Cursive First
Item #: | 048762 |
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ISBN: | 9780974492018 |
Grades: | K-6 |
Product Description:
Just as literacy suffered in the last century when the school systems abandoned phonics instruction, many people contend that handwriting suffered by the same educational system's insistence on beginning with manuscript handwriting. "Cursive first" is their rallying cry! Wanda Sanseri became convinced of this approach and has encouraged it as part of her Spell to Write and Read program. The Cursive First program was developed by Elizabeth FitzGerald to be used either with the SWR program or as a stand alone program of handwriting instruction.
The "program" is comprised of a Teacher's Manual, Practice Sheets, and the Cursive Phonogram Card Set (WHICH ONLY INCLUDE THE LOWER CASE LETTERS).The Teacher's Manual is designed to convince you of the merits of starting with cursive. But it also includes information for preparing your student, specific "how-to," directions for using the Practice Sheets/Card Set and a "troubleshooting guide" how to detect visual and perceptual problems. The reproducible (for families/classroom) Practice Sheets get quickly down to the business of practice no cutesy graphics. Lowercase letters are taught separately from uppercase and connections are taught from the very beginning in the natural context of multi-letter phonograms. Although solid and dotted line models are provided, the student is quickly weaned from tracing to more active writing utilizing narrow ruled, dotted lines for practice. The Cursive Phonogram Card Set (yellow cardstock, each page to be cut into fourths) includes instructional dialogue for writing the phonograms on one side and a sample of cursive writing on the other. Both numerals and the first 26 phonograms are included. Laminating these would preserve their use through multiple children.
Just as literacy suffered in the last century when the school systems abandoned phonics instruction, many people contend that handwriting suffered by the same educational system's insistence on beginning with manuscript handwriting. "Cursive first" is their rallying cry! Wanda Sanseri became convinced of this approach and has encouraged it as part of her Spell to Write and Read program. The Cursive First program was developed by Elizabeth FitzGerald to be used either with the SWR program or as a stand alone program of handwriting instruction.
The Cursive First program is comprised of a Teacher's Manual, Practice Sheets, and the Cursive Phonogram Card Set. The Teacher's Manual is designed to convince you of the merits of starting with cursive. But it also includes information for preparing your student, specific "how-to" directions for using the Practice Sheets/Card Set and a "troubleshooting guide" - how to detect visual and perceptual problems. The reproducible (for families/classroom) Practice Sheets get quickly down to the business of practice - no cutesy graphics. Lowercase letters are taught separately from uppercase and connections are taught from the very beginning in the natural context of multi-letter phonograms. Although solid and dotted line models are provided, the student is quickly weaned from tracing to more active writing utilizing narrow ruled, dotted lines for practice. The Cursive Phonogram Card Set (yellow cardstock, each page to be cut into fourths) includes instructional dialogue for writing the phonograms on one side and a sample of cursive writing on the other. Both numerals and the first 26 phonograms are included. Laminating these would preserve their use through multiple children.
In addition to the program described above, we also sell a package that includes both the program and a set of SWR's 70 Basic Phonogram Cards. These are needed if you are using Cursive First as a stand alone program (without the SWR course) as the program is designed to both introduce the phonograms and how to write them in cursive. An SWR mobile app is also available to demonstrate the sounds of all 70 phonograms from the card set. - Janice
These materials span grades and include both instruction and practice.
Cursive first is an excellent program and used simply as a cursive program could be used on its own. When used with SWR, it becomes a fuller picture. SWR is a very good program as well. But, it can be complicated if you have had no training in how to use it.
The Wise Guide is primarily for spelling, but uses the phonograms, markings and rules taught in SWR.
If you want to avoid the expense, I would recommend, just getting the phonograms cards and rule cards that come from SWR, rather than the entire set. The phonograms have the "script" on the back of each card.
You can also use cursive first on its own, simply as a cursive tool. If you choose to use it with another phonograms or reading program, you will have to adapt it to your needs. The cursive first book comes with blank writing practice sheets, so adapting it to another program would not be too hard.
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- Inaccurate
- Brittani H on Nov 28, 2018
- Purchased on Jun 22, 2017
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- Rebekah B on Sep 26, 2018
- Purchased on Jul 8, 2017
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- Tania S on Jan 16, 2018
- Purchased on Aug 22, 2016
I really like the teaching of the letters, but I don't use her complete process. I'm impressed with how quickly my 6 and 9 year old picked up on it and are able to read cursive within a few lessons. My oldest wants to write her A's in the other way. I told her she can personalize her cursive after she masters the material.
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- Inaccurate
- Emily H on Mar 2, 2016
- Purchased on Oct 30, 2015
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