Cursive Writing: A Controversial Issue In Our Culture

I. Introduction: Cursive writing is a controversial issue in our culture today. According to Vi Supon (2009), “...technological advances and state-mandated tests, in addition to other variables, are forcing cursive writing to become a casualty of the American educational landscape” (p. 357). Because of the aforementioned factors, cursive writing is gradually fading from the classroom, and some students do not even know how to read or write in cursive. This case study is the result of one student’s desire to learn a skill that is gradually fading from our society: cursive writing.

II. The Child Himself/Herself: Madison is fourteen years old, and she is full of life. Like any other normal teenager, Madison enjoys spending time with her friends. Additionally, Madison loves fishing, camping, drawing, horse riding, gymnastics, swim, and dancing; she is a very busy girl. Because of her troubled

For example, Madison did fine when it came to forming a cursive “c” at the beginning of a word; however, when she tried to form a cursive “c” within the word, she elevated the letter “c” so that it was slightly higher than her other letters. This caused a connectivity issue for her other letters, and it was difficult to decipher the spelling of certain words; consequently, I modeled how to write correctly write a “c” within words, and Madison practiced this concept based on my modeling. I then gave her a similar packet and had her do the alphabet cursive writing task again. Next, I created some cursive writing sheets with Madison’s first/last name, and I had her practice tracing and writing her name in cursive. Eventually, I had Madison write her name in cursive without looking at samples. Lastly, I gave Madison several cursive paragraph packets, and she began to practice writing complete pages of cursive by copying the