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Academic  Progress  Monitoring  Project  

Moulton  Extended  Learning  Center,  Des  Moines,  IA  

 

 

 Heidi  Schulte  

Fall  2013  

 

 

 

 

This  progress  monitoring  project  was  focused  on    

improving  the  handwriting  of  my  first  grade  students.      

 

 

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Table  of  Contents                    

Background  information……………………………………………………………………..3  

Description  of  the  Problem…………………………………………………..…………..….4  

Goals…………………………………………………………………………………………………….4  

Strategies……………………………………………………………………………………………..5  

Data………………………………………………………………………………………………………8  

Summary  of  Handwriting  Results……………………………………………….…..…..10  

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………..11  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Background  Information  

  My  first  student  teaching  placement  is  at  Moulton  Extended  Learning  Center  in  the  

Northeast  part  of  Des  Moines,  IA.  Moulton  is  located  in  an  area  of  the  city  which  is  labeled  

impoverished  and  which  is  home  to  many  families  of  various  ethnicities  and  languages.  There  

are  at  least  twenty  different  languages  spoken  by  students  at  Moulton—in  our  classroom  alone  

we  have  eleven  ELL  students.  Nearly  all  of  the  student  population  receive  meals  from  our  free-­‐

and-­‐reduced  breakfast  and  lunch  program  before  and  during  school.  At  least  one  hundred  of  the  

students  are  a  part  of  the  “Backpack  Buddies”  program  that  sends  home  groceries  for  the  

weekend.  Academics,  behavior  and  general  management  in  the  school  are  a  concern  at  every  

level.  As  a  few  professional  development  discussions  indicated,  it  is  likely  these  unique  

challenges  strongly  correlate  with  the  poverty  and  ethnic  and  language  differences  experienced  

by  the  students  at  Moulton.  

During  my  first  week  at  Moulton  Extended  Learning  Center,  I  intently  observed  the  

students  at  work,  trying  to  identify  an  academic  deficit  I  could  problem-­‐solve  and  address  with  

strategies  for  this  project.  Within  days,  I  noted  the  rather  messy  if  not  unintelligible  handwriting  

of  all  but  a  few  of  the  first  graders  in  my  class.  I  mentioned  this  to  my  cooperating  teacher  and  

another  teacher  in  our  first  grade  team.  Both  explained  to  me  that  handwriting  had  been  

removed  from  the  curriculum,  in  their  opinion  to  make  room  for  the  more  important  subjects  

that  are  tested.  The  other  first  grade  teacher  said  that  she  has  noticed  the  same  challenges  with  

handwriting  in  her  own  class  and  that  she  has  chosen  to  spend  some  time  integrating  

handwriting  into  her  curriculum,  usually  as  a  center  in  the  reading  group  rotation.  When  I  

informed  my  supervisor  of  my  tentative  plan  to  focus  on  handwriting,  he  was  in  agreement  and  

suggested  that  I  really  utilize  my  cooperating  teacher  and  the  other  first  grade  teachers  as  

resources  for  ideas  and  strategies.  Because  handwriting  has  been  one  of  my  favorite  subjects  

since  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  I  eagerly  anticipated  using  my  strengths  with  this  subject  to  

help  my  students  learn  strategies  and  improve  their  handwriting.  

 

 

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Description  of  the  Problem    

  As  I  observed  the  handwriting  practices  of  my  students,  I  looked  at  their  worksheets,  free  

writing  journals  and  their  completed  assignments.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  very  neat  and  

careful  students,  I  noticed  that  most  of  the  class  would  quickly  scribble  their  name  and  then  

proceed  to  fill  out  the  worksheet,  usually  unaware  of  whether  or  not  their  letters  or  numbers  

were  written  in  the  correct  direction  or  form,  or  whether  or  not  they  used  the  lines  provided.  

