What it is. Hump letters retrace up the stroke they just came down; line letters meet at a sharp point.
Why our test works. Children start the arch of n or m in the air beside the stem, which produces a letter that looks right at first and falls apart at speed. The retrace is the invisible part, so it has to be the thing that is checked.
Leans on. Lesson 2's top-down habit.
Watch for. On v, w, x, y, z and k the fault is the opposite — rounded corners where a sharp point belongs. Slow the hand where the strokes meet.
Form the hump letters and the line letters, retracing on the humps and meeting cleanly at the points. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher forms n, m, r, h, b, p as 'down, back UP the same line, then over' — the retrace i The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher forms n, m, r, h, b, p as 'down, back UP the same line, then over' — the retrace is named as the part everyone gets wrong. Then v, w, x, y, z, k as straight strokes meeting at a sharp point, with a pause where the strokes meet. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class air-writes one letter from each family, then traces. Teacher watches for humps started in the air beside the stem, and for rounded corners where a point belongs. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Trace then copy a row of each letter. Check every hump starts on the line and every point is sharp.
You close on the exit direction — Show me a hump that starts on the line. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Down, back up the same line, then over.
On v, w, x, y, z and k the fault is the opposite — rounded corners where a sharp point belongs. Slow the hand where the strokes meet.