CursiveLogic Speeches

I had the opportunity to review CursiveLogic Speeches and Writings in American History by CursiveLogic. It is a cursive review curriculum for upper grades. CursiveLogic Speeches is part of Timberdoodles 2024 5th Grade Curriculum Kit. What is the point of practicing cursive by copying speeches and writings from American history? Your student may ask. The answer can be found in the explanation below.

A bit of background on CursiveLogic. 

CursiveLogic was developed from the desire of an educator to make cursive learning easier than the current tedious rote memorization method. What made learning cursive fast so important? The founder of CursiveLogic, Linda Shrewsbury, realized that the adults she worked with didn't have a lot of time to learn the skills they needed to catch up as a result of volunteering at a local literacy program. After studying the alphabet at home for quite a while, Linda Shrewsbury recognized a pattern. Four distinct categories or patterns were apparent for each letter of the alphabet. In response to Linda's newfound method, her students were clearly delighted. A student was able to form the entire alphabet in cursive, upper and lower case, in one lesson. The full story can be read here. 

Currently, the big debate is whether children should learn cursive. The CursiveLogic site, Why Cursive?, addresses this question.

Linda's discovery was truly amazing! All lowercase letters are based on four foundational shapes. Students learn to connect letters from the start with CursiveLogic's letter strings, allowing them to flow immediately before learning all of the letters.

CursiveLogic Utilizes Two Key Features To Teach Cursive:

1. Letters grouped by shape ~ utilizes FOUR groupings
2. Letter strings ~ letters in each individual shape group are taught as a connected string in a specific order

Theme Colors ~ Each shape string has a color ~ Orange Ovals, Lime Loops, Silver Swings, and Mauve Mounds. 

By learning the letters by their shapes instead of alphabetically, cursive was learned much faster than the traditional way. By practicing the letters based on similar patterns, the writing strokes became fluid and natural. There is a "catch phrase" for each of the four letter patterns to reinforce how the letters are formed. 

There is a 14-page cursive review of the four letter groupings with practice on letter formation in CursiveLogic Speeches and Writings in American History. It is ideal for students who have never used CursiveLogic before.

The weekly schedule is divided into a 3-day schedule. Read the Profile and Excert. Complete the warm-up and vocabulary exercises. 

Day 1 - Copy the first writing section.

Day 2 - Copy the second writing section.

Day 3 - Write the third writing section.

The following is a list of Great Americans that will be covered in this workbook:

1. Patrick Henry
2. Paul Revere
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. George Washington
6. Frederick Douglass
7. Sojourner Truth
8. Abraham Lincoln
9. Geronimo
10. Susan B. Anthony
11. Helen Keller
12. Eleanor Roosevelt
13. Marian Anderson
14. Rosa Parks
15. Martin Luther King
16. Cesar Chavez
17. John F. Kennedy
18. Ronald Reagan

When my daughter was in fourth grade, she worked through the CursiveLogic handwriting program. She is now older, and I decided that one can never be too old to copy great speeches and writing from history. My daughter asked me why I was making her do a cursive workbook, and I explained to her the reasoning in the same manner as described in "Why am I copying speeches and writings from American history?". Although we learn much of what is written in this workbook, we seldom memorize it or truly take the time to think and ponder what each speech and writing has to say. A wonderful way to learn is by copying.

A signature appears next to the name of each great American in this workbook. When I saw Sojourner Truth's signature next to her name, my heart skipped a beat.

At the end of the workbook is a page of vocabulary. Many of the words listed on the page are words that may or may not be unfamiliar to students. A couple examples of words that are listed include:

• 'Twixt or Betwixt
• Chattel
• Devilish
• Edifice
• Hallow
• Kilter
• Ploughed
• Score
• Unalienable
• Witticisms

The workbook contains a section entitled Flourishes and Signatures where your child can practice their initials and signatures. 

Your students will be able to practice cursive while reviewing historical writings and speeches by some of the greatest Americans in American history. This is done with CursiveLogic Speeches and Writings in American History.