January 23 celebrates National Handwriting Day. I admit my own handwriting has become worse as I have become more comfortable with a keyboard and screen than a pen and paper. But what about our kids? My own children prefer to type up their homework than write it. Is the art of handwriting to become a lost skill?

“Though computers and e-mail play an important role in our lives, nothing will ever replace the sincerity and individualism expressed through the handwritten word,” David H. Baker, WIMA’s Executive Director, is quoted as saying on the WIMA Web site.

For those interested in celebrating National Handwriting Day, TeacherVision offers downloadable activities for students in K-8.

As we increasingly turn to computers for writing purposes, is good handwriting still a skill that children need to learn?

Research by The National Literacy Trust on 3,001 children from England and Scotland showed that schoolchildren who blog or own social networking profiles on Facebook have higher literacy levels and greater confidence in writing.
The key objectives of the survey were to explore how much young people enjoy writing, what type of writing they engage in, how good at writing they think they are, what they think about writing and what the role of technology is in young people’s writing.
So what were the key findings?
75% of young people said that they write regularly. Technology-based formats were most frequently written. For example, 82% of young people wrote text messages at least once a month, 73% wrote instant messages (such as messages on AIM or MSN), and 63% wrote on a social networking site.
61 per cent of bloggers and 56 per cent of social networkers claimed to be good or very good at writing, compared to 47 per cent of those who had neither.
Pupils who write online are more likely to write short stories, letters, song lyrics or a diary, the research revealed.
Most young people said they used computers regularly and believed that computers are beneficial to their writing, agreeing that a computer makes it easier for them to correct mistakes (89%) and allows them to present ideas clearly (76%). Overall, nearly 60% of young people also believe that computers allow them to be more creative, concentrate more and encourage them to write more often.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said: “The digital age often gets a bad press but the findings of this report demonstrate that social networking sites and blogs are linked to young people’s more positive attitudes to writing. “Confidence and enjoyment are closely linked to the development of skills. Therefore, in order to improve standards we need to encourage children to write more and to enjoy writing, which could be supported by celebrating forms of writing they enjoy. Our research indicates that, for many, these are without doubt technology-based forms.”

Full report available here

Do you think computers are a help or a hinderance to children’s writing?

The NPD Group, in the USA, has released a new study called “Kids & Cross-Entertainment Behaviour Report”.  Some findings;

 

* Households that have kids under 12 account for 45% of total videogame industry sales.
* 57% of kids ages 2 to 12 play videogames.
* 62% of kids ages 2 to 12 use a computer for leisure activities outside of school work.
* There are 53.4 million kids ages 12 and under in the U.S.
* Kids under 12 account for 17% of the population of the United States.
* 75% of the tween group play videogames.
* 81% of the tween group use a computer for leisure activities outside of school.

 

Via VideoGameBlogger

 

A further study based in the EU demonstrated:

 

75% of European children are using the internet.

60% of children ages 6-10 ues the internet across Eurpope – this is as high as 87% in countries such as the UK.

By 2008, 6-17 year olds in all EC countries were much more likely to use the internet at home (65%) than school (57%) or anywhere else, and 34% are now going online using their own computer.

 

Livingstone, S, and Haddon, L (2009)

EU Kids Online: Final report. LSE, London: EU Kids Online.

(EC Safer Internet Plus Programme Deliverable D6.5)

 

So we might as well face up to the fact and start providing these kids with educational resources where they can learn whilst having fun.  With the ever increasing rise in young children using video games, technology and the internet we must strive to engage them on their ground. Let’s work with them not against them. 

 

I was recently reading a report by Ofsted [an independent education review body in the UK] about literacy trends in schools.
The report is available here.

“The gap between schools in their understanding of the uses of new technology partly reflected the very differing views that schools held about English, the changing nature of communication and pupils’ literacy needs in the 21st century. The most effective schools understood that ‘ICT has fundamentally altered… how we think about reading and writing’. As technology has changed, so the literacy needs of pupils change. This always involves adding new skills rather than simply replacing old ones.”

This is fundamental. We need to view the use of technology as beneficial to engaging students as well as adding to the skill set that they will require in the future. The skills required to read and enjoy a novel are different to those needed to skim emails, or text messages or extract pertinent data from an electronic report. However we cannot forget the basics. Reading and writing are skills, in my view, that need to remain no matter what technological advancements are made.

What do you think?

If the changes in education over the last 100 years had been as dramatic as the changes in medicine or industry over that time, what would our schools look like today?

What a great question and it certainly got me thinking.

The education system hasn’t really changed that much since the 1800’s. Yet advances in knowledge, technology and access to information has seen exponential growth. Our children are growing up in this environment. They are learning to access and use knowledge when and where they need it. Learning is not limited to learning within the boundaries of classrooms and school buildings, it is available 24/7.

Our current model of schooling is to bring the learner to the knowledge contained within the walls of the school building where experts tell and share information. The schools of tomorrow need to bring the knowledge to the learner. And that is not constrained by a location or building.

Do I think that schools will become a thing of the past and children will learn in isolated pods? Absolutely not. The true value of schools is that they support a community of learners, not only in their knowledge but in their social development too. So going to school won’t change, but how we educate our learners should harness the technological advancements available. So teachers can be a guide to learning, supporting enquiring minds, inspiring and working with the children to solve problems. The true beauty of a school community is that young minds can question, challenge and discuss to develop their knowledge further.