Often  the  letters  or  numbers  would  be  all  jumbled  together,  words  placed  together  or  on  top  of  

one  another  without  spaces.  Their  use  of  upper  and  lowercase  letters  was  interchangeable,  even  

within  their  own  names.  Needless  to  say,  this  made  grading  extremely  difficult.  Another  

interesting  observation  was  that  it  was  not  only  the  students  who  were  low  academically  who  

wrote  their  letters  incorrectly  or  messily.  Even  the  one  or  two  students  in  the  gifted  and  talented  

program  were  demonstrating  poor  handwriting  skills.  The  most  perplexing  aspect  was  that  often  

their  names  were  the  most  incorrectly  written  words  on  the  worksheets!    

Goals  for  Improvement  

  My  immediate  goals  or  objectives  for  the  students  were  as  follows.  I  wanted  the  students  

to  be  able  to:  

• Write  letters  in  the  correct  direction/form  

• Write  letters  clearly  so  they  can  be  easily  read  by  others  

• Write  letters  in  the  appropriate  upper  or  lowercase  

Secondary  goals  included  that  students  would  be  able  to:  

• Write  their  name  clearly,  with  each  letter  in  the  correct  case  

• Write  their  numbers  in  the  correct  direct/form  

• Write  numbers  clearly  so  they  can  be  easily  read  by  others  

• Include  spaces  between  words  

• Use  the  lines  provided  and  correctly  place  letters  on  the  lines  

 

 

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Strategies:    

  My  first  step  in  the  project  was  to  determine  the  students’  current  handwriting  strengths  

and  weaknesses,  gathering  data  from  a  Pre-­‐test  that  I  could  later  administer  as  a  Post-­‐test  (see  

Figure  1).  The  most  basic  information  I  knew  I  wanted  to  examine,  was  how  students  wrote  each  

letter  of  the  alphabet  A—Z  in  both  upper  and  lowercase  letters.  My  cooperating  teacher  informed  

me  of  a  clever  little  sentence  that  contains  all  26  lowercase  letters  of  the  alphabet:  “The  quick  

brown  fox  jumps  over  

the  lazy  dog.”  The  first  

half  of  my  pretest  

then,  required  

students  to  copy  that  

sentence.  While  

students  waited  for  

the  rest  of  the  class,  I  

allowed  them  to  draw  

a  corresponding  

picture.  As  my  

cooperating  teacher  

pointed  out,  this  

intermediate  drawing  opportunity  allowed  the  students  

a  pause  in  writing  and  gave  them  the  sense  of  re-­‐starting  when  they  began  the  backside  of  the  

test.  This  second  portion  was  simply  to  write  all  of  the  uppercase  letters  in  the  alphabet.  I  briefly  

mentioned  the  difference  between  upper  and  lowercase  letters  and  allowed  students  to  use  the  

resources  around  the  room  (such  as  the  letter  chart)  to  find  these  uppercase  letters.  I  used  the  

exact  same  worksheet  for  the  post-­‐test,  so  that  my  results  would  be  easy  to  compare  and  so  the  

students  would  have  the  consistency  and  familiarity  on  the  second  test.    

  This  worksheet  allowed  me  to  assess  the  students’  knowledge  of  correct  letter  formation,  

line  usage,  use  of  lower  vs.  uppercase  letters,  and  word  spacing.  Because  I  also  had  them  write  

their  name  at  the  top  of  the  worksheet,  I  was  able  to  see  how  they  wrote  their  name—both  times  

without  specific  instruction  to  write  it  neatly.  I  then  entered  this  information  into  a  chart  (see  

Figure  2),  marking  specific  letters  students  wrote  incorrectly,  so  I  could  focus  my  attention  on  

Figure  1:  Pre/Post-­‐Test  Worksheet  

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some  of  these  troublesome  letters.  By  highlighting  the  problem  letters,  I  could  also  see  which  

students  had  special  difficulty.  In  addition,  I  kept  a  column  with  detailed  notes  regarding  what  

the  errors  were,  and  if  I  was  noticing  patterns  in  the  students’  work.  For  the  post-­‐test  results,  I  

copied  and  pasted  the  pre-­‐test  chart  into  a  second  document  and  then  highlighted  and  

commented  on  the  new  errors  in  another  color  so  I  was  able  to  compare  each  student’s  

individual  progress.  By  comparing  this  chart  and  another  chart  I  compiled  with  the  total  

numbers  of  class  errors  for  each  letter,  I  was  able  to  find  the  data  presented  later  in  this  report.    

