In my classroom writing is taught as it’s own subject. I usually come in right as writing lessons are starting, and I’ve seen a good variety of activities and strategies from my CT. Last week for example, I came in to see a giant hand outline up on the overhead with every student outlining their hand. This was an activity to teach the students about having a main idea (the thumb) and then ideas and thoughts supporting that first idea (each finger) written into the digits. I thought that this was a clever way to present this concept and the students seemed to be responding. I have also seen her explicitly teaching each step of the writing process to the students, which is not as exciting but is effective. For myself personally I have had opportunities to assist the students with their writing during these sessions. I have led a few activities in writing as well as I have worked one on one with the students several times to help further their writing skills.
I think handwriting is very important now that I have been in a second grade class. I have terrible handwriting and I did not think about how I myself need to improve my own handwriting until this year. There is a lot that goes into it that not even I thought of. Like you said the position of the fingers on the pencil and the wrist placement. I have no idea how mine got so bad and never improved. I think it is because how much computers came into play when I was in school and we just started typing everything. I think that even though computers are faster and neater handwriting is something that should not be forgotten and should still be taught.
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