New eLearning content and assessment materials, developed by the Iowa Reading Research Center (IRRC), are now available to help educators assess their students’ handwriting fluency. 

These materials come as an update to the IRRC’s LIFTER (Letter Identification and Formation for Transcription and Early Reading) application, a resource for providing flexible instruction of print handwriting. After releasing a cursive instruction application earlier this summer, the IRRC is excited to continue expanding its offerings for free handwriting materials. With the latest update to LIFTER, educators not only have access to video models of letter formation and downloadable PDFs of student worksheets, but also assessment materials. 

First, educators are encouraged to visit the LIFTER eLearning module to learn why handwriting fluency is important, how to administer and score handwriting assessments, and how to make data-based instructional decisions to support their students’ continued skill development. 

The handwriting assessments include two tasks which have been shown to be reliable measures for assessing handwriting fluency: an alphabet task and a copy task. For the alphabet task, students write the letters of the alphabet from memory as many times as they can in one minute. For the copy task, students copy a model text as many times as they can in 90 seconds. 

Each task is accompanied by an administration guide which outlines the materials educators need to administer the assessment, procedures to follow, and scoring guidelines. Videos on the eLearning module supplementally model the procedural guidelines from the administration guide. 

Fostering a solid foundation of early writing skills, such as handwriting skills, allows students to develop more complex writing skills over time. With handwriting assessments, educators can ensure that their students are developing handwriting fluency with proficiency that is appropriate for their grade level, setting students up for long-term literacy success.

To learn more about handwriting assessment, visit the LIFTER webpage.