 

 

My  first  main  handwriting  lessons  were  

centered  on  the  idea  of  a  “Handwriting  House”  

that  explains  the  two  solid  lines  and  one  dashed  

line  and  the  spaces  above  and  below  on  the  

special  handwriting  paper  as  the  three  “floors”  of  

Figure  2:  Comparison  of  results  from  each  test.  

Figure  3:  The  “Handwriting  House”  I  created  

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a  house.  To  illustrate  this  idea,  I  drew  a  house  on  the  board,  inserting  the  lines  and  labeling  them.  

I  then  had  the  students  help  me  think  of  words  with  certain  kinds  of  letters  to  show  how  some  

letters  are  tall  and  go  over  the  dashed  line,  into  the  “upstairs”  and  how  other  letters  are  long  and  

low  and  go  below  the  bottom  line  into  the  “downstairs.”  We  discovered  that  all  letters  have  part  

or  all  of  their  form  on  the  main  floor,  just  like  most  of  family  life  happens  on  the  main  floor  of  

their  home.  I  also  made  a  large  handwriting  house  with  labeled  and  color-­‐coded  “floors”  (see  

Figure  3).  We  laminated  this  graphic,  so  it  could  be  written  on  with  dry  erase  markers  and  be  

reused  to  demonstrate  handwriting  lessons.    

  For  students’  individual  practice,  I  created  and  demonstrated  handwriting  techniques,  

mainly  emphasizing  the  direction  to  form  each  of  the  letters,  using  worksheets.  Some  of  the  

worksheets  were  

more  focused  on  a  

particular  motion  or  

even  a  single  letter.  

Others  practiced  the  

whole  alphabet,  upper  

and  lowercase.  I  also  

created  an  individual  

worksheet  for  each  

student  with  his/her  name  on  it.  On  all  but  one  of  

my  worksheets,  I  wrote  the  letters  using  the  lines  

and  then  drew  arrows  with  numbers  showing  step-­‐by-­‐step  how  to  form  the  letter.  Most  of  these  

worksheets  had  an  “I  do,  we  do,  you  do”  component.  Students  could  see  the  letters  as  I  wrote  

them,  then  they  were  asked  to  trace  the  letters,  and  finally  write  the  letters  themselves.  See  

Figure  4  for  a  few  examples  of  students’  completed  worksheets.    

  I  used  the  “handwriting  house”  and  the  worksheets  to  teach  mini-­‐lessons  about  

handwriting  components  and  the  placement  of  letters.  I  constantly  modeled  correct  letter  

formation,  and  did  several  “motion  break”  activities  during  literacy,  when  I  had  students  “body  

spell”  their  high  frequency  words,  using  the  language  of  the  “handwriting  house”,  identifying  

which  “floor(s)”  each  letter  was  on.  Often  these  mini-­‐lessons  were  the  demonstration  for  how  

Figure  4:  Students’  Completed  Worksheets  

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students  could  work  independently  at  the  

handwriting  center,  which  I  created  and  integrated  

into  the  reading  workstation  rotation.    

  As  I  mentioned  in  my  description  of  the  

problem  addressed  in  this  project,  one  of  the  first  

indications  I  had  that  most  of  these  students  could  not  

correctly  write  their  letters  was  that  they  were  not  

correctly  forming  the  letters  of  their  names.  This  led  

me  to  spend  quite  a  bit  of  time  focusing  on  names—

helping  students  begin  to  re-­‐train  themselves  to  write  

their  name  slowly  and  accurately.  To  do  this,  I  created  

a  few  simple  worksheets  for  students  to  first  

problem-­‐solve  how  to  fit  the  letters  of  their  name  into  

the  appropriate  lines  on  the  “handwriting  house”  and  

then  to  practice  seeing,  tracing  and  independently  write  their  name,  forming  the  letters  correctly  

(see  Figure  5).    

