• AVKO Educational Research Foundation
  A non-profit organization devoted to helping
  teachers, parents, and researchers since 1974
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  AVKO comes from Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, & Oral a multi-sensory approach.

  Let's Write Right

  Manuscript & Cursive Handwriting

  Teacher's Lesson Plan & Student Worksheets

  W332 - $26.95                          8½x11  Loose leaf 3 ring Binder  248 pp.                  ISBN:   1-56400-030-3

  Extra Student Worksheets

   

  W333 - $12.95 ea., $8.95 in quantities of 15 or more.           8½x11  81 pp., .                   ISBN:   1-56400-036-2
  

  Rimes & More Rhymes

  A Classroom Resource Book for Writing Poetry
  (And Learning Spelling Patterns!)  Completely cross-referenced to Let's Write Right
   
  W331 - $29.95              8½x11  258 pp.             Spiral Binding           ISBN:  1-56400-026-5
   
  W330 - Examination Set of Both Books: $49.95, a $6.95 savings

   

  Vocabulary can be systematically taught through handwriting, teaching spelling patterns, and teaching the Greek, French, and Latin roots.  If your school needs help in combining these three, contact the AVKO Foundation. We do inservices on vocabulary building via spelling and handwriting exercises, both manuscript and cursive, and on helping students increase their writing speed whether writing in D'Nealian or Italic or any other handwriting system.

   

  A research-based approach designed specifically to teach reading and spelling skills through the backdoor of penmanship (manuscript or cursive handwriting) exercises:
    

• Emphasis is on legibility - Wide latitude is given for individuality provided the letters cannot be mistaken for another.   Legibility is essential.  Orthography (correct spelling and letter formation) is stressed, and opportunities for calligraphy are available for the advanced students.
    

• Students learn spelling/reading sequentially as the alphabet is taught - not after. With just the letters abc and d, we have: a cab, a dad, and bad.   Next come the letters r, s, and t because they are so useful.  Now we can have a car, a card, and a cart as well as a tar, star, tart, tarts, start and starts etc. The rest of the alphabet follows in alphabetical order.   By using rst early, q naturally is followed by u.
    

• Just by learning to make the connecting strokes, students learn to write cursive. With just the letters a, b, c, and d, we have: a cab, a dad, a dab, and bad.   Teachers using D'Nealian and/or Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting textbooks can use this text for lesson plans and adapt accordingly, but stressing legibility.
    

• Teachers can help their students learn to read cursive as they are learning to write manuscript. The handwriting text does not have bunny rabbits and balloons that tend to be demeaning to older students. Yet, there is room for students to illustrate their own text. This can be fun for both the younger and the older students.  
    

• Students practice writing manuscript and cursive letters in context of phonically consistent patterns rather than in isolation within unrelated words.  As they practice their handwriting they are learning to spell without having to memorize words or spelling rules.

An unsolicited testimonial:

Dear Don,

I have written you several times before regarding Sequential Spelling
and how much we love it, but I am writing you now about Let's Write
Right.  My son (9 yo, 10 in November) started the program a couple of
months ago, and it has changed his life (and mine too!).

He did not have a total handle on printing (we were using italic) yet,
and still struggled with some reversals and letter formations.  So I
started him on Let's Write Right and was going to take him through
manuscript again.  That lasted one lesson.  He saw the cursive on the
page, and he wanted to do cursive.  I told him we would go through it,
then go back and do cursive, but I caught him writing cursive letters
on the side of his page.  So I told him to go for it.

He LOVES writing cursive.  And you have made it SO easy and almost
effortless for him to learn.  We have only completed Unit 1, but he is
doing all his written work in cursive now.  He has either looked up the
rest of the letters or asked me how to make them.  I finally gave up
asking him to do his spelling in manuscript.  If he has a letter he is
unsure how to make, he asks me, I demonstrate it for him, and he
finishes the word.

This is a child that hates repetitive work.  But he has been making up
his own worksheets, and writing "little" phrases and sentences over and
over and over.  Every night he lies in bed and writes words and phrases
in a little notebook.  He is so thrilled that he can write cursive.

I think that writing in cursive is helping him in his spelling.  I
think it helps him to think in terms of words, rather than individual
letters.  Since he has been writing in cursive, he is not balking at
written work.  I am amazed.  Now, he does get tired and sometimes he
wants to postpone it.  But he does not just refuse and say he can't do
it anymore.  It does not overwhelm him.  And he is so proud of what he
has done.

And last week we added a new assignment to his spelling program.  Once
a week (or more often if he wants) he chooses a word.  Then he can
either write the word and illustrate it, or write a sentence using it. 
He has been writing a sentence and illustrating.  He is very proud of
"The bloated goat floated by" and the accompanying hilarious picture. 
He wants me to copy it and send it to you, which I shall do as soon as
I get a cartridge for the printer.

I have his assignments (copywork, etc.) written in a spiral notebook. 
He does them in order and checks them off when he is done.  That way we
can keep moving without having to put pressure on him to finish
everything before we move on.

I appreciate how the writing lessons are done.  Normally, it is like
pulling hen's teeth to get him to sit down and write something.  But
once we go over the letter formation together, he is able to sit and do
his writing lesson ON HIS OWN!  He traces, then covers and writes from
memory.  And he loves it!

Thank you once again, not only for Sequential Spelling, but also for
Let's Write Right.  I'm sure that once we begin the keyboarding program
I'll be writing you again.

Blessings on you,
Kelly Stinson
--I believe that education is all about being excited about something.
Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.
-Steve Irwin