[nobe-l] question about teaching writing

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi Kelsey,
This is a very interesting discussion.
I have thought about tutoring or teaching so I'm on this list.

Unfortunately, I think this student given her age may not be the best fit.
True you can teach some of the skills like letter recognition to her and its 
great you have thought of adaptations.

But this young girl needs someone to teach her how to form the letters and 
someone to examine her handwriting.
Since you are totally blind, you don't know how to teach her the letters 
without knowing them yourself.
Yes you could learn what the letters look like, but you have not been taught 
and mastered the skill of forming letters with a pencil.

You could teach her some of the skills of writing such as making straight 
lines and curvy lines.
If  you learned the letters yourself, you could even help her practice 
making letters.
Do this with a method suggested by Heather or Greg.

If she is agreeable to it, you can monitor her movement by  placing your 
hand over hers.

But, if she is just learning letters, I'm not sure you would be the best 
fit.
It depends on how much handwriting practice she needs which is visual versus 
other related tasks.

I'm not saying a blind person cannot monitor handwriting, but I think for a 
kindergartner who is just starting out, they need someone sighted to show 
them how to form the letters on the lines. They will learn what are tall and 
short letters and which letters go below the line and up to the dotted line.
I know print btw as I'v vision impaired. I learned with large print dark 
lined paper.
So, I know how important  learning the shapes and position of letters are 
from experience.

Good luck with  your decision.
Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: Kelsey Nicolay via nobe-l
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 1:11 PM
To: nobe-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Kelsey Nicolay
Subject: [nobe-l] question about teaching writing

Hello,
I am a registered tutor on Wyzant.com. I received an inquiry from a mom who
is looking for an elementary tutor for her daughter who is going into
kindergarten next year. She stated that her daughter needs help with
phonics, letter recognition, handwriting, etc. I can teach phonics and
letter recognition without much of any adaptation since I can purchase flash
cards with the print letters for the student and then braille them for me so
I can tell if she is getting the letters right or not. I can also find
phonics books in Braille and provide information for the family to purchase
the books or braille the books myself. However, I am not sure how I could
help with handwriting. I am totally blind, so I learned Braille from the
beginning and never learned print. Therefore, is there any reliable way a
totally blind person can teach a sighted student to print letters without
sighted assistance? What adaptations would I need in order to help the
student with this skill? I've tutored test preparation with a high school
student before and never had a problem since the student had his own laptop
he brought with him to sessions. However, I have never had to tutor a
sighted pre kindergarten student before, so I would appreciate any advice on
this.
Thank you,
Kelsey Nicolay
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