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Teacher Review for Handwriting Without Tears: Wet-Dry-Try Suite for Capitals, Numbers & Lowercase

HWT: Great hands-on program, disappointing app

Cassie P.
 Special education instructor
West Virginia School for the Blind
Romney, United States
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My Subjects English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Arts, English-Language Learning, Health & Wellness
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My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It No
My Students Learned Yes
I Would Recommend It No
Setup Time Less than 5 minutes
Great for Individual
Practice
Great with Low literacy
How I Use It
I used this app with students who have special needs and fine motor difficulties. Students became very frustrated because when tracing the lines for the letters, their tracing was not spot on, which is required to move on to the next letter. Frustration occurred when students traced very closely to the guides provided, but not close enough to advance.
My Take
I am a big fan of the Handwriting Without Tears program and its use of multi-sensory approaches to teach letter formation; however, this app would best be used with students who need just a little more practice in forming letters. Use of the app should be supported by hands-on activities to improve fine motor skills. Additional visual aspects or auditory feedback would be most beneficial. Currently, the app would likely be placed at the Substitution level of the SAMR model. In order to move up the SAMR ladder, students could be required to write complete words using given letters to add a phonics component to the app, or choose words that have the same beginning or ending sound as the letter they are practicing.