Handwriting workshop for class VI

Handwriting activates the brain more than keyboarding because it involves more complex motor and cognitive skills. Many standardised assessments are based on written work, particularly in time-limited written examinations. Without fast and legible handwriting, students miss out on learning opportunities, under- achieve and may fall behind. Keeping this in mind, our School provided an opportunity to the students of class VI to attend a handwriting workshop on 23 October to ease their transition from writing with a pencil in class V to writing with a pen in class VI.

It was a one-hour workshop that started at 8:30 am and was attended by approximately 180 students of class VI. It aimed at enabling the children to write with clarity and speed. The trainers started the workshop by distributing a gel pen and an activity sheet to each child present. As a warm up exercise, the children were given five minutes to replicate text printed on the activity sheet in their own handwriting. Some children were quick to finish in 2 minutes, others took 3-5 minutes and some longer. The ones who finished writing in less than two minutes and neatly, received appreciation as a Fast Writers card from the trainers. This was followed by another activity of writing 20 words in a minute.

The children were then given a practice session on stroke formation for letters c and d, using three zones- the upper, middle and lower zones, using the cursive style of handwriting.

Body posture and the surface used for writing plays an important role in determining the neatness and speed of handwriting. For example, a left-handed child should keep the arm and sheet in a slanting position for better results. The grip of the pen is also important to determine the speed with which you write. Children were shown how to use the thumb and index finger to hold the pen and use the middle finger only to support it.

The session approached its end by a demo of simple exercises for the fingers and hand to strengthen the muscles to help improve speed.

Dheevam Singh and Ayaan Nath, VI-E.