Reading handwritten documents is a skill that many students struggle with when first working with archival sources. Depending on when and where students attended elementary school, they may or may not know how to write and read cursive, and the inconsistencies of spelling and punctuation in older documents often adds to the struggle.
Provide students with a cursive alphabet to refer to.
Put an image of a handwritten document on the screen. Take turns reading it out loud together and show the students how to trace any words/letters that are difficult to read.
Then break the class into pairs and have each pair transcribe exactly a section of text. Finally have each student transcribe a short passage individually.