Megan Gilbert’s Reflection- Graves chap. 15-17

I wrote my reflection on chapter seventeen. This chapter addresses handwriting development. This chapter was very interesting to me because I have always been told that I have nice handwriting, but I hold my pencil wrong and I should correct that because I will be writing in front of my students. I don’t want to be an example of any bad habits in writing, but I’ve found that trying to hold my writing utensils correctly is much more difficult than I thought it would be. This chapter helps explain to me why that is. I have been developing different muscles in my arm as I learned to write the way I do. In order to change this, I have to develop a different group of muscles and that will take some time.

Anyway, the chapter starts out by viewing handwriting as an assessment tool. Course and progress of development can be shown through handwriting. It is dependent on pressure and control of the hand and arm muscles. It also discussed the five different phases of handwriting. They are the getting-it-down phase, the first aesthetics phase, the growing age of convention phase, the breaking conventions phase, and later aesthetics phase. I enjoyed reading this chapter because it not only taught me something but it also informed me of how I can better teach my students so that they will not repeat my bad habits.