Cursive Learning Experience

Background My group selected the “writing in cursive with non-dominant hand” learning activity. All members agreed upon this activity, as it was a skill we would all be able to effectively do in public or private. Juggling, for example, is a skill that requires motor skills, timing, and extra objects to successfully complete, while writing in cursive simply requires a pencil and piece of paper. During elementary school, I practiced writing in cursive with my dominant (right) hand and therefore already knew how to formulate the letters. As I continued with my practice sessions I developed a strategy to write in large letters; this stemmed from my experiences in elementary school. We used big pieces of paper with dashed lines to learn to
The first session was the hardest by far; my handwriting was hardly decipherable and I was only able to write five sentences in fifteen minutes. After this session, I made a note in my learning journal stating, “I noticed writing really utilizes the wrist, and my left hand acts very stiff while trying to write, which has to be affecting the legibility” (Zumwalt, 1/30/2017). My non-dominant wrist was not as flexible or strong as my right, therefore I hypothesized it would be easier for me to practice writing extra large then gradually write in a smaller letters. This strategy forced my wrist to move with greater control and
I found that writing large was helpful, but I didn’t do it long enough in the second session to really make a difference; I struggled the most with writing anything with a loop (a, e, l, etc.) and my sentences were still very sloppy. Therefore, for the next three practice sessions, I made myself a rule. I allowed myself eight seconds to write largely in cursive (the letters reached about the height of two lines in a notebook). Then for the last seven seconds, I wrote within a single line. The summary of my practice session, as a result, changed. I continued to write, “Eve Zumwalt. I saw a cat in the tree. The cat was black and white.” with my dominant hand as an example. Next, I repeated this statement with my non-dominant hand in large writing for the first half of the session then in smaller writing for remainder in chronological