Italic Handwriting Instruction Manual
Teach handwriting with ease! This guide walks you through italic letterforms, cursive joins, assessments, and style—no guesswork, just clear steps, clever tips, and confidence-boosting results for every grade.
$21.75
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The Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Instruction Manual (4th Edition) is the companion volume to Books A through G of the series. It's written for the parent or teacher running the program at home or in a classroom, and it covers the why and how of teaching italic at every level—not just one grade.
Inside you'll find scope and sequence for the full series, lesson-by-lesson notes for each workbook, teaching and assessment strategies, creative student activities, adaptations for special needs, vocabulary, and classroom management guidance. The guide walks through how to teach the italic letter families, capitals, and cursive joins.
The Instruction Manual is a good fit if you want the full picture of the Getty-Dubay method, plan to use the series across multiple children or years, or want guidance on adapting the program for a child with special needs.
Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about this product below:
Some general recommendations:
- Plan on practicing no more than a page at one sitting.
- Spend some time during practice doing some self-assessment. Encourage the student to choose which letters (or joins) they did well, have them mark them and try to replicate those. Ask them to choose which ones they feel do not match the model and therefore need a mental plan (e.g. “I want the ‘h’ ascender downstroke to be straighter”.)
- Put practice to use as soon as you can. For instance, try to avoid asking them to practice a single letter over and over.
- While you might be tempted to jump around in the book, we suggest going page by page, reading all the material as you go.
- Do start with the “Pre-Test” sample of your student's current handwriting. It will be important to see how your student's handwriting has changed over time when the book is finished and the student does the “Post-test".
While you may experience improved handwriting after just a few sessions, most gains will come from repeated practice over time. Handwriting is a lifelong skill built up over many years of study. As you use the workbook, encourage the student to try out your new handwriting on other school work, especially spelling and vocabulary lists, writing short compositions, thank you notes, and other correspondence.
- October 5, 2024
Great program
KitMama
I like that the manual covers all the levels in one place so you only need to buy it once. It has a lot of helpful information and tips for teaching each level.
- June 13, 2024
Simply great
Brittany T.
Such a great writing program and I will continue to use this program for the foreseeable future.
- September 12, 2020
Instruction Manual
Morgan P.
I was very excited to see that Timberdoodle carries this series as it adds to my one stop shop of items. I'm happy that I bought the manual this year. It is one manual for all the levels and I plan on continuing to use this series for our family.
- October 24, 2008
Used this series with eight children!
Kellyanne E.
I have been using this handwriting program for almost 20 years. I have used it with eight children (so far!) and I have been very pleased with the results. The children have been able to use the books without difficulty (or tears, a big plus). Some of my children have really made the effort to duplicate the beautiful handwriting in the books and have even been inspired to try the calligraphic hand taught in book G. Some of my children have not been as eager to emphasize their handwriting to that degree. However, even those who took the "only what is required" attitude, have fine, legible handwriting.
