Schreibschrift

Who would have thought that the request that students write out a text to practice for dictation would have stirred up such a hornet's nest?  The first assignment was near impossible to read at times, and then I noticed that only ONE student had written in script.  I changed the directions for the second text, asking that it be written in cursive.  This was one of those days where we worked up till the last moment, so I told the students I would post the homework on Blackboard, something I did in addition to the usual in-class assignment of homework activities.  For this assignment, I give the students the text, which they have to write out by hand two times, and then trace the capital letters in a contrasting color.  The purpose is not only to practice the spelling of the words, but to call students' attention to the fact that capitalization (and the lack of it with some words) is different than English.

As soon as I entered the room before class the next day, a Wednesday, I was inundated by grumbling complaints about the assignment.  Clearly, I had poked the next and the hornets were a-buzzin'.  I heard all sorts of explanations of why this was unfair, including "I don't know how," which upon questioning was not true.  All but one had learned how to write cursive (the one being a Russian student, who had learned to write Cyrillic, but not our alphabet), but had not practiced this kind of writing.  I also heard "I don't know how to form the letters," and "It takes too long to do."  Both of these were quickly addressed.  The book has an illustration of all the letters in cursive German script (they could copy it and thus learn how to write German script, an added bonus).  I was happy to hear that it took longer, as that was exactly I had hoped they would do in the practice, i.e., slowly consider how the words are spelled and capitalized.  In the end I did compromise, saying that at least one of the two copies of the text had to be in traditional cursive.

Now I sit looking at the assignments, and am moved by the absolute beauty of some of the students' handwriting.  Some indeed did look at the German letters, and their writing reminds me of German pupils' school handwriting.  Others had to slow down, and now I am able to read what letters they wrote.  Some wrote both copies in cursive, others just the one copy, where the printed copy was also considerably more legible than in the previous assignment.

In my opinion, this is a serendipitous success.  And although I do not stay up late at night thinking of ways to torment students (as I sometimes tell them), I will continue to require at least one copy in cursive handwriting.