Writing improves reading

Saying sound spellings out loud as you write them is a form of active processing that reinforces patterns and deepens comprehension. Letters, words and sentences are a sound code to be deciphered. For this code, reading and writing go hand-in-hand: Reading is decoding, writing is encoding.

Writing improves spelling

Writing links sounds to letters, reveals patterns, and forces you to self-correct and assess your own sound spelling knowledge.

Writing builds muscle memory

Frequent writing leads to fluency and automaticity. The more parts of your body used to learn something, the faster it will be learned and the better it will stick in your memory. See and hear the sound-letter (phoneme-grapheme) correspondences, write and say the sound spellings.

Writing allows you to become a writer

Writing is hard. It takes a huge cognitive load to write — letter formation, spelling, word choice, organization, planning. Therefore, fluent letter formation is foundational to the development of other writing, reading and thinking skills.

Print out the following pages to practice letter formation: