What to do when you can't read their handwriting?

[Anonymous]

You tell them that if you can't read their writing, you won't grade the work. Same as we were told when we were in school.

[Anonymous]

As a high school special ed teacher, I see a lot of high school teachers and departments moving to more handwritten assignments to try to avoid kids using AI. This is a very valid concern, but it leads to two sets of problems.

One is kids who have disabilities that impact their fine motor skills. Often times, if there aren’t other disabilities, those kids haven’t had 504’s, but now they need to get them. There are solutions to the issue of typing and AI but they are hard to scale up to whole classes. A 504 lets the teacher make an exception for your individual kid.

The other issue is kids for whom lack of proper instruction, and lack of practice has meant that they didn’t develop efficient letter formation, and muscles in their hand, so while they can write legibly enough for 9th grade assignments that have fill in the blank and short response they fall apart on something like a DBQ in an AP class that requires extended writing.
Long term, the solution to that is a combination of improved handwriting instruction in early grades, gradually increasing demands for writing across middle and high school so kids develop stamina, and developing tech solutions.

None of those things help current 12th graders though, so I think the PP who discusses having kids come to you to read the words you can’t is probably the most realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell them that they need to redo it.

This. They are capable of making legible letters. They may just need to slow down and be more intentional. Give them a zero and write redo. They will understand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell them that they need to redo it.

My kid switched from public to Catholic in MS. After having to redo a few assignments, he got the picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they stop teaching it in elementary school. Then pandemic. Seriously. My kid is a freshman and he has an IEP and his hand writing was an is very hard to read. We begged for OT help. Begged repeatedly. We’re always told - they use computers in middle and high and he doesn’t need to know how to write. Seriously. They were so wrong and he has many hand written assignments in high school. It is sad how wrong the got this. School online for over a year didn’t help. Sorry.

Hmm, maybe you could have taught them at home like many parents do. And before you spout some blah blah blah, many of the people who have the best handwriting in English are foreign learners who use an entirely different alphabet and/or character than English.

OF COURSE I work with him. Made him learn cursive too because they don't that either. But HE needed a professional.

We paid for an OT to help our daughter. Made a huge difference. Insurance covered some, rest paid was out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

When my son moved from public school to Catholic School at the start of 4th grade the teacher the first day of class held him back after school and told him he needed to write neatly and spell correctly. She then gave him a blank copy of two assignments he did in class thay day that were messy. She said he needed to stay after school if he needed help or if not he needed to redo the assignment if he wanted to go to recess the next day.

In public school he did rushed through his work and was never made to turn in quality work. He wrote these really long and rambling writing assignments that had illegible words, spelling mistakes, and missing punctuation. His teachers never corrected his work and just graded on the creativity and length. I don’t understand the point of writing 2 pages of poor quality writing instead of one paragraph of quality writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You tell them that if you can't read their writing, you won't grade the work. Same as we were told when we were in school.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they stop teaching it in elementary school. Then pandemic. Seriously. My kid is a freshman and he has an IEP and his hand writing was an is very hard to read. We begged for OT help. Begged repeatedly. We’re always told - they use computers in middle and high and he doesn’t need to know how to write. Seriously. They were so wrong and he has many hand written assignments in high school. It is sad how wrong the got this. School online for over a year didn’t help. Sorry.

Hmm, maybe you could have taught them at home like many parents do. And before you spout some blah blah blah, many of the people who have the best handwriting in English are foreign learners who use an entirely different alphabet and/or character than English.

You’re not understanding that some students will never be able to write well due to physical reasons or learning difference.

As for foreign learners, there were three girls from China in my daughter’s kindergarten class. The teacher had hung up their handwriting work. I couldn’t believe five year olds could write like these little girls. Their fine motor skills were adult level.

But not everyone can write well no matter what their parents do.

[Anonymous]

Clearly there is a difference between kids with disabilities that impact their writing and kids that are just sloppy. Most kids with disability related handwriting deficits will have a 504 or an IEP. I’m sure the teacher understands those kids must be accommodated and it isn’t laziness or sloppy work because they are going too fast.

I do think kids without an IEP/504 should have reasonable expectations about legibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell them that they need to redo it.

This. Tell them to re-write. I guess they’re on their way to medical school.

But also, it’s an art to be able to read handwritings. I used to be better at it 30 years ago, when I was at school and university, and used to be exposed to many different handwritings (and we all wrote in cursive back then) than I am now when 99.9% of what I see and read is print.

[Anonymous]

Tell them to type it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell them that they need to redo it.

This. Tell them to re-write. I guess they’re on their way to medical school.

But also, it’s an art to be able to read handwritings. I used to be better at it 30 years ago, when I was at school and university, and used to be exposed to many different handwritings (and we all wrote in cursive back then) than I am now when 99.9% of what I see and read is print.

It’s 30 years for me too but I never got the hang of cursive so I never used it after 4th grade. I have no disabilities but I could never write fast enough to take notes. I would miss letters, just make a mess. I wish I had gone to school with computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach seniors in an AP class that involves a lot of writing, but for which it's not practical to have students type their responses.
I usually have one kid a year out of 100+ whose handwriting is essentially illegible. This year it's an epidemic.
Time to look for another line of work?

Why isn't typing practical? My DS has dysgraphia and his handwriting is totally illegible, even to himself. If he concentrates on the handwriting to make it semi-legible, it's much harder to concentrate on the content. He types everything (he has a 504 in case teachers resist, but really there's no reason anyone for whom handwriting is hard can't type).

This. People do not understand dysgraphia. For my kid, all the writing practice in the world didn't help. We had to deal with so many ignorant teachers who would openly criticize my for not teaching my kid to write. My kid did more writing practice than any kid in the state and it was a stupid waste of time. Dysgraphia is not simply an issue of hand strength or practice. People will never understand this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly there is a difference between kids with disabilities that impact their writing and kids that are just sloppy. Most kids with disability related handwriting deficits will have a 504 or an IEP. I’m sure the teacher understands those kids must be accommodated and it isn’t laziness or sloppy work because they are going too fast.

I do think kids without an IEP/504 should have reasonable expectations about legibility.

This is not true. I have twins, both have dysgraphia but only the twin with other disabilities got an iep. The school system wouldn't do anything for the other twin.

[Anonymous]

Redo it so it's legible. Why is this even a question? That's what you do.