Every student has a basis of knowledge that she builds off of as she learns new information. Your child may already know how to write letters, some words or even complete sentences. You must determine how much knowledge your student already has about handwriting before planning tasks in this area. Once you have accomplished this, provide handwriting tasks for your child that will strengthen that skill and knowledge and then challenge her to improve. For example, if your child already has acquired skills in writing her name in cursive, provide a list of nouns to be written in cursive, each with a capital letter.
Once you begin teaching handwriting you must include it in your curriculum every day. Handwriting should, therefore, be used in all subject areas for worksheets, essays, quizzes, tests and reports, as well as concentrated on for single-word responses. Consistency is important for your child to increase skill and master it.
Before you begin teaching handwriting be sure that you have the tools needed to complete your task. Purchase handwriting pads that have predrawn lines for both cursive capital letters and cursive small letters. You will also want to develop or locate worksheets for handwriting that allow your child to progress through the alphabet, writing each of the letters in lowercase and in capital form. In addition, post a chart demonstrating the complete alphabet in cursive, preferably with the letters outlined in arrows that show the flow of the cursive lines.
In any form of learning it is important for the student to be involved in the evaluation process. This is because through a discussion with the student of what achievements he has made and what he needs to improve upon, the student will understand his own progress. Moreover, the student will also develop and understanding of what he needs to do to improve, which should be determined by both you and your students. In handwriting the student may have trouble forming certain letters on paper. In this instance the logical plan for improvement is for the student to have more practice time working with writing those letters as a means of developing skill.