4th graders now learning cursive?

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

[Anonymous]

We had a cursive optional packet in 3rd last year.

[Anonymous]

That is just a teacher decision, it is not part of the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

My MCPS kid worked on cursive last year in 3rd grade, not sure if it was required or optional

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

Your kid was in K3 during COVID, maybe that's it? Sit her @ss down and teach her if you're so concerned.

[Anonymous]

For us it was just the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

Your kid was in K3 during COVID, maybe that's it? Sit her @ss down and teach her if you're so concerned.

You so dumb you don’t know the difference between K-3 and K3.

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that the Amplify curriculum provides it but it is optional whether it is actually taught. Last year at the beginning of 3rd grade my daughter's teacher said that she and the other 3rd grade teachers at the school were considering doing it, but then we never saw anything so I presumably they ended up deciding against it. The day is very packed and it's hard for them to fit in everything mandatory, so I'm not surprised they decided not to try to squeeze it in.

[Anonymous]

For those who want to teach your kids yourselves - we used CursiveLogic and it was great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

Why are they learning?
Let's make America 1980 again.
It's already happening in other areas, why not with cursive writing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

MCPS did not buy the handwriting module of Benchmark...

If students don't receive instruction in handwriting, won't that make identifying dysgraphia more difficult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is just a teacher decision, it is not part of the curriculum.

Are you trying to make cursive “a thing” in MCPS? I can tell you that on the first day of school in grade 4 at my kid’s school it was not mentioned

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader came home from the first day and told me they are learning cursive this year. She had a massive packet of cursive practice pages in her folder. This is the same child who didn’t get direct instruction for letter printing or handwriting in their MCPS K-3 classes.

I have been raising concerns about lack of handwriting instruction and basic letter formation since K with our school, and was told MCPS didn’t buy the handwriting module of Benchmark until after my child’s class went through. But apparently now the younger kids do receive handwriting instruction.

Last year the third grade teachers I talked with acknowledged this class of kids struggles with writing and printing, but said they would not do any remediation and would also not be teaching cursive.

Does anyone know why the decision was made to now introduce cursive in 4th, or has this always been part of 4th? Or is this up to individual schools?

Why are they learning?
Let's make America 1980 again.
It's already happening in other areas, why not with cursive writing?

Brain research about the benefits of handwriting. We are so tired of your insults whenever anyone brings up textbooks or pencils.

[Anonymous]

My child has dysgraphia and it was a nightmare to get mcps to acknowledge it and provide accommodations (in reference to PPs comment). Also, they were given a cursive packet in her class but it was option-- so naturally my child chose to play worthless ed tech games instead of doing the packet