INSET introduction
• The Penpals for Handwriting Teacher’s Books
contain suggestions for running an INSET
session
• You can use this PowerPoint presentation to
lead the session
• Please feel free to adapt the presentation to the
needs of your team
• Penpals questions can be answered by
Cambridge-Hitachi. See
http://www.cambridge.org/penpals
Version 1.0, 22 October 2010
The rationale behind
Penpals for Handwriting
Rationale
• Handwriting should be actively taught
• A flexible, fluent and legible handwriting
style empowers children to write with
confidence and creativity
• Associating handwriting movement with
visual letter patterns and aural phonemes
will help children learn to spell
A practical approach
• Time: A focus on whole-class teaching, with key
teaching points clearly identified, allows effective
teaching in the time available
• Planning: Help with long-, medium- and shortterm planning
• Practice: Practice Books for independent writing
• Revision: Opportunities for record-keeping,
review and assessment
• Motivation: Written with the support of
handwriting experts to stimulate and motivate
children.
• ICT: CD-ROMs enrich and extend children’s
handwriting experiences.
Five developmental
phases
1. Readiness for handwriting; gross and fine
motor skills leading to letter formation
(Foundation / 3–5 years)
2. Beginning to join (Key Stage 1 / 5–7 years)
3. Securing the joins (Key Stage 1 and lower Key
Stage 2 / 5–9 years)
4. Practising speed and fluency (lower Key Stage
2 / 7–9 years)
5. Presentation skills (upper Key Stage 2 / 10–11
years)
Why other schools use
Penpals
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A fluent, legible style
Progression from 3-11yrs
5 clear developmental stages
Sensible links for application
Interactive and multisensory
Easy to use
Delivers results
The components
Foundation 1 (ages 3-5)
to
Years 5/6 (ages 9-11)
Components
• Teacher’s Books for each year group
• Reception to Y5/6
Components
• Practice Books for Independent writing
• Handwriting patterns
• Phonic and spelling
support
• Consolidation of high
frequency words
Components
• Big Books for whole-class
or group teaching by a TA
• Write-on, wipe-off
Components
• CD-ROMs for whole-class teaching
• Posture advice
• Warm-up clips for gross and
fine motor skills
• Skywriting
• Animated letters and joins
CDs: posture and pencil grip advice
CDs: warm-ups for gross and fine motor skills
A progression of units for each letter and join
A note on Foundation 1
• Book and CD-ROM cover essential pre-skills to precede
any handwriting scheme
• Mark-making and Creativity
• ‘Talkabouts’ for Circle Time
• Play-based learning
• Supports children working within Phases 1 and 2 of
Letters and Sounds
• Penpals Foundation 1 should continue to be used
throughout the Foundation Stage as children will
continue to benefit from the activities even after they
have begun working with the Penpals Foundation 2
resources.
F1 Talk Abouts for speaking
and listening skills
F1 fun ‘Try Its’ for the whiteboard
A note on Years 5 and 6
• The components for Years 5/6 work
differently:
– A crash course in the basics for everyone
ahead of SATs
– A resource for focusing on specific issues in
small groups
• Book has presentation projects,
assessment and practice sessions
• CD-ROM split into Basic and Presentation
Y5/6 basic screens –common errors,
and writing quickly and fluently
Y5/6 presentation screens – choosing
an appropriate lettering style
Classroom organisation
and timing
Classroom organisation
• Arrange tables so that all children can see
the interactive whiteboard
• Each child needs:
– dry-wipe board (preferably with guidelines)
and a marker pen, or
– pencil and paper
• Handwriting is usually done on a
horizontal or slightly sloped surface
Timing
• ‘Little and often’ is the most effective approach
• The whole-class session for each unit (including
warm-up): 15 minutes
• The independent session:15–20 minutes.
• Extra daily ‘practice times’ of 5–10 minutes are
ideal. Use these to:
– practise the high-frequency words
– extend their pattern practice
– revisit the letter pattern shown in the Practice Book
Home-school links
Home-school links
• A take-home information sheet is provided
for parents in each Teacher’s Book
Differentiation
Differentiation
• Children working individually with a Teaching Assistant
may benefit from additional practice on dry-wipe boards.
• Take away activities provide excellent opportunities for
differentiation as detailed above.
• Cross-references to similar Take aways in earlier books
can help you to select less challenging activities for
those who need extra practice at a lower level.
