SMED, the association that promotes the cursive writing project
From the courses held by Monica Dengo at the Comprehensive Institute of Terranuova Bracciolini, from her meeting with Laura Bravar, from the involvement of her students, from the experience of the working group linked to this site, SMED - Scrivere a Mano nell'Era was born. Digitale, the association that promotes the cursive writing project and more generally "the study, knowledge, learning and good practices related to handwriting as a crucial component of cultural literacy in the digital age".
SMED proposes to innovate the teaching of handwriting by applying the guidelines of Cursive Writing. This project, still in progress, was conceived by Monica Dengo with the participation of Laura Bravar and was developed with the other founding members of SMED. From this collaboration, our teaching materials and our reflection on teaching handwriting in school were born.
Writing at School, the experience at the Comprehensive Institute of Terranuova Bracciolini (Arezzo)
The collaboration in this school began in 2008 with a short calligraphy course aimed at children of a fifth grade class. From there the idea of a pilot project was born for the introduction of a new model of cursive writing to be proposed starting from the first elementary grades. The project became executive thanks to the manager Alberto Riboletti, the teachers Sabrina Martinelli, Antonia Romano, Patrizia Briano, Sira Margiacchi, and the Municipality of Terranuova Bracciolini which financed it.
In 2012, after completing the third grade, the pupils of the classes involved achieved more than satisfactory results. I believe that extending the course until the end of the eighth grade is useful for children (if not indispensable) because the learning of writing must be accompanied by continuous attention to the forms, so that their gesture matures in a clear and well-structured way even in speed that they acquire over the years.