Teachers Are Giving Middle Schoolers Letter-Tracing Assignments

"Kids can't write. My middle-schoolers have a very, very, very hard time physically handwriting anything, just in general. A lot of times it will just be illegible,"

"I printed out three pages of third-grade level handwriting tracing.,"

"When I gave this to my kids, I got hit back with a lot of discourse from them. Like, ;this is so elementary, this is so easy.' And I was like, okay, if it's so easy, consider it an easy A. If it's so easy, then do it,"

"And I want all of your handwriting in all of your assignments that you hand in to me to reflect your work on this. I wouldn't be giving this to you if you didn't need it."

A fifth-grader received a thick practice book for tracing letters to rebuild handwriting skills. Many ten-year-olds missed most of kindergarten during the pandemic and remain behind on foundational handwriting despite remote learning and at-home support. Teachers across the country are backtracking to basics and sometimes using worksheets intended for much younger students. Middle-school and upper-elementary students often produce illegible handwriting and struggle with physically writing. Some educators assign third-grade level tracing pages and require consistent application of improved handwriting across submitted work. Students sometimes resist simpler practice while parents and teachers share similar remedial experiences.

Read at Scary Mommy