Drawing Children into Writing: Handwriting Development

Danielle L. DeFauw, Ph.D.daniellp@umich.edu

Michigan Reading Association 58th Annual ConferenceMarch 16, 2013

Background

• Drawing Children into Reading– Wendy Anderson Halperin, Illustrator

• Projects 50, 64, 120– Handwriting Development

• MRA 2014: Sunday, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.– River Overlook E, DeVos Place– Drawing Children Into Peace & Reading

• Research Purpose

Lesson Description

• Warm-Up Exercises• Modeling• Drawing• Coloring

In Students’ Words…

• “I draw alphabets and pictures.” (Elizabeth)• “I like to write letters and numbers and faces

and pictures.” (Eva)• “I like to write a picture.” (Julie)• “I draw like names or like write my house for my

mom.” (Otis)• “We need to draw our names with a pencil.”

(Tiffany)

Rationale & Theoretical Framework

• Students’ overall writing development, including writing fluency, writer’s craft, legibility, and sentence building skills are greatly supported when handwriting instruction is provided effectively.

Questions

• What is the effect of Project 50 on 3-5 year old students’ pencil grips, drawing abilities, handwriting, and details in writing?

• How did students’ writing craft change when focusing on details in drawings?

• How did teachers’ and families’ views change, if at all, concerning the use of drawing to support handwriting instruction?

Participant Selection

• 4 Great Start Readiness Program Teachers• 6 students from each room

– a male and a female at each level• high, average, low ranking

– District assessment data– Teachers’ anecdotal notes

Data Sources

Research Design

• Instrumental Case Study (Stake 2005)– 24 students– 4 teachers

• Constant Comparative Method (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)

• Consistently Reflective stance & Comparative Description (Stake, 2005)

Results

• What is the effect of Project 50 on 3-5 year old students’ pencil grips, drawing abilities, handwriting, and details in writing?– Handgrip Improvement

• “I really value the…children learning the correct pencil grip….That’s our largest goal of the program.” (S.)

• 6/20 students used tripod grip– 5 of them improved from pre to post

• 2/20 showed improvement, but no tripod grip

Results

• How did students’ writing craft change when focusing on details in drawings?– Teachers’ lesson plans did not allow for this

question to be explored.

Results

• How did teachers’ and families’ views change, if at all, concerning the use of drawing to support handwriting instruction?– Parents knew minimal details of the program.– Teachers stated they saw handgrip & handwriting

improvements.

Results

• Themes– Motivation– Explicit Language– Noticing Details– Fundamental Skills– Drawing Lesson Content

Motivation

• “We have noticed a very high interest level…able to focus…self-esteem.” (S.)

• “Students began freely going to writing center asking to use pencil and paper to create their own books with emergent writing and illustrations.” (A.)

• “He used to get really mad when it didn’t look the way he wanted it to look.” (E. – Parent)

Explicit Language

• “Expressive language is being modeled throughout the lessons.” (S.)

• “…new vocabulary…measurement words…small, medium, large…location words…between, behind, in front, beside, top, bottom, inside, outside, and back.” (A.)

Noticing Details

• “Awesome the way he picks colors for certain things.” (D. – Parent)

• “I noticed when she draws people, she’s very detailed.” (H. – Parent)

• “You could tell exactly what they drew.” (Sa.)

Fundamental Skills

• “So they learn how to actually pick [the pencil] up, pull it back, and grip it.” (S.)

• “I use the hand exercises daily to strengthen their muscles.” (Sa.)

• “I noticed that my students’ penmanship was much better by the end of the year than in the past year.” (A.)

Drawing Lesson Content

• “I learned balloons and pencils.” (Connor)• “Now we hold it with pincher fingers since it’s

much easier to hold it proud.” (Cynthia)• “Making your muscles more stronger.” (Cynthia)• “[We write] with pinchers and pillows.” (Jackie)• “Makes your hands exercise.” (Nathan)

Implications

• Focus on handwriting instruction• Support children’s fine motor skill development• Use drawing to transfer students’ abilities from

drawing to writing• Model instruction

A Question about Modeling

• “When the teacher showed us what to draw, it’s much easier but if she’s not telling us what to draw it’s really hard…you don’t really know what to draw so you have to think in your brain.” (Cynthia)

Next Steps

• When we teach students to add detail to their drawings, how does that impact their overall writing development especially regarding their revised writing?

• Because this study is the first step in a plan to study this topic longitudinally, in what ways will students’ writing improve due to a focus on adding details to their drawings? How will their understanding impact their use of details in their writing?

Switching Gears

• Let’s move from our discussion of the study to the literature review for handwriting instruction.

21st Century Handwriting Instruction

• Does handwriting instruction belong in the 21st century?– Should we teach students keyboarding instead?

• Gain fluency with keyboarding with practice.• Neatness is not an issue.• Physical task of handwriting is made easier through

keyboarding.

– What do you think?

