Top 5 reasons we should not stop handwriting in schools (and ICT resources to help!)

Earlier this month handwriting was in the news as the state of Indiana dropped the requirement for children to learn cursive handwriting. At first I could kind of see their point- if I did not work in a school, the need for handwriting throughout my life would be greatly limited. However, on further reflection there are a few key reasons why handwriting should continue to be taught.

Top 5 reasons we should keep handwriting in schools
1) If you want to look arty and thoughtful to impress people then handwriting poetry in a battered journal is the only way- an iPad won't cut it.
2) It is lame to email thank-you letters.
3) In the event of a zombie apocalypse survivors computers will be useless and survivors will need handwriting to keep a record of humanity.
4) Cheques are here to stay.
5) We must keep handwriting to stop the greetings card industry from crumbling. E-cards are rubbish apart from Someecards (WARNING, some of these are definitely NSFW).

Handwriting resources
Now that we have established that handwriting is important, lets have a look at some of the free resources available to help. The handwriting section of Primary Resources has plenty of guidelines and paper to print out.

If you are using Smart Notebook, then the 'page recording' function can be a great way to demonstrate handwriting. Once you have recorded yourself writing a word, then you can leave it on loop, freeing you up to go around the room and check on children's progress. This Youtube video explains in more detail how to use the page recording function.

All about fonts
The best way of modelling handwriting is probably hand-write signs around the classroom and create worksheets manually. However, fonts in a handwritten style can be very useful and it is easy to find, download and install them. Sassoon Fonts are high quality cursive fonts including a fancy one that automatically and accurately joins up letters as you type. They are available for purchase in various bundles for use in a school.

There are also lots of free options available, I found some promising looking ones on Fontspace. When you download a font it will be in a compressed 'zip' file. Once you have extracted the file, you just need to right-click and choose 'install' (for Windows Vista and Windows 7). If you are on Windows XP you will need to copy the extracted file into your 'fonts' directory (usually found in /windows/fonts). For more help installing fonts watch this video from a helpful young man on Youtube.

D.I.Y. fonts
Another advanced option is to make your own font. Or challenge your students to make their own fonts. I'm sure there is a creative art/ICT/literacy lesson in there somewhere (design a font that your favourite Roald Dahl character might use). There are a number of paid options to do this, but I thought MyScriptFont looks fun and should suffice.

VoiceThread- share comments on a picture or text.

VoiceThread allows users to add their comments and annotations to a picture or piece of text. The comments can be typed or recorded using a microphone. If you type a comment, then it pops up at the side of the page in a speech bubble. Multiple users can look at and comment on the same picture at one time, and can read and listen to each others comments as they appear. The way comments pop up in real-time makes it a very engaging and fun way for children to collaborate and learn from each other's input.

VoiceThread takes a little bit of setting up before it can be used effectively in a classroom setting. First you need to register for an Educator Account by clicking here and filling in the forms. You will need to create password that the whole class can use to log in.

Identities
Once you have created the account, you need to create an 'identity' for each user you want to use VoiceThread. To do this you need to log into your account, click on the 'Myvoice' tab and then click on the arrow next to your email address:

Once you have done this you just click on 'Add an Identity' and then type a name. It will also ask you if you want to add a picture. If you do not want to put photos of the class on the website (although by default your VoiceThreads will be private), you could get your class to draw their own pictures to use for their identity. Adding a whole class and uploading their pictures can be a little time consuming, but it makes VoiceThread much more fun for them to use.

Creating a VoiceThread
Once you have done the boring parts- registering, and adding your 'identities', creating a VoiceThread is very straight-forward. You need to click on the word 'VoiceThread' at the top of the page. Then click on 'create'.

On this page you need to choose a picture file to upload for  your VoiceThread. You can also use pdf files, which is useful if you want your class to comment on some text. When the file is uploaded, you need to add a title and description.

Possible uses
Here are a few ideas of how VoiceThread could be used in the classroom. I have found that one of the main benefits is that it takes away the apprehension that quiet members of the class have when joining in with a class discussion.

• Descriptive or factual writing about a visual stimulus.
• Commenting on an extract from a book.
• Identifying text features.
• Collaborating to solve a problem.
• Peer assessment of written work or art work.

Please add your suggestions and comments below.

Myths and Legends: Create your own myths

On Myths and Legends you can watch and listen to a selection of myths and legends and then use the myth creator to make your own.

