typing: "I think I like handwriting better because you can express yourself more. You can write whatever you want."
She sees another advantage, too: "When you write, you can use a pencil, pen, crayon or marker!"
Teachers told The Evangelist they try to get students to take more pride in their work in order to encourage neatness. By high school, though, students are more adept at typing, making handwriting even more of a struggle.
Writing = learning
Thomas Stanton, the English department chair at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, enforces the "writing to learn" technique. By writing things down, he explained, students are better able to remember what they're learning. The teacher makes his students journal and write study guides.
"There's so much to be said for, 'Pen in hand, notebook in front,'" he said.
Although some of his students do have bad handwriting, Mr. Stanton believes that "there's something else going on. It's not just laziness."
In fact, poor handwriting can be related to a variety of disorders and conditions, including dyslexia, dysgraphia (impairment of writing ability caused by a brain injury or disease), autism, developmental coordination disorder, written language disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Ms. Mueller noted that, if students have such conditions, "a pencil could hold them back. Some children are more adaptable to using technology if it gets them to put their thoughts down. It just has to be used for the right purposes at the right time."
Although Mr. Stanton's high-schoolers have more technology close at hand than Ms. Mueller's second-graders, Mr. Stanton said that "I try my best to keep students from typing too much. It helps the students develop a stronger connection to the material."
Practice, practice, practice
Gabrielle Carota, a second-grader at St. Kateri's, agrees with that theory: "I can practice what we have to write about, [like] spelling words," she said. "It helps you learn to get better at writing." Many teachers stress the importance of handwriting through the draft process in a piece of written work. In Ms. Eichelberger's classroom, for instance, all drafts are handwritten until the student is ready to create a final, typed copy.
The teacher works with her students on sentence structure and making their voices clear in their written work: "They go through the whole writing process."
"I don't write as much in the summer, because I don't go to school as much," said Eva Adams, who is excited to get back into her writing routine in a few weeks.
"I hope that mankind will always use the writing hands that God gave them," Ms. Mueller told The Evangelist.[[In-content Ad]]
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