21st Century Handwriting Instruction

• Does handwriting instruction belong in the 21st century?– YES

• Influences preschool and early elementary students’ literacy development, especially writing fluency.

Handwriting Is Necessary

• Handwriting influences students’ letter recognition skills (James, 2010). – Letter recognition skills impact

• Reading Development (James & Engelhardt, 2012)• Writing Development (Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou, &

Velay, 2005).

– Forming the letters supports them in reading the letters (Longcamp, Anton, Roth, & Velay, 2003).

Handwriting Is Necessary

• Students need to form letters freely– Errors are crucial in supporting their reading of the

letters. – Brains make connections with the sensorimotor

action of handwriting that supports their understanding of the “important components that define a letter” (James & Engelhardt, 2012, p. 41).

Keyboarding is Limiting

• Does not permit students to use handwriting to form the letters

• Does not provide the visual support, motor movements, and kinesthetic learning required to support 4 and 5 year-olds’ acquisition of letter naming (Longcamp et al., 2005).

Longer & Higher-Quality Writing

• Even in studies comparing children’s text input methods, handwriting, whether with pencil and paper or on a computer tablet, allowed 7 and 8 year-olds to produce longer and higher-quality writing than keyboarding (Read, 2007).

Early Handwriting Instruction

• Should begin in kindergarten (Edwards, 2003; Graham, 2009-10) and extend through first grade (Graham, 2009-10)

• Better yet, begin with drawing instruction in preschool (Smith & Smith, 2011).

• Must acquire handwriting fluency by the end of second grade, preferably earlier (Graham, 2009-10) so they can pay attention to the other components of the writing process such as organizing, composing, and reflecting (Wagner et al., 2011).

Handwriting is foundational.

• Process of handwriting is not fluent– Consider how to hold the writing utensil and form the

letters legibly. – Such mental activity leaves little room for developing

the thoughts behind the writing (McCutchen, 1996),• Thoughts are forgotten as students spend so much time

with the act of handwriting (Cahill, 2009; Graham, 2009-10; Sheridan, 2001).

Drawing Instruction

• Natural motivation to draw– Playful meaning making– “Drawing is writing” for our youngest learners (Horn

& Giacobbe, 2007, p. 3).

• Shift from drawing things to words (Vygotsky, 1978)– Drawings include meaningful scribbles

Drawing Instruction

• Supports stamina development for writing workshop

• Students can be taught to make meaning apparent in their drawings (Halperin, 2011a, 2011b, & 2011c; Horn & Giacobbe, 2007) by attending to drawing details (Ray, 2010).

Drawing Details

• Create stick-figure people with ovals and then add clothing details to the ovals

• Add detail to a specific setting or experience• Detail the single most important part of a

drawing• Use color to show emotion and detail• Use shapes to draw objects• Vary the perspective of the viewer’s eyes

Handwriting Curriculum

• Drawing Into Reading (Halperin, 2011a, 2011b, & 2011c)– Preschool to 1st grade

• Graham (2009-10)– http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/docs/pdf/sped/CASL

%20Handwriting%20Program.pdf

CASL Handwriting Program (Graham & Harris, n.d.; Graham 2009-10)

• Provides an effective handwriting curriculum for kindergarten to second grade.– 9 units with a total of 27 lessons designed for

kindergarten and first grade (Graham & Harris, n.d.) and as an intervention for second grade.

– Teachers provide explicit instruction through modeling letter identification, letter formation, and pencil grip.

Handwriting Instruction Foci

• Identify letters and appropriately write those letters (Berninger et al., 1997; Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2000).

• See the teacher model the writing of letters, identify the letter names, copy the letters by following arrow-marked cues, and write the letters from memory (Berninger et al., 1997).

• Encourage appropriate paper positioning and pencil grips (Graham & Weintraub, 1996).

Pencil Grip

• Standard tripod grip and position paper appropriately (Graham, 1999)– Strengthens students’ hand muscles so later

interventions will not be necessary (Cahill, 2009)– Boys, especially, who do not have the muscle

development in their hands to support fine motor skill development will experience physical fatigue when attempting to write (Fletcher, 2006)

• Hampers legibility and writing fluency (McCutchen, 1996)

Legibility & Fluency

• Writing fluency is causally related to legibility of handwriting (Graham et al., 2000).

• The longer students struggle with developing legible handwriting, the more their self-esteem and motivation to write are impacted due to negative feedback (Fletcher, 2006).

• The more challenging it is to create legible handwriting, the less likely students will produce writing.

Legibility & Fluency

• Quality and quantity of writing suffers (Wagner et al., 2011) as students tackle writing through a knowledge-telling strategy.

• Writing formative and summative assessment scores (Graham & Weintraub, 1996) are negatively impacted by illegible handwriting.– Readers view illegible handwriting negatively and

score accordingly (Graham, 1999).

Conclusion

• Handwriting provides the foundation of students’ overall writing development.

