Cursive Handwriting (Ages: 11-14)

Learn to write in cursive. Cursive has many benefits to learners. Research shows writing by hand compared to typing uses many different regions in the brain. Handwriting  improves memory & recall, as well as helps students learn the information they handwrite in their notes. These articles are at the end of this description if you want to know more. 

I will be teaching more of an American Cursive that is closely related to the Palmer Method and Business Penmanship. I have included, on my listing, pictures for this class to show some different examples of what this beautiful, handwritten cursive looks like to showcase this cursive for you to see. 

I will be guiding students on the basic foundation for cursive to help them learn cursive and on how to write the lowercase and uppercase letters. I will guide students on how to connect letters. Many words are provided for practice too. Students will learn how to hold their pencil correctly (for left and right handed writers), to have the correct posture while writing, to position the paper correctly (left and right handed writers), and write the letters correctly, etc. 

Typical Class:
Welcome
A brief warm up.
Demonstration and guidance in the lesson for the day using the lesson worksheets.
Review will start in the 2nd class (After the first class we will have any review questions from the previous lesson). 
Class is finished for the day. 

Course Overview:

PDF Lesson Worksheets included (highly recommended to print off prior to each class). These lessons worksheets are used during class.

A few challenges during the course. Beginner challenges are super simple and recommended to complete. Intermediate-Advanced challenges are optional to do, but highly recommended. 

There are two required cursive writing assessments. The directions and a grading rubric is included in a separate PDF for the cursive writing assessment. I will discuss the cursive writing assessment in class before they are due a week later. Assessments will be completed outside of class. Students hand in their assessments, as a photo of their paper, through the Outschool messages/conversations, so I may grade the assessments. Please make sure the photo of their cursive writing assessment is NOT blurry. -Thank you. 

PDF fun writing paper - bonus writing paper

All PDF's are in both US Document Print and A4 Print Sizes

Daily practice of 10-20 minutes per day is highly recommended to make the most out of this class. Practice is required outside of class, it will not be enough to only attend the classes, students will need to practice writing in cursive outside of class. 

I give positive feedback to students who send me a sample of their writing practice anytime during the course. This  is completely optional. Students send me a message, on the Outschool platform,  with their cursive writing practice, so I may see their cursive skills. This helps students make progress through specific guidance tailored to them individually, so I can help them improve their cursive writing. I am here to help students succeed in their cursive writing skills. 

I have created PDF lesson worksheets by scanning in my written cursive by hand and used software to create a PDF specific for my lesson plan. I have created a cursive course that is very specific in the way I teach cursive to build upon the skills they have learned from each class. 

I do include a paper with some inspirational sentences later on in the course (completely optional if they write these, as they won't be written in class. However, it gives some inspiration to the students, perhaps, and so students have a different writing to work on if they choose to write any of these sentences). 
A few examples of the sentences in the PDF: 
- I use challenges as a way to grow. 
- You can do this. 
- Small steps everyday. 

Writing helps not only keep notes, etc., but also helps us communicate to others and when writing by hand it's important to have legible handwriting.  

I learned cursive writing and it has remained my preferred writing method into adulthood. In a digital age, I strive to keep the tradition of writing by hand alive. I believe in the timeless beauty of handwritten scripts. 

Teacher hours:  MDT    Monday - Friday    9 a.m. - 4 p.m.  
Please contact me with any questions or help with any of my classes. I respond within 24 hours and usually sooner to any questions. 

Why Cursive Handwriting Is Good for Your Brain (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain).
Connecting Writing to the Brain, Literacy, and Technology (https://nild.org/resources/connecting-writing-to-the-brain-literacy-and-technology).
Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/11/1250529661/handwriting-cursive-typing-schools-learning-brain).