I can't believe it sometimes (and neither can my pint size students). They work so extremely hard - and have made such incredible gains in what they have accomplished that there are times when they are in complete denial over what they had done just a few months prior.
One of these most recent occurrences happened with a student whose mother stated that "he needs help with his handwriting.." We started him in a research based program over five months ago and each week - focused on one skill (and a few letters at a time) that would help him with not only his penmanship - but with his confidence. We even had a very adult conversation about penmanship where I told him that even though he does not think it now - it is important to have good penmanship. He asked me, "Well, what do you mean? Why do I need to have good penmanship?". I told him that penmanship was like spelling - "you take it for granted unless you see someone that it really bad at it.." After that quick conversation, it was if his penmanship took a life of its' own.
Many weeks went by where he would practice- and practice different strokes until he became more cognizant of what good penmanship was like. Just a few weeks ago, he even made a comment that the class was taking a crash course in penmanship and even compared his own letters with that of his teachers. Normally I expect this critical nature out of the middle school and high school students that I groom for success - but I don't mind having them start just a few years ahead of schedule.
As we were wrapping up a working session, I looked into my binder to look for a few samples of what his writing looked like before. I try not to look at these artifacts as it might hinder my perception of how far along a student has come. Before I showed the student the "drafts" I grinned aimlessly knowing that he would not be able to recognize "himself". I turned to the left and said, "Look at this. What do you make of this person's writing?". He was rather apathetic when he reviewed his own writing and said, "Whoa - this person has no attention to detail - look at the horrible lines and lack of spacing that he has from letter to letter. I can't believe that this student wasn't able to write his own name."
When he was done talking, I asked if he knew whose writing that was. He said to me, "How should I know - his name isn't even on the piece of paper. His handwriting is so sloppy." I laughed and said, "Stop insulting yourself - this was you five months ago!"
One of these most recent occurrences happened with a student whose mother stated that "he needs help with his handwriting.." We started him in a research based program over five months ago and each week - focused on one skill (and a few letters at a time) that would help him with not only his penmanship - but with his confidence. We even had a very adult conversation about penmanship where I told him that even though he does not think it now - it is important to have good penmanship. He asked me, "Well, what do you mean? Why do I need to have good penmanship?". I told him that penmanship was like spelling - "you take it for granted unless you see someone that it really bad at it.." After that quick conversation, it was if his penmanship took a life of its' own.
Many weeks went by where he would practice- and practice different strokes until he became more cognizant of what good penmanship was like. Just a few weeks ago, he even made a comment that the class was taking a crash course in penmanship and even compared his own letters with that of his teachers. Normally I expect this critical nature out of the middle school and high school students that I groom for success - but I don't mind having them start just a few years ahead of schedule.
As we were wrapping up a working session, I looked into my binder to look for a few samples of what his writing looked like before. I try not to look at these artifacts as it might hinder my perception of how far along a student has come. Before I showed the student the "drafts" I grinned aimlessly knowing that he would not be able to recognize "himself". I turned to the left and said, "Look at this. What do you make of this person's writing?". He was rather apathetic when he reviewed his own writing and said, "Whoa - this person has no attention to detail - look at the horrible lines and lack of spacing that he has from letter to letter. I can't believe that this student wasn't able to write his own name."
When he was done talking, I asked if he knew whose writing that was. He said to me, "How should I know - his name isn't even on the piece of paper. His handwriting is so sloppy." I laughed and said, "Stop insulting yourself - this was you five months ago!"
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