• Higher-achieving children can be challenged by higher
expectations of control and evenness of letters.
Assessment and
record-keeping
Formative assessment
• On-going assessment gives you the chance to
spot any errors or inconsistencies that are likely
to impede a fast, fluent hand in the future.
• Be especially aware of left-handers and their
pencil hold
• The Practice Book page annotations in the
Teacher’s Book enable you to draw the
children’s attention to key handwriting issues.
Summative assessment
• Beginning of year: The upper primary
books provide a starting-point assessment
PCM
• End of year: Use text from the final unit in
each book
Handwriting issues
Links to spelling
• Learning to associate the kinaesthetic
handwriting movement with the visual letter
pattern and the aural phonemes will help
children with learning to spell
• A spelling/vocabulary link is identified at the start
of each unit
• Foundation 1 links to phases 1 and 2 of Letters
and Sounds
• Penpals units can be reorganised to support
Jolly Phonics
Font
• The font used for Penpals is Sassoon
Cambridge Joiner
• Intended as a model, but variety is natural!
• The Show Alphabet section on the CDROM has animations of all letters
• Also see the Teacher’s Book introduction
for clarification on individual letters
The Show Alphabet screen
Variations in font size
• The following screens shows variations in
font size throughout the scheme – see
also page 16
Variations in font size
Variations in font size
Joins and break letters
• Use the Show joining letter sets section
on the CD-ROM, or an OHT of the inside
back cover of this book, to demonstrate
the joining letter sets and the break letters.
The two basic join types
• Diagonal join (e.g. ): this is the most
common join. It starts from the final flick on
the baseline (or ‘curl’ in the case of the
letter ).
• Letters that come before a diagonal join
are:
• (and in which the flick begins below the
baseline).
The two basic join types
• Horizontal join (e.g. ) : this join is
formed from letters that finish at the top of
the letter rather than at the baseline.
• Letters that come before a horizontal join
are:
Progression in joining
Y1/P2
Only 2 or 3 letters in a word are joined.
The words on the CD-ROM and in the Big
Book and the Practice Book feature the
focus join for the teaching unit.
Y2/P3
Children also practise familiar joins which
are not the focus of a unit.
Children are expected to begin to join all
the letters in a short word, or to join letter
patterns which can support spelling.
Progression in joining
Y3/4
P5/6
All the basic joins will now be familiar.
Children practise ‘tricky joins’ and begin to
develop fluent, even handwriting.
An emphasis on spacing between letters
and words, consistency of letter size, and
parallel ascenders and descenders helps
children to present their work well.
Writing on lined paper
• Children should be encouraged to write on lined
paper
• As children progress, the width between the
lines should decrease
• The font size in the Practice Books is intended to
reflect a development in handwriting
• A photocopiable sheet with lines of a suitable
width is provided in the Teacher’s Books.
• Some children may prefer paper with guidelines
for the height of ascenders and descenders.
Pencil hold
• The most important thing is comfort and a
hold that will be efficient under speed
• The traditional pencil hold allows children
to sustain handwriting for long periods, but
there are many alternative pencil holds
(particularly for left-handers)
• Some children may benefit from triangular
pencils or ordinary pencils with plastic
pencil grips.
Pencil hold
• Use the pencil hold videos in the Posture
clips section on the CD-ROMs to illustrate
good pencil hold.
Posture
• A good posture and pencil hold are vital for
good handwriting.
• Discourage sitting on one foot, kneeling or
wrapping their feet around the legs of the
chair!
• The images in the
Posture clips area
on the CD-ROMs
illustrate good posture.
Left-handed children
• There is no reason why left-handed
children’s handwriting should be any
worse than that of right-handed children
• Left-handed children should not sit to the
right of right-handed children as their
papers will meet in the middle!
Left-handed children
• Left-handed children should be taught to
position their paper to the left of centre
and then angle the paper for comfort
• Use the left-handed pencil hold video and
posture photograph in
the Posture clips area
on the CD-ROM to
illustrate this.
Sloped surfaces
• Children who experience some motor
control difficulties often benefit from writing
on a slight slope
• Ring-binders are the easiest and cheapest
way to provide a slope
• Commercial wooden or plastic writing
slopes are also widely available
Angle of paper
• Guidelines in the Teacher’s Books
illustrate good positions for right- or lefthanded children
• You may laminate these onto A3 to make
table-top mats.
• Encourage the children to explore
personal variation of the angles.
Thanks and questions!