MORE: Gov. Kasich signs bill to encourage schools to teach cursive handwriting
The goal of House Bill 58, which was was signed by then-Governor John Kasich last year and went into effect on March 20, is for students to be able to print letters and words by third grade and write legibly in cursive by fifth grade.
The law requires the state to make instructional materials on cursive part of its “model curriculum,” but lets local schools decide whether they’ll teach all, some or none of it.
As a visitor winds down the hall in Oakwood Harman Elementary School to Tina Bennett’s second-grade classroom, several eager students push by with pen and paper in hand ready for instruction.
“Would you rather use cursive or print?” Bennett quizzes a young student, to which he replies, “cursive.”
Bennett, who has been teaching in Oakwood for 25 years, explains that the new law reinforces something she feels always has been needed. Plus, with the grip modern technology has on students, learning to write cursive is more important now.
“I think it is important that students know how to write their signature as they get older and to read cursive as they get older,” Bennett said.
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She said it is fun to see students get engaged to learn something new and cursive offers the opportunity to teach something at an age where kids have more of an appreciation to learn.
“In second grade, they are so excited to learn cursive. They come in and say, ‘when are we going to learn cursive?’” Bennett said. “It is amazing to watch them do the cursive. Even the children who don’t have the best printed handwriting are doing an awesome job with cursive, and they are so proud of themselves.”
The Ohio Department of Education is overseeing the cursive curriculum’s implementation, and school districts will be able to update materials periodically. Oakwood has been using “Handwriting Without Tears - Kickstart Cursive.”
Library media liaison Holly Ford likes to say that keyboarding is the modern version of what older residents may remember as typing class. Hands on the home row and no “search and pecking,” or “using the thumbs,” in order to finish work.
“We do keyboarding as part of the student’s library time,” Ford said, adding that first through sixth graders get keyboarding experience. “This is the modern-day typing class. We are trying to instill the good habits now of learning the proper keys and finger strokes at an early age because tablets and phones have created this thumb typing kind of thing.”
Ford uses a program similar to what is used to teach cursive, called “Keyboarding Without Tears.”
“It makes learning keyboarding like a game in the beginning,” she said. “It gets their interest, and the better they do, they get awards and they just pick up their learning level each year.”
Ford explained that for college preparation and the job market, it is imperative for students to have decent keyboarding and handwriting skills.
“You have to have those skills to be successful,” she said. “We feel like by starting in first grade, students will get those basic keyboarding skills by sixth grade.”
The class also offers a Digital Citizenship component that teaches online safety, being responsible online, privacy factors, copyright issues and plagiarism.
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