  An  additional  strategy  that  was  not  a  part  of  my  pre-­‐test  or  post-­‐test  was  the  inclusion  of  

numbers.  Intentional  instructional  time  was  spent  combining  the  skill  of  correctly  forming  and  

writing  numbers  the  proper  direction  with  our  long-­‐term  math  objective  of  writing  numbers  by  

one  in  the  correct  sequence  from  1  to  120.    This  made  my  project  even  more  cross  curricular,  as  

several  math  centers  were  spent  working  on  identifying,  tracing  and  writing  numbers  correctly.    

 

Data  

  Because  I  started  this  progress  monitoring  my  second  week  at  Moulton  and  I  tried  to  

incorporate  handwriting  components  into  nearly  every  area  of  the  classroom,  I  ended  up  having  

many  different  data  sources.  However,  since  the  only  actual  “tests”  administered  to  the  whole  

group  were  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐tests,  those  are  the  only  pieces  of  data  that  I  had  collected  from  

each  student.  They  were,  therefore,  the  only  accurate  and  consistent  sources  from  which  to  

compare  the  students’  handwriting  progress  over  the  course  of  a  month  (8/9/13  to  9/13/13).    

Figure  5:  Example  of  a  Name  Worksheet  

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The  following  tables  show  the  data  comparing  the  pre-­‐test  results  in  red  to  the  post-­‐test  results  

in  green.    Errors  were  defined  by  the  following  criteria:  Letters  were  counted  as  incorrect  if  

they…  

• Were  not  written  clearly  and  were  not  easy  to  read  

• Were  not  written  in  the  correct  direction  

• Were  not  written  appropriately  as  upper  or  lowercase  depending  on  the  portion  of  the  test  

Table  1  shows  the  comparison  of  uppercase  letters  written  incorrectly  in  the  pre-­‐test  at  the  

beginning  of  August  (8/9),  to  the  number  of  uppercase  letters  written  incorrectly  in  the  post-­‐test  

in  the  middle  of  September  (9/13).  

 

Table  2  shows  the  comparison  of  lowercase  letters  written  incorrectly  in  the  pre-­‐test  at  the  

beginning  of  August  (8/9),  to  the  number  of  lowercase  letters  written  incorrectly  in  the  post-­‐test  

in  the  middle  of  September  (9/13).  

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Summary  of  Handwriting  Results  

  It  is  rather  obvious  that  the  number  of  errors  with  uppercase  was  significantly  higher  

than  the  number  of  errors  for  lowercase  letters.  When  I  saw  that  the  September  test  number  of  

errors  was  equal  to  or  greater  than  the  August  test  with  on  more  than  half  the  letters,  I  began  to  

investigate  my  charted  notes  (see  Figure  2)  to  see  why.  What  I  found  was  that  approximately  

38%  of  the  uppercase  letter  errors  for  the  September  test  were  simply  that  the  student  wrote  the  

lowercase  letter  rather  than  the  uppercase  one.  As  I  reflected  on  my  strategies,  I  realized  I  had  

taught  only  two  or  three  explicit  lessons  about  the  difference  between  upper  and  lowercase  

letters,  but  never  while  talking  through  the  entire  alphabet.  The  worksheets  with  the  entire  

alphabet  were  intended  to  help  this,  but  I  am  not  sure  that  most  students  could  remember  all  the  

letters  in  the  alphabet  on  their  own  and  write  them  from  memory.  Due  to  these  factors,  I  feel  that  

the  uppercase  letter  assessment  was  perhaps  not  the  most  helpful,  or  that  it  should  have  been  

adapted  to  better  fit  the  developmental  level  of  my  students.    

  On  the  other  hand,  the  lowercase  letter  results  look  very  positive  as  far  as  progress  and  

growth  on  the  students’  part.  Only  two  letters  have  one  more  error  in  the  September  test  than  in  

the  August  assessment.    I  am  hopeful  that  this  data  was  a  result  of  the  students  focused  

application  of  the  strategies  I  modeled  and  encouraged.  I  especially  saw  tremendous  growth  in  

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three  of  my  students.  All  three  of  these  students  are  especially  low  in  their  reading  abilities  

(currently  reading  at  an  early  kindergarten  level).  The  first  receives  special  education  for  reading  

and  math,  and  the  second  and  third  have  both  been  diagnosed  with  ADD/ADHD.  I  am  fully  aware  

that  these  special  needs  and  disabilities  may  be  huge  factors  in  their  handwriting  abilities.  

