MAKING IT EASIER TO BE A BETTER TEACHER

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Here’s our weekly roundup of interesting education stories from around the world. Click each link to learn more:

• Notice more teachers leaving the profession? The country of Malawi may have found the solution - and it’s not what you think!

• Think you can teach for 50 years? This teacher has - and plans to keep on working! Here’s the heartwarming story you need to keep you going.

• Halloween hits later this week - doctors have some new warnings for our students to stay safe 🎃 

TECH TALK

Tackling writing-based accommodations

For students with fine motor challenges or handwriting difficulties, keeping up with written assignments can feel overwhelming and impact their confidence.

And for teachers, we’re often left balancing these needs against curriculum demands, finding ways to accommodate without sacrificing content. It can be a pretty difficult balancing act.

The Solution: SnapType

SnapType is an assistive app designed to make writing easier for students who struggle with handwriting. With SnapType, students (or you!) can take a picture of any worksheet or text and type directly onto it. 

Students can also resize, move, and align text to fit within worksheet blanks, ensuring that students can complete assignments independently and legibly. This also gives teachers clear visibility into each student's work without the barrier of unreadable handwriting.

The app is available for iOS and Android devices, with both a free version and a pro version ($4.99 USD). Both versions integrate seamlessly with Google Classroom as well.

How About YOUR Classroom?

With SnapType, students who struggle with traditional handwriting can participate more fully in class without the frustration of unclear written responses.

This tool can be particularly helpful for younger students learning to write, students with dysgraphia, or those with fine motor challenges.

Strategies:

• Use for in-class assignments: SnapType can be especially useful during in-class assignments or tests, as students can easily input their responses without falling behind due to handwriting difficulties.

•  Assign worksheets for homework: Encourage students to complete printed or virtual worksheets at home using SnapType, allowing them to practice typing responses and giving parents a clearer view of the student’s independent work.

• Create a digital portfolio: With SnapType Pro, students can save and store completed assignments, creating a digital portfolio that reflects their progress over time. This can be shared with parents or used for assessment purposes.

With SnapType, students who once struggled with the basics of written work can focus on showing what they know and keep up with their peers, building confidence along the way.

Whether it’s a quick worksheet or a longer assignment, SnapType offers accessible tools to help every student succeed.

BRAINY BITS

Bridging the Bilingual Gap

Handwriting is a core skill in literacy development, but bilingualism might impact it in unique ways. 

This week, we examine a study that dives into how bilingualism relates to handwriting and spelling ability in young students.

The Study: Handwriting Legibility and Its Relationship to Spelling

In this study, researchers observed 127 Welsh-English bilingual and monolingual English children, ages 7 to 10, comparing their literacy and handwriting skills. 

Using standardized intelligence and literacy tests, each child’s non-verbal reasoning, spelling, and reading were evaluated and compared. Researchers collected data under each student’s regular classroom conditions to reduce bias. 

Detailed handwriting assessments were then scored between each group.

The Results:

The results strongly showed that bilingual students had significantly poorer handwriting legibility than their monolingual peers, suggesting bilingualism may impact handwriting skills. 

However, literacy skills were unaffected, with both groups scoring similarly in reading and spelling assessments. So the ability to learn is the same, but the actually writing is the roadblock.

Spelling ability emerged as the strongest predictor of legibility across groups - even more than a student’s age. Students who could spell well tended to have the neatest writing.

The study's comparison also showed consistent handwriting predictors for both groups, confirming that better spelling skills can effectively improve handwriting no matter how many languages a student speaks.

In Your Classroom:

With bilingual students, we teachers can sometimes feel the need to put all our effort on just the English side of things; but more studies are starting to show the need to support both languages when we can.

Providing handwriting support and focusing on spelling skills may help bridge the handwriting gap for bilingual students. Here’s how:

Strategies

• Spelling Reinforcement: Incorporate regular spelling exercises to strengthen motor memory associated with handwriting.

• Handwriting Practice: Set aside specific time for handwriting exercises, focusing on forming clear, legible letters.

• Bilingual Approach to Spelling: For bilingual students, consider exercises that reinforce spelling in both languages, helping build a bridge between their vocabulary and motor skills.

• If needed, bring out the laptops: if handwriting is the only thing holding a bilingual student back from completing work, allow them to type instead (when appropriate!).

This approach could provide an essential boost to bilingual children’s overall academic success while not ignoring the benefits of their native language. 

What other challenges do you see your bilingual students face? Hit reply and let us know!

REFERENCES

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

SnapType. (2024). A simple way to complete any school worksheet on your iPad or Chromebook. Retrieved from: https://snaptypeapp.com/

Brainy Bits:

Caravolas M, Downing C, Hadden CL and Wynne C (2020) Handwriting Legibility and Its Relationship to Spelling Ability and Age: Evidence From Monolingual and Bilingual Children. Front. Psychol. 11:1097. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01097