Canaan Community Academy Students Named Indiana’s Winners in Zaner-Bloser’s National Handwriting Contest

Bamed Indiana’s sixth grade and second grade winners for public schools in the 2018 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.

Amber Gobbel and Janelle Scudder, students at Canaan Community Academy, have been named Indiana’s sixth grade and second grade winners for public schools in the 2018 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. 

Now in its 27th year, the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest gives students in kindergarten through eighth grade the chance to showcase and receive recognition for their handwriting skills in manuscript or cursive. Contest judges use the Zaner-Bloser® “Keys to Legibility™: Size, Shape, Spacing and Slant” to evaluate the entries. Students in kindergarten through second grade compete in the manuscript handwriting category, while students in third through eighth grade compete in the cursive handwriting category. 

Participating schools, which all use Zaner-Bloser handwriting materials, held their own handwriting contests and chose a winning student from each grade to compete at the state level in the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. A student in each grade, one from a public school and one from a private school, is chosen as the state grade-level winner. Amber Gobbel and Janelle Scudder, like other state-level winners, will compete in the national competition, vying with other state winners in the same grade at both public and private schools to earn the title of National Grade-Level Semifinalist or Grand National Champion. 

Zaner-Bloser awarded a medallion to Amber and Janelle, an etched glass diamond award to their teachers and a $200 Zaner-Bloser gift certificate to Canaan Community Academy.

"Canaan Community Academy is especially proud of Amber Goebbel and her teacher Mrs. Fennig plus Janell Scudder and her teacher Ms. Messer for excelling in handwriting."
Rhonda Pennington

“We applaud the winning students for the dedication it took to demonstrate such outstanding manuscript and cursive handwriting skills, and we applaud their schools, which continue to recognize the importance of handwriting instruction,” said Lisa Carmona, president of Zaner-Bloser. “Research on handwriting shows that it not only helps children develop finger dexterity, fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination, but it also creates a foundation for literacy that strengthens reading and writing skills.” 

Educators are rediscovering the important role handwriting plays in developing literacy skills. Many states are revising their standards and curricula to include explicit handwriting instruction in elementary and middle school classrooms, much to the delight of teachers, students and families. 

For more information about the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, visit www.zaner-bloser.com/hwcontest.