However,  I  was  pleased  to  note  that  the  first  student  made  20  errors  on  her  pre-­‐test  and  12  on  

the  post-­‐test.  The  second  student  made  21  errors  on  the  pre-­‐test  and  15  on  the  post-­‐test  (and  14  

of  those  15  errors  were  writing  lowercase  letters  instead  of  uppercase  letters).  The  third  student  

showed  perhaps  the  most  growth  and  clearly  applied  himself  to  this  assessment,  whereas  most  

of  his  other  work  was  quickly  done  and  very  messy.  He  had  15  errors  in  his  pre-­‐test  and  just  6  on  

his  post-­‐test!    

  Regardless  of  whether  or  not  a  student  could  write  neatly  or  knew  how  to  correctly  form  

the  letters,  one  of  the  biggest  factors  in  neat,  accurate  handwriting  seems  to  be  the  amount  of  

time  and  attention  spent  on  it.  Even  some  of  the  students  who  were  higher  academically  and  who  

were  excellent  artists  and  writers,  would  produce  unintelligible  writing  when  they  rushed  

through  it  and  did  not  pay  attention.  When  attention  was  focused  and  movements  were  slowed,  

the  result  seemed  to  be  much  clearer  and  correct.    

 

Conclusion    

Considering  the  challenge  in  integrating  additional  curriculum  into  a  very  full  class  

schedule  over  the  course  of  a  month,  I  believe  I  successfully  integrated  handwriting  in  many  

different  forms,  covering  a  breadth  of  needs  and  challenge  areas.  I  created  items,  such  as  the  

“Handwriting  House”,  worksheets  and  interactive  experiences,  which  my  cooperating  teacher  

can  hopefully  continue  to  integrate  into  the  classroom  even  after  I  have  moved  to  my  next  

placement.  I  also  believe  that  I  did  a  good  job  responding  to  students’  weaknesses  and  concerns  

with  handwriting,  while  still  connecting  the  worksheets  and  projects  into  the  curriculum  at  

opportune  times  during  the  school  day.    

  In  hindsight,  I  can  see  so  many  components  of  this  project  that  I  would  have  changed.  

Examples  of  this  would  be  the  upper  vs.  lowercase  letter  confusion  that  prevailed  and  

significantly  altered  my  data  results.  I  did  not  spend  very  much  time  explicitly  teaching  the  

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difference  between  these  letters,  nor  did  I  give  students  guided  support  and  modeling  on  how  to  

record  the  alphabet  from  memory.  I  was  also  disappointed  that  I  did  not  include  names  and  

numbers  in  the  pre-­‐test,  because  I  collected  about  half  of  this  data  and  then  was  not  able  

compare  it  to  the  beginning  of  the  project.  Unfortunately,  I  did  not  delineate  these  goals  and  

prioritize  them  in  my  approach  to  this  project.  Instead,  I  tried  to  target  each  of  these  goals  

simultaneously,  resulting  in  a  loss  of  focus  in  lesson-­‐planning  and  slightly  skewed  results  in  the  

students’  work.  For  my  next  progress-­‐monitoring  project  I  will  clearly  define  my  goals  and  the  

end-­‐result  I  am  looking  for  before  I  begin  creating  and  implementing  the  strategies.  I  will  also  

provide  more  opportunities  for  success  by  requiring  specific  and  repeated  practice  in  the  exact  

skills/behaviors  I  want  my  students  to  perform.    

  Through  this  project,  I  learned  so  much  about  the  importance  of  step-­‐by-­‐step  instruction  

for  complex  visual  and  fine  motor  activities,  especially  with  first  grade.  So  many  motions  and  

ideas,  especially  in  handwriting  are  almost  impossible  to  explain  without  demonstrating  or  

diagraming  in  front  of  the  students.  As  mentioned  before,  I  also  found  that  it  is  key  to  get  

students  into  the  correct  mindset  and  physical  state  where  they  are  able  to  slow  down  and  focus  

on  their  handwriting  in  order  to  get  the  best  results.