The Getty-Dubay Italic style of handwriting can be taught with this series of worktexts for kindergarten through sixth grade. (The first three books, Books A through C, are also available in Spanish.) Getty-Dubay Italic is somewhat similar to slant print in appearance, but letters are formed differently. This method has simple and clear letter forms with roots in calligraphy. Also, the writing instrument is lifted far less often than when writing with a broad-edged calligraphy pen. Getty-Dubay Italic letter forms for printing and cursive are basically identical, with entrance and exit strokes added to the printed forms for joining letters in cursive. This makes the transition from printing to cursive almost effortless.
These books teach students to use a “look, plan, and practice” approach to evaluate and improve their own work, beginning with the first step in Books A through C for kindergarten through second grade, then using all three steps in Books D through G for grades three through six. Books C through G each contain a short supplement designed to help students learn how to read looped cursive handwriting. Older students can practice reading looped cursive in historical documents by Benjamin Franklin and others.
The books have full-color covers, and the font of the instructional text that explains lessons matches the Getty-Dubay Italic style.
The teacher guide (one book for student Books A through G) contains the scope and sequence for the series; discussion of materials; tips for teaching left- or right-handed writers; and techniques for teaching and evaluating shape, strokes, size, slope, spacing, and speed of writing. It also has blackline masters for various sizes of ruled-line paper, three letter formats, and an envelope.
Inexpensive Teacher Companion PDFs are available for each book. They include suggested lesson plans and extra practice sheets for children who need more practice than that supplied within the workbooks.
You might also want to use the free DIY Worksheet Creator available through the publisher's website. Free resources also include two Letter Tracing Game web apps (one for precursive lowercase, one for capitals) designed for students seven and up to help develop letter path fluency.
The Handwriting Success™ App for tablet and stylus, available at both the App Store and Google Play, has free samples from all nine Getty-Dubay® handwriting instruction books as ebooks that can be written in, and you can purchase the complete ebooks from the in-app store.
You can also purchase the official Getty-Dubay® Font family, 72 downloadable computer fonts for creating customized handwriting worksheets quickly and easily. The 32 cursive italic fonts join automatically as you type using ordinary word processors. More information about the fonts is at handwitingsuccess.com/fonts.
Getty-Dubay Italic style handwriting looks impressive without requiring extraordinary effort. This method might be a good choice for children who have struggled with handwriting and need a new approach. Introducing italic style to children with handwriting difficulties has proven very successful in some cases. It gives them a fresh start, and the results can look good with little skill. Students need not begin in Book A (kindergarten level) but can start with the book for their grade level.
For those who prefer more efficient instruction within a single book rather than child-oriented worktexts, the authors have produced a book titled Write Now. Although written for adult learners, children from about ages fourteen and up might be able to learn from it even if they need some adult assistance. Write Now teaches basic Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting with plenty of examples and practice exercises. The practice content is very similar to that in Book G. Both Write Now and Book G both contain a chapter at the end on how to write with an edged pen of narrow width and introduce a slightly more ornate form of cursive italic writing called Chancery cursive.
