* developmental considerations and preparing the child

* the reference tools used to teach penmanship

* how to teach cursive penmanship to beginning or transitioning writers

* how to use the Practice Sheets

* detecting visual and perceptual problems

* utilize narrow ruled, dotted lines for practice

* provide brief and specific practice of phonograms under current study

* teach lower case letters separately from capital letters

* teach connections between letters from the very beginning and in the natural context of multiletter phonograms

* provide solid and dotted line models for writing, but quickly wean the student from tracing to more active learning and writing

* includes instructional dialogue for writing the phonograms and sample of cursive writing

* ready to cut apart and laminate for durability

* includes instruction cards for teaching numerals and cursive letters

* printed on yellow cardstock to differentiate them from other phonogram or spelling rule cards

EFFICIENT PAPER USE   Most penmanship books have page after page of beautifully illustrated practice sheets with very little room for actual writing practice. Kathy Libby has said, "Perhaps large American educational publishers, those that provide expensive, beautiful, four-color practice books, ought to reevaluate the quality of their materials. I observe that the amount of actual practice per page is reduced by colorful cute pictures, robbing attention and space from the goal of developing fluent cursive" (Francis, 2000). Every practice page in Cursive First is completely dedicated to practicing penmanship without wasting paper or distracting young writers with busy pictures.

PHONOGRAMS ORDERED FOR MOTOR PATTERN REINFORCEMENT   Other manuals introduce the letters in alphabetical order, but knowing the alphabetical order is important for dictionary work, not for learning how to write them. In Cursive First, the letters are introduced according to the first strokes used to form the letter, thus reinforcing new motor patterns.

LOWER-CASE LETTERS TAUGHT SEPARATELY   The prevailing practice with penmanship books is to teach capital letters on the same page as their lower-case partners. According to Spalding, the student needs to have learned the lower-case letters well before being introduced to the capital letters (Spalding, 1990). Hilde Mosse also warned, "The best way to teach writing from kindergarten on is to use one style of letters only." (Mosse, 1982) Capital letters are used much less frequently than their lower-case partners. Also, by delaying the teaching of capitals, we demonstrate to the child that English has rules which dictate where the capitals are required. The lower-case letters are introduced in Cursive First before capital letters are taught. The exception to this rule is teaching children the capital letters that start their names.

CLOCKFACE REFERENCE TOOL USE   No other manuals for cursive incorporate the clockface as a directional teaching device. This crucial element of Spalding's method for writing instruction was too valuable to lose. The clockface is used in Cursive First for writing the first six phonograms, several of the numerals, and as a reference point for many other letters.

MORE THAN A COPYBOOK   Many penmanship books amount to nothing more than copybooks with little or no instructions to guide the student or teacher. Libby noticed that instead of teaching handwriting skills, most workbooks use the instruction set known as "trace and write," leaving the children to figure out the starting and stopping points of letters (Francis, 2000). Cursive First offers detailed instructions for the teacher to ensure that the student is properly taught the penmanship skills necessary to a fluent, neat and legible cursive hand.

NARROW-RULED PRACTICE PAGES   Penmanship publishers use wide-lined paper for Kindergartners and first graders with narrower lines for older students. Contrary to popular opinion, writing on larger spaced lines is harder for young children than writing on narrower lined paper. Larger lines require greater control of the writing instrument to maneuver the larger space and is more of a drawing than a writing activity (Spalding, 1990). Young children can use smaller lined paper and excel at it. The lines in Cursive First are 7/16" (11 mm), narrower than usually found in writing paper for young children. The narrower lines also make these practice pages appropriate for all ages wanting to learn cursive penmanship.

COST-EFFECTIVE & REPRODUCIBLE   Penmanship instruction is typically packaged in expensive consumable workbooks. Cursive First offers the teacher practice pages to copy for all of her students as many times as needed so that mastery of the letters and multiletter phonograms can be achieved. Teachers can use pages in the order presented or pull out sheets that meet the individual needs of a particular student. Some sheets will need to be duplicated more than once whereas others may not be used at all. Cursive First provides the teacher greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

NUMERAL WRITING INSTRUCTION   A kindergarten student not only must master the skill of writing his letters and words, but must also be a fluent writer of his numerals for arithmetic. The marking system used in Spell to Write and Read (SWR) incorporates numbers to indicate phonogram sounds and the spelling rules used within a word. The student is expected to write these soon after formal instruction in SWR has begun. Most penmanship workbooks ignore numerals, leaving that to the math workbooks to teach. The problem with this segregation of skills is that many of the same writing skills that help a child become fluent in his letters are also necessary for numerals. Cursive First includes instructions for teaching the young student how to write numerals and suggests using this context for beginning penmanship practice.

WISE GUIDE COORDINATION   Cursive First was designed to coordinate specifically with the phonograms used in SWR and with the order of presentation for the multiletter phonograms found in the companion book The WISE Guide. This penmanship manual goes beyond teaching the letters of the alphabet to incorporate the practice of penmanship within the context of the 70 most common phonograms of the English language.

TEACHING TOOLS INCORPORATION   Finally, unlike other copybooks, Cursive First includes a set of cards to assist the instructor in teaching the numerals and phonograms. The cards can be used within reading and spelling lessons to further reinforce the sound-symbol relationship.