teaching kids

cena

Do teachers not show kids how the hold there pencils the right way anymore.

Also I feel the kids education is this day and age isn't what it was like when I was youngers. Take this when I was in senior infants we were doing ten and units compared to doing it in second class.

Anyone else feel this way.

An Bradán Feasa

No.

byhookorbycrook

Yes, they are shown how to hold a pencil properly, but many have been shown the incorrect grip before starting school by well-intentioned parents. Not sure when you were at school but we didn't do tens and units in infants.

cena

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Yes, they are shown how to hold a pencil properly, but many have been shown the incorrect grip before starting school by well-intentioned parents. Not sure when you were at school but we didn't do tens and units in infants.

It was a small school in galway. and yes we did do it it in infants.

I just feel alot of teachers want kids too know how to hold a pencil if they been too a playschool etc.

byhookorbycrook

Small schools have mixed level classes-you might have 4 classes in one room, hence those children able to latch on could get concepts being taught to older classes (1st/2nd)

Paulbeth

Yes, they are shown how to hold a pencil properly, but many have been shown the incorrect grip before starting school by well-intentioned parents.

I doubt that many parents actually teach their children to hold a pencil at all. I'm not a primary school teacher so I don't know much about the formal teaching of small children but, from my own experience, children seem to just hold their pencils correctly by the time they're three and a half or four. Some, of course, may not have the usual/correct grip, but most would, wouldn't they? I mean, without their parents' intervention.

evolving_doors

excuse my ignorance but what is the 'correct'' way? Is there research to back this up?

the_syco

Paulbeth wrote: »

many have been shown the incorrect grip before starting school by well-intentioned parents.

<snip>

children seem to just hold their pencils correctly by the time they're three and a half or four. Some, of course, may not have the usual/correct grip, but most would, wouldn't they? I mean, without their parents' intervention.

I'm thinking that either the parent shows them their weird grip, or they copy their parents weird grip. Or if not the parents, whomever they have most interaction with (which in some cases may be a grandparent)?

J_E

I still use an 'incorrect grip' and I'm 19, go figure. Didn't learn it for everyone, just held it in a way that felt right. Teachers tried to show me the 'right' way to do it but I couldn't do it like that.

Feeona

I think there's a huge misconception that all a teacher has to do is say 'Start your sentence with a capital letter' or 'Hold your pencil the right way' and every child in the classroom will magically do it right the first time and every time after that. Any experienced teacher will tell you that's not the way it happens.

Teachers teach these things in school, but children don't hear, or they're looking out the window, they're looking at their friend, they're day-dreaming, they've ADHD, they've ADD, they're on the autistic spectrum, they're hungry, they're upset about something on yard, they're just not interested.......infinite reasons why a child won't learn to hold a pencil the right way, or learn to write the letter b correctly. It's not as easy as saying 'The teacher didn't teach it to them in school'. Sometimes it's down to the child's parents-the parents had a bad time at school when they were younger, so their child goes into school not wanting to learn. Maybe the child doesn't get any help or back up at home, and so the only time he/she is learning anything is when he/she is in school (unfortunately, the child would be competing with 30 other children for the teacher's attention).

E.T.

From my own experience, more and more children are coming to school with very weak fine motor skills. I can't get over the amount of children who've never made a jigsaw, held a paintbrush or pencil, or had to tie their own coat before they start school.

With this level coming in, I have to hold back on teaching penmanship for much longer than before. Way more work has to be done on pre-writing than before. I do correct childrens' pencil grip, but a lot of them just don't have the ability to hold it properly yet.

The grip that's usually recommended is the tripod grip, which is holding the pencil loosely between the thumb and first two fingers. If a different way works for an adult, and they're able to write large amounts (eg essays, exams) without difficulty, then that's fine.