Handwriting Without Tears Training
Penmanship Training for Teachers and Pediatric OTs
Handwriting Without Tears Two-Day Workshops provide professional development for educators and Occupational Therapists who teach writing readiness, print and cursive.
The Handwriting Without Tears curriculum was developed by Occupational Therapist and Handwriting Specialist Jan Z. Olsen in 1977 after her son came home in tears over handwriting at school. The OT strategies she used at that time with her son and with other students when volunteering in her son's first grade classroom became the foundation of her Handwriting Without Tears program, which has grown to become the most widely used curriculum among OT professionals who tutor handwriting.
Handwriting Without Tears workshops are available in major cities throughout the year for educators, OT professionals and others who tutor penmanship how to use a multisensory, developmentally appropriate approach to handwriting instruction. Individual school groups may also request specific training to meet their needs. Often, a two-day workshop is presented handwriting readiness stressed on the first day and print/cursive emphasized on the second. Attendees may choose to attend both days or
Pre-K Handwriting Readiness Workshop
A major element of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum is readiness. For this reason, the first day of the two-day Handwriting with Tears workshop includes a full 3.25 contact hours dedicated to professionals who work with preschool and kindergarten students.
The training is intensive. Research is provided at every turn so that attendees match science with pedagogy. However, the workshop also shows how much fun young students will have preparing to write. Workshop participants move and sing to music from the Get Set for School Sing Along CD featuring songs that encourage body awareness and kinesthetic learning.
Because handwriting is a complex process workshop leaders stress that, in order to obtain mastery, young children must develop the following:
- A reasonable attention span
- A proper crayon grip
- Fine motor control
- Correct posture, strength and endurance
- Use helping hand to secure the paper
To that end, the pre-K level uses tools to support that development. For instance curved and straight woodpieces, Roll-A-Dough letters (TM) and Stamp and See Screens(TM) are used along with whole body activities and the "Wet-Dry-Try" technique on a HWT slate before students ever put pencil to paper.
Printing and Cursive Training
The second day of the two-day schedule includes seven contact hours dedicated to teaching print and cursive to kindergarten and elementary students. Participants review developmental stages and strategies but quickly move on to capital letters.
HWT begins with capital letters because they they all begin at the top, all are the same height, all occupy the same vertical space and are familiar to most children. The Kindergarten Teacher's Guide concludes, "Learning capitals first makes learning lowercase a breeze. Think about it: c o s v w x y z are the same as capitals; j k t and u are also similar to their capital partners. If we teach capitals correctly, we have already prepared children for nearly half of the lowercase alphabet."
Again, the HWT tools are used; however, a double line blackboard large enough for print or cursive words and the faster paced Rock, Rap and Tap CD are integrated into the learning.
Participants leave the Workshop armed with fun and effective strategies to prepare students for writing. Registration costs, which may vary, include a canvas HWT Logo bag, both CDs, each of the mentioned HWT tools and teacher's guides and texts to take instructors from Pre-K through cursive. Additionally, larger orders placed during the workshop may be exempt from shipping and handling.
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