I know that in general, not many people teach handwriting any more. Has anyone here ever come up with a WBT-esque way of teaching proper handwriting techniques?

It's just strange that in 5th grade there are still kids who are forming their letters from the bottom up and doing some other weird stuff.

Well, I don't teach handwriting, but this seems like an easy one to me...you could just SHOW them (exaggerated to HUGE proportions) the proper way to "draw" a letter in the air (I guess as the teacher, you'd have to do it backwards, so it came out the right way for them?, Or stand with your back to them - probably not a good idea!) and then have them "Teach/OK" to each other. Then, once you see they have the correct way down, let them write it on paper for practice.

- Jen

We do big skywriting first (big letters up in the air so I can see their fluid motions and movements, then we make "air whiteboards" with all of the squeaky noises (don't forget to clean the dirty left corner!) and they use their fingers (magic, invisible markers) to write the letter. Again, I can watch if they are starting in the correct location, etc. Then we trace the letters with dot writing, then they write them on their own. We are doing well with this technique!

This is great technique, with WBT, you go and watch out for air mistakes - squeak squeak. Our OT's have also suggested handwriting with out tears it's on line. Annette.