Beyond writing: The development of literacy in the Ancient Near East

Previous discussions of the origins of writing in the Ancient Near East have not incorporated the neuroscience of literacy, which suggests that when southern Mesopotamians wrote marks on clay in the late-fourth millennium, they inadvertently reorganized their neural activity, a factor in manipulating the writing system to reflect language, yielding literacy through a combination of neurofunctional change and increased script fidelity to language. Such a development appears to take place only with a sufficient demand for writing and reading, such as that posed by a state-level bureaucracy; the use of a material with suitable characteristics; and the production of marks that are conventionalized, handwritten, simple, and non-numerical. From the perspective of Material Engagement Theory, writing and reading represent the interactivity of bodies, materiality, and brains: movements of hands, arms, and eyes; clay and the implements used to mark it and form characters; and vision, motor planning, object recognition, and language. Literacy is a cognitive change that emerges from and depends upon the nexus of interactivity of the components

A Multiple Case Study of Primary Grade School Teachers\u27 Experiences with Using Colors to Teach Writing

In this case study, I focused on understanding how primary grade school teachers in public schools in the United States use colors during writing instruction. During literacy instruction, the teacher communicates how to perform the writing process for students to become effective writers. Primary grade school teachers described how and why they use colors during writing instruction and how they learned to use colors for writing instruction and to assess their students’ writing. The theory guiding this study is Jerome Bruner’s instructional theory, supported by Cambourne’s conditions for literacy learning and the sociocultural writing theory. Data were collected through individual interviews, examining teacher-created documents developed during writing instruction, and observations of teachers using colors to provide writing instruction. To create a comprehensive description of each case, the data were first analyzed using a within-case analysis followed by a cross-case analysis. Similarities and differences between the teachers’ experiences regarding using colors during writing instruction were identified during the cross-case analysis. Twelve primary grade school teachers who work at public schools in the United States participated in this study. They provided more than 50 documents that they had created during writing instruction, even though they expressed having limited training. While participants had not received any training on how to use colors, they used colors during writing instruction in numerous ways to help students to discriminate between things, which makes writing easier for the students

The relationship between poor handwriting and written composition in children with developmental coordination disorder

Handwriting difficulties are well documented in children with Developmental Coordination\ud Disorder (DCD). Whether, and how, these difficulties affect the content of the work such\ud children produce is less clear. The aim of this thesis was to explore the relationship between\ud poor handwriting and the quality of written expression in these children, using different\ud methodologies.\ud Four studies are reported. In the first, a group of 10-11 year-old children whose teachers\ud regarded their writing difficulties as "unexpected" were compared with matched controls.\ud Objective measurement showed that they had at least average intelligence, could read and\ud spell adequately and did not differ from the control group in their ability to produce stories\ud orally. Consequently, the poor hand- and story writing revealed in the study could not be\ud explained in terms of poor intellect or general language or literacy problems. However, all met\ud criteria for the diagnosis of DCD. The second study confirmed that the physical act of\ud handwriting supported the ability to compose a story in typically developing children but\ud conferred no such advantage if handwriting and movement difficulties were present. When\ud children from Study 1 were followed up after five years, those whose handwriting had not\ud improved continued to have difficulty with written composition.\ud Having shown that poor handwriting can affect the conceptual side of writing, the final study\ud set out to determine which particular aspects of handwriting difficulty might constrain the\ud cognitive resources available for composition. To this end, the effect of increasing motor and\ud orthographic complexity on the spatial, temporal and force aspects of handwriting was\ud explored in a series of writing tasks varying in content, length and difficulty. Consistent with\ud the capacity theory tested, results showed that variations in motor and orthographic\ud complexity affected writing performance in all children, but those with DCD and poor\ud handwriting were affected more

A Line in Motion

This is a graphic account, showing various spaces found in a work of Chinese calligraphy, using, for analysis, the work of contemporary calligrapher Noriko Maeda, historical examples by Wang Hui, Wang Xizhi, Wen Cheng Ming, Dong Qichang and Li Chun’s treatise on calligraphy, The 84 Laws. Chinese calligraphy is a spatial practice: a sensibility combining graphic design and kinesis. The Chinese character is a line graph centered within an imaginary square and written in a prescribed way using rules of stroke order, ensuring that the lines of a word are added systematically, and in the same order each time the word is painted. In Chinese calligraphy, the hand moves in the x- and y-axes – horizontally, vertically, laterally, diagonally – and the z-axis – up and down in relation to the paper. Stroke order ensures that no move is repeated successively. When a brush makes contact with a hard surface, the tip flexes, and the brush responds to a downward force; in this way, a brushstroke is a record of a hand gesture. Going beyond a two-dimensioned graphic, the brush makes active the up-and-down axis, the z-axis; writing is a gesture that operates in three dimensions: as one writes, the hand inscribes a physical space, moves circuitously over a spot while pushing and lifting the brush. But the Chinese character is also a descriptor of time. The five styles – Hsiao Chuan, Li, Tsao, Chen, Tsing – represent the evolution of the character form in its relation to the timing of the strokes. The calligrapher’s art is in his control of timing: in essence, knowing when to stop, when to go, and when to turn. Environmental and emotional circumstances affect the calligrapher’s sense of timing, so that every piece of calligraphy is unique, specific to the moment of its creation. A brush character is not a simple graphic, but rather, it is a notation of movement, mapping the passage of the hand over the page. A piece of calligraphy demonstrates a hand and brush in motion, the product of a moment’s creativity at a specific place and time