Hi Danielle,
I sympathize with how this must feel as a classroom teacher. With so many expectations and responsibilities to get through each day, it can definitely be a balancing act trying to figure out how to prioritize one of your most precious commodities: instructional time. I understand and appreciate the sense that there is no time to waste, so ensuring all of your students are making letter stroke marks identically to their classmates might seem reasonable as the first to hit the chopping block.
Bear with me through a quick anecdote: Several years ago, I was asked to partake in a demonstration. I was given a pretty easy topic to write about and told to do so with my non-dominant hand (in my case, my left). After two minutes, I was directed to stop and then was given a new topic, which I had another two minutes to write on now with my dominant hand (right). In comparing these two writing samples, it was unsurprising to find that my handwriting with my dominant hand was superior. What was surprising was how many other differences the two samples had from each other. The writing that I performed with my left hand was not only messier, but it was significantly shorter in word count than when I was able to write with my preferred hand. But what surprised me the most was that the impact of using my left hand didn’t only make my writing messier and slower; it also impacted what I wrote. The language used when writing with my left hand was objectively simpler and less robust than that which I was able to write with my dominant hand.
This exercise was a very clear illustration to me of the importance of automaticity when we write. Writing with my nondominant hand took more concentration and executive thinking, which clearly impacted the cognitive resources I was able to use on the actual content of what I was writing.
While letter formation practice in part aims to teach students the most efficient way to form each letter to make the writing connected letters and words as smooth as possible, it also helps students practice each letter consistently- the same way each and every time in every classroom. This practice is not intended to be lengthy; short bursts of daily practice opportunities work best here. Like phonics and decoding practice, this repetition aims to lead to effortless automaticity, so that when students are writing, they are able to more fully concentrate on the content they are writing, rather than the mechanical process of doing so.
The second part of your question, wondering about the relevance of handwriting at all in this increasingly digital world, is a bit more loaded. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m not ready to let go of the importance of writing by hand- for students or adults.
The physical act of forming letters engages more complex motor pathways (the neural networks that transmit signals from the brain), which seems to reinforce connections between the movement of physically writing letters, words, and ideas and language and cognition. This can not only help students improve their letter recognition when they are first practicing their alphabet knowledge, but can also serve them later in their reading development, and even recall of information. Have you ever noticed that you tend to remember things better when you write them down? It’s one of the reasons I continue to keep handwritten to-do and shopping lists.
Because handwriting is typically slower than typing, it can encourage students to process information more deliberately, leading to deeper understanding. Even in a digital world, these cognitive skills remain not only relevant but vital. I know handwriting feels like an easy instructional practice to put on the chopping block, but I implore you to reconsider your apathy for it. Giving students the opportunity to slow down is good for them, both short- and long-term.