• Students need drawing instruction that leads to explicit handwriting instruction to support letter identification / formation, legibility, and writing fluency.

• With improved handwriting, students are able to produce a high quantity of increasingly high-quality writing.

References

• Berninger, V. W., Vaughan, K. B., Abbott, R. D., Abbott, S. P., Rogan, L. W., Brooks, A., . . . Graham, S. (1997). Treatment of handwriting problems in beginning writers: Transfer from handwriting to composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(4), 652-666.

• Cahill, S. M. (2009). Where does handwriting fit in? Strategies to support academic achievement. Intervention in School and Clinic, 44(4), 223-228.

• Edwards, L. (2003). Writing instruction in kindergarten: Examining an emerging area of research for children with writing and reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 36(2), 136-148.

• Fletcher, R. (2006). Boy writers: Reclaiming their voices. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.• Gerde, H. K., Bingham, G. E., & Wasik, B. A. (2012). Writing in early childhood classrooms: Guidance for best

practices. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40, 351-359. doi: 10.1007/s10643-012-0531-2• Graham, S. (2009-10). Want to improve children’s writing? Don’t neglect their handwriting. American Educator,

20-27, 40.• Graham, S. (1999). Handwriting and spelling instruction for students with learning disabilities: A review.

Learning Disability Quarterly, 22(2), 78-98.• Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (n.d.). CASL handwriting program (Grade 1). Retrieved 2/28/13 from

http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/docs/pdf/sped/CASL%20Handwriting%20Program.pdf • Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Fink, B. (2000). Is handwriting causally related to learning to write? Treatment of

handwriting problems in beginning writers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(4), 620-633.

References Cont.

• Graham, S., Harris, K. R., Mason, L, Fink-Chorzempa, B., Moran, S. & Saddler, B. (2008). How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 21, 49-69. doi: 10.1007/s11145-007-9064-2

• Graham, S., & Weintraub, N. (1996). A review of handwriting research: Progress and prospects from 1980 to 1994. Educational Psychology Review, 8(1), 7-87.

• Halperin, W. A. (2011a). Project 50 preschool manual. Available from Drawing Children into Reading, 76990 14th Avenue, South Haven, MI 49090.

• Halperin, W. A. (2011b). Project 64 kindergarten manual. Available from Drawing Children into Reading, 76990 14th Avenue, South Haven, MI 49090.

• Halperin, W. A. (2011c). Project 120 first grade manual. Available from Drawing Children into Reading, 76990 14th Avenue, South Haven, MI 49090.

• Hart, N. V., Fitzpatrick, P., & Cortesa, C. (2010). In-depth analysis of handwriting curriculum and instruction in four kindergarten classrooms. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 23, 673-699. doi: 10.1007/s11145-009-9178-6

• Horn, M., & Giacobbe, M. E. (2007). Talking, drawing, writing: Lessons for our youngest writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

• James, K. H. (2010). Sensori-motor experience leads to changes in visual processing in the developing brain. Developmental Science, 13(2), 279-288. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00883.x

• James, K. H., & Engelhardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1, 32-42. doi: 10.1016/j.tine.2012.08.001

References Cont.

• Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.• Longcamp, M., Anton, J-L., Roth, M., & Velay, J-L. (2003). Visual presentation of single letters activates a

premotor area involved in writing. NeuroImage, 19, 1492-1500. doi: 10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00088-0• Longcamp, M., Zerbato-Poudou, M-T., & Velay, J-L. (2005). The influence of writing practice on letter

recognition in preschool children: A comparison between handwriting and keyboarding. Acta Psychologica, 119, 67-79. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2004.10.019

• McCutchen, D. (1996). A capacity theory of writing: Working memory in composition. Educational Psychology Review, 8(3), 299-325.

• Puranik, C. S., & AlOtaiba, S. (2012). Examining the contribution of handwriting and spelling to written expression in kindergarten children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 1523-1546. doi: 10.1007/s11145-011-9331-x

• Ray, K. W. (2010). In pictures and in words: Teaching the qualities of good writing through illustration study. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

• Read, J. C. (2007). A study of the usability of handwriting recognition for text entry by children. Interacting with Computers, 19, 57-69. doi: 10.1016/j.intcom.2006.08.009

• Sheridan, S. R. (2001). The neurological significance of children’s drawings: Scribble hypothesis. Journal of Visual Literacy, 22(2), 107-128.

• Smith, M. L., & Smith, R. L. (2011). Drawing children into reading: A study of art lessons’ effects on literacy. Michigan Reading Journal, 44(1), 11-19.

References Cont.

• Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative researcher (3rd ed., pp. 443-466). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Vygotsky, L. (1978). The mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Wagner, R. K., Puranik, C. S., Foorman, B., Foster, E., Wilson, L. G., Tschinkel, E, & Kantor, P. T. (2011). Modeling the development of written language. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 24, 203-220. doi: 10.1007/s11145-010-9266-7