Making Reading Heavenly Blog
Spelling and Handwriting
by Cathy Angel on 02/17/25Making Reading Heavenly is so excited Iowa has decided teachers must teach handwriting and spelling! There is much research out there to support explicitly teaching both of these.
When students increase their spelling (encoding) skills, they also increase their reading (decoding) skills! It is important, however, that spelling is not a memorization exercise! When students become aware of spelling patterns within our language, they are then able to transfer this knowledge to spell and read unfamiliar words. Teaching six syllable types and other sound-spelling patterns can support both reading and spelling because they are reciprocal skills.
Spelling is to reading, as handwriting is to writing. Handwriting training allows a child to write letters fluently. This ability frees up brain space during the writing process that can be used for composition and organization! Students with fluent handwriting are much more apt to write longer and more sophisticated compositions.
Our program takes approximately ten minutes per day and requires NO teacher preparation! If you would like a free pilot of our Writing With Rhythm manuscript or cursive handwriting program to try for the remainder of this school year, please contact us at: makingreadingheavenly@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