We cannot guess at how much the world will change in their lifetimes, as change is an exponential graph, but we can make sure that our education is preparing children for this change.

I was recently reading a book about what affects literacy skills in young children and I thought I’d share some of the key research findings I came across.

The critical point that was made was that learning to read and write begins long before the school years. Research shows that the attitudes of adults who interact regularly with children have a huge influence the attitude of children learning to read (DeBaryshe, 1995; Baker et al., 1995; Spiegel, 1994). A number of factors affect these interactions, including the parents’ own attitudes towards reading, the children’s motivation for reading, the opportunities parents provide their children and how they behave, as well as the parents’ own reading and literacy ability levels.

So what does the research say? Here are a few excerpts.

Parents who believe that reading is a source of entertainment have children with a more positive view about reading than do parents who emphasize the skills aspect of reading development (Baker et al., 1997).

Children who view school learning as irrelevant to life outside school are less motivated to invest time and effort in learning to read (Purcell-Gates, 1994; Stipek et al., 1995).

When parents are responsive and ”chatty” during shared reading, improvements in their children’s skills have been recorded (e.g., Whitehurst et al., 1994).

Parents who believe their children are interested in reading are more likely to provide reading activities than parents who do not see such interest (Hiebert, 1981).

Enthusiasm about reading is suggested by many researchers as a route to development of the child’s active engagement in reading (Snow and Tabors, 1996; Baker et al., 1995).

Activities such as family storybook reading promote positive feelings about books and literacy (Taylor and Strickland, 1986).

Mealtime conversation helps children acquire knowledge about narratives when family members recount the day’s activities, giving children an experience of value in learning about language and communication (Snow and Tabors, 1993).

So some simple steps can promote reading skills in your children:
• talk to your children,
• share books,
• be enthusiastic about reading,
• chat about the books they are reading,
• be seen to enjoying reading yourself.

Simple really isn’t it?

I was reading an article about one Headmistress’s view that education has become so focused on getting children through exams that the very passion or enjoyment for the subject has been lost.

Full article here.

In education surely we should be focused on engaging children’s minds and encouraging them to question whilst also learning the skills to apply the knowledge? Not to simply learn strategies to pass exams. We should be allowing our educators the freedom to inspire their pupils, not to be constrained to the teaching of skills and content to meet targets.

Education is a gift for a lifetime. The skills learnt need to be ones that can be applied throughout their life, not just to pass another hurdle in the education system. The ability to assimilate information, to question, to extract relevant material and apply it in a variety of settings are skills that are needed throughout life. The passing of exams is a natural by product of that. To simply teach content and strategies that hit targets is denying our children the value of a real education.

I was reflecting the other day on the differences between my own education and that of my children. My memories are of blackboards and chalk, the teacher at the front talking at us as we furiously took notes, glued to the desk until it was time for lunch. I can remember very little of the content.

Whereas, in my own children’s education they are engaged in multi-sensory experiences. When they learn about a topic they create art, they create video, they create music, they use computers. They put their learning into different contexts which appeals to their different learning styles. Using a multi-sensory approach embeds their learning at a much deeper level.

But most importantly they are having fun. When they come home from school and can’t wait to tell me about what they have been doing it reinforces the learning yet again.

So for me the future of education has to be about finding different methods to engage children in learning, finding multiple ways to reinforce the message, using multiple tools to keep their attention. When their life outside school is a bombardment of multi-sensory experiences their education within school has to mirror that to keep their attention. Engaging our youngest minds, both in and out of school, by using a variety of formats and content has to make for a richer learning experience. What do you think?

As parents we all want to give our children the best of the best, and that includes the best start at education. Most understand the importance of reading with your child to increase their joy of not only reading but learning. 

When reading with your child ask them:

What was the story about? Where did it take place? When did it take place? Was there a moment that was especially exciting or moving? How did it come about? Was there a character that you really liked? Why? What did you discover through reading this book? What was the main thing the author wanted you to learn? These question will allow them to fall deeper into the story and recall more information. This may not be as important when reading Cinderella as it is when reading Biochemical Microbiology.   Whether you are reading from a book, Kindle or online… the focus is the same - reading is the main and most wonderful way to share ideas and imagination.  What do you share through books with your child?

This week I have been talking with some young people about what reading is to them and what they like to read about. They had some very fun and very funny things to say.

Catherine, age 4

“I like to read books that are pink and have sparkles that have princesses and girls in them with a prince who loves pink princesses.”

Hank, age 6

“Books are fun only when my mom makes voices and my dad does the actions of the people inside the books.”

Jackson, age 3

“I just like books, they are fun when they are colorful.”

Ryan, age 7

“Books are good. My teachers makes us read for 20 minutes everyday but if I like to book I will read longer. My favorite book is Captain Underpants.”

 

I love hearing kids talk about books. You get such a wide description of their experiences. Ask your kids, or cousins, nieces or nephews what they like to read and what they do to prepare to read. Do they like quiet, alone time, bedtime, long books, pictures, or do they like to make up stories? Let them show you how they read. Then come share!