As technology and innovation continues to surge forward, we are left with the age-old question in education: what is the right balance between “old school” and “new age?” To what extent do we prepare students to be successful with all of the future tools at our disposal? And to what extent do we ignore those tools and make sure that students have a sound foundation?

            Part of my job is staying on top of educational research and trends as we aim to keep RUCA at the forefront of innovation, even if that means avoiding innovative trends and keeping classic traditions in our instruction. One of my favorite blogs is Mindshift, which synthesizes educational research and discusses it through podcasts and blog posts. The post that inspired this writing is titled, “Handwriting Helps Kids Learn. Here’s How to Make the Most of It,” and is linked at the bottom of this post.

            Here are some of the important outcomes of the post:

• Writing, not typing, “plays a crucial role in literacy development.”
• Handwriting leads to better recognition and understanding of letters.
• “There is no research that says manuscript or cursive is best for everyone at all times.”
• Cursive can lead to faster writing, but what is most important is handwriting in general.
• Handwriting can also improve memory and recall of words.

            One thing that we prioritize at Riverstone, especially for students in middle school, is handwriting assignments. We don’t explicitly teach handwriting, but we certainly practice it! When students handwrite their do-nows, exit tickets, comprehension questions, and essays, they are developing literacy, automaticity, memory, and word recall. They are working on spelling, grammar, and legible handwriting. We are a one-to-one school, which means that all students have Chromebooks, but in the new era of artificial intelligence, we are being more intentional about students developing their handwriting skills before moving to typing their assignments.

The article is listed here.