Researchers have long recognized the value of handwriting instruction. But that didn’t hit home for sixth grade teacher Chie Sipin-Bjarenas until her own son entered her grade level and she began to address his dysgraphia–a learning disability that affected his ability to write clearly. As Sipin-Bjarenas learned, good handwriting is the sum of many small habits, and things like fine motor skills and the way a student holds their paper can make a big difference. Her approach: Help all students develop fine motor skills by practicing how to hold a pencil in the traditional triangular grip. Teach them that paper should be tilted and held firmly in place by the nondominant hand. Students must also learn to apply the right pressure to pencil and paper–neither too loose nor too tight. And to improve letter formation, Sipin-Bjarenas projects lined paper onto a screen and talks students through the strokes for each letter, favoring the ones in Denise Eide’s The Rhythm of Handwriting seri...