What it is. A grip that was right in Grade 1 has usually drifted over a summer, so it is re-set before anything is written.
Why our test works. A drifted grip looks fine until the hand tires, and then the writing collapses at exactly the moment a child is trying hardest. Counting fingers catches it in two seconds and does not require you to judge whether writing 'looks neat'.
Leans on. Grade 1 lesson 1. This is a re-set, not a first teaching.
Watch for. Do not re-teach the whole grip to a class that mostly has it. Find the four children who have drifted and fix those hands.
Re-establish grip, posture and paper position at Grade 2 speed. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher models the three quickly, then models one WRONG version of each and asks what is w 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 models the three quickly, then models one WRONG version of each and asks what is wrong. 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. Partners check each other's grip against the model and fix one thing. 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: Write a row of l and a row of c with a correct grip. Stop and re-check your grip halfway.
You close on the exit direction — Name the one thing your partner fixed. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Grip first, then the letter.
Do not re-teach the whole grip to a class that mostly has it. Find the four children who have drifted and fix those hands.