The website has a wide selection of myths told using a voice-over, text and a partly animated slideshow. It is especially good because it has lots of Myths and Legends from all over the UK. Some of them are a bit strange and a few might be too gruesome for younger children- so definately watch them before showing them to your class. I really liked the story of The Glass Knight (from Saffron Walden, Essex!).

You can search through a list of Myths or choose one from the interactive Myth Map.

Myth Maker
The most exciting part of the site is the Myth Maker tool. Children can create their own myth-stories by dragging and dropping settings and characters. The tool is really intuitive and easy to use. They can add text in speech bubbles and text boxes.

If you register your school on the site, then children will be able to save their work to continue later, and eventually to be published on the site.

Advanced Features
The site also has an option to create and upload your own to use as backgrounds or characters. This gives it the potential to be used for any literacy text type. If you have a microphone, you can also add audio commentary to each slide, so it could become a great speaking and listening excercise.

Wallwisher: collaborative notice board.

Wallwisher lets you create online noticeboards. It is very quick and easy to create a wall with a custom web address. Users can then log on and comment on the wall.

To create a wall, you need to choose a little picture to represent the topic (or upload your own). You also need to choose a title, pick a background colour and choose an address for your wall. You need to put in a name and email address. Wallwisher will send you a password to this address so you can log in and manage your wall later.

Once you have created the wall you need to give out the address. It might be a good idea to create a bit.ly shortcut so that children do not have to type in a long address.

 

Visitors to your wall, contribute by adding comments. These can be just text or could include images, audio or video they have found on the internet.

Fellow educational blogger Tom Barrett has put together a slideshow bringing together interesting ways of using wallwisher in the classroom.

Collaborative writing with Primary Pad

Primary Pad allows multiple children to work on the same document at the same time using the internet. As soon as anyone makes a change to the document, the change appears immediately on the computers of all the other users. There are two ways to use it.

1) Create Public Pad
If you go to the website and click on 'Create Public Pad' you can get started straight away. Primary Pad creates a unique web address for your new pad. So, if anyone else goes to that web address, then they will be working on the same document as you.

2) Use a Pro Account
By filling in a few details, you can create a 'Pro-account'. This allows you to create and manage as many 'Pads' as you like.

You could create a pad in advance of a lesson, with some text for editing, or some questions to be answered. Using a pro account you can add password protection, to ensure that only children who have the password can access and edit the documents you create.

Click on the slideshow below for a more detailed look at how Primary Pad works.

Create word clouds: Wordle

Wordle is a free website that allows you to create a pretty 'word cloud' from a selection of text. Here as a wordle I created by pasting in the poem 'We are going on a bear hunt'.

To create a Wordle you can copy and paste text form another website or document.

Another way to create a Wordle, is to type in your own words. I have found this to be a great, motivating way of getting children to come up with descriptive language or to create a bank of specialist vocabulary or key words to print out and use for reference.

We used Wordle to create a list of words to use instead of 'said' as part of our work in literacy on reported speech.


How to create a Wordle
1) Go to Wordle.net and click on 'Create'.
2) Put some words in (type them in or copy and paste). Click 'Go'.
3) Tweak your Wordle using the menus to change the way it looks and the words it includes (or just click 'randomise' until you get a Wordle you like!)
4) Print your Wordle.

How to save your Wordle
One annoying thing about Wordle is that it doesn not provide an option to save a copy of your Wordle on your computer.

If you are using an interactive whiteboard you can click on 'print' and then change your printer to your interactive whiteboard to get a copy on there.

To save the Worldle as a picture file on your computer you need to click 'print screen' on your keyboard and then click paste in Paint, or an alternative image editing program.

Online brain-storming: Bubbl.us

On-line tools can provide a great, motivating way for children to collect and organise their ideas about a subject. Here is one that I have been using in various subjects.

Bubbl.us

This free web tool allows users to easily create simple, attractive and effective diagrams made up of 'bubbles' to organise

ideas. The 'bubbles' can be edited to change their colour, size using simple buttons aound the edge of each bubble. The finished document can then be printed out or saved as a PDF file.

Possible uses

You could use Bubbl.us collect a classes ideas and conceptions about a subject, or you could create a linear set of bubbles to map out the plot of a story.

Collaboration

Bubbl.us can be used without logging in, although creating an account allows you to save your diagrams to the website and share them with other Bubbl.us users. Perhaps you could collaborate with another class on the same Bubbl.us document by setting up two class accounts.