Thinking about lined paper and the harm or help it does for children. Or do children ignore the lines on the paper like I do and like authors do as their words move across illustrated pages. I'd like to ask some youngsters at school if lines matter to them. If you look at some of these 1st grade examples, what do you think? They use lined paper, as well as, index cards, unlined construction paper, and blank computer paper.
I too found it interesting to look more closely at writing with lined paper. I will admit, when I was young I used to love to write on lined paper. I have my earliest memory of my own stories on lined paper. I can see where it can seem restricting, but when I was six I never thought of it in that way. It goes to show how ideas and thoughts change over the years.
ReplyDeleteCan this lined paper be helpful to students without restricting them in their future writing? I think so! My mom taught me both printing and cursive using various types of lined paper. I remember thinking it was very fun and challenging to try to properly fit my letters into the lines. I also enjoyed cursive handwriting. I saw it as "adult" and a gateway into a world I wanted to be a part of. As much as I practiced, I was never one to have great handwriting. In fact, I hate writing on the board at school because if having "teacher handwriting" was a qualification for teaching, I'd never cut it!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the message we can send to students WITH the lined paper rather than the paper itself being restrictive? I don't think that my success as a child or student was wrapped up in the practice of writing. I think that learning happened so organically, that I wasn't intimidated by a mere tool. I remember when I started writing on notebook paper and I didn't pay attention to the margins. My mom gently corrected me. It wasn't a big deal. I think she presented it not as a "have to" but as a convention that it was good to know about.
So...this was a long response. But I think I'm trying to say that the tool or concept can't be all bad. It's the false significance that we often give to these conventions that can create the difficulties for some children. Great stuff right?