Basseterre: St. Kitts, Tuesday, November 01, 2 022 Grade 2 teachers from the private and public sectors of education participated in a half-day cursive writing workshop on Tuesday, November 01. The workshop organized and hosted by Ms. Ruth Bedford, Teacher Resource Center Coordinator in the Curriculum Development Unit focused on upskilling teachers in teaching the skill.
Explaining the timeliness of this workshop, Ms. Bedford stated,“Based on the feedback received from schools on the need to address students’ handwriting, we saw it fitting to engage these teachers in this activity so as to address the importance of teaching handwriting and how to teach handwriting.”
Throughout the workshop, teachers were exposed to the various skills and pedagogy of handwriting specifically cursive writing.
One such pedagogy VAPECA was used. Ms. Bedford agreed that teachers should implement VAPECA in the steps to teach handwriting.
When teachers use VAPECA they are activating the multidimensional learning capabilities of their students.
As explained by Ms. Bedford VAPECA involves “visualizing the letter; analyzing the shape of the letter; practicing to write the letter; evaluating the letter written which can be done by the student, their peer or even the teacher; base on feedback the student will then make the necessary correction to the letter after which an application will be given.”
It is hoped that teachers will practice the skills and knowledge gained from this workshop, to help address the issue of poor handwriting among students.