If you're a K-6er trying to incorporate the grade-specific Common Core State Standards (CCSS), you've probably noticed an interesting skillset nestled within anchor standard W.CCR.6: keyboarding!
That's right!
While I spoke about W.CCR.6 as an anchor standard in this post, I didn't delve into the grade-specific standards contained within it, and therefore I didn't really get into keyboarding.
But if you teach grades 3-6, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Take a look:
- Grade 3: With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
- Grade 4: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
- Grade 5: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.
- Grade 6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.
So what exactly do these standards mean? To get the discussion started, I'll use some questions that Matt asked in response to my W.CCR.6 post.
What is considered “a page” and “a single sitting”?
As I've mentioned elsewhere, one principle in developing the CCSS was to leave the standards vague enough to allow for flexibility at local levels. Because of this, you see very few mandated texts in the CCSS, and you also see very little direction in how instruction should look in a CCSS-aligned classroom.
So in trying to define what the authors consider a page or a single sitting, I'm seeing a classic case of intentional ambiguity here. To me, it seems wise for individual states or school districts to define a page and a single sitting. And, if you want my two cents, I'd recommend using a word count to define a page, and I'd set an amount of minutes for a single sitting.
What kind of keyboarding is this?
Are we talking about keying in a previously composed document, or are we saying that these single-sitting sessions are to include the entire composition process (e.g., pre-writing, organizing, editing)?
Though I'm very open to being challenged here, my gut says the keyboarding is meant to be done in a single sitting, whereas the other skills mentioned (use of technology, publishing, interacting, and collaborating) could occur over multiple days or even weeks.
Though I appreciate that the CCSS authors have simplified reading and writing down to 10 standards apiece, the fact is that in many cases, they have only done this by condensing multiple skills into a single standard, as is the case here.
Why does keyboarding disappear from W.CCR.6 after 6th grade?
Ambitiously, David Coleman and company seem to be expecting that, once students are promoted to seventh grade, they have successfully mastered keyboarding to an extent that it no longer needs to be taught. Honestly, I think this is awesome, but having never taught keyboarding, I don't know if it's attainable or not.
I do know that my two-year-old has been successfully accessing Angry Birds and flinging birds the wrong way for the past six months. I don't know if this means she's capable of mastering the keyboard by the time she's 11.
My gut says that, if she starts working on it in third grade like the standards suggest, she can probably pwn it by the time she's a seventh grader.
Thoughts?
What implications does this have for high school business departments?
It seems to me that, when we start getting students who have experienced an adequate K-8 implementation of the CCSS, we'll see high school business courses either ceasing to exist or, much more preferably, going much, much deeper into computer-based business skills.
What are other folks discovering as they seek to grapple with and implement these keyboarding standards? Use the comments section to get a rockin' convo going.
Mary Clark says
Our elementary school used to teach keyboarding. Students had to earn a certificate for typing 30 wpm to move onto the “more fun” stuff, according to my daughter. We stopped teaching it years ago. I now work with middle schoolers who have to be told to use both hands on the keyboard, or who use one finger of each hand, circling said hand slowly over the keys while hunting for the letter they need. In 2014, we’re going to do all our CCSS assessments online! It will be interesting to see what sort of essays these students can hammer out during a timed assessment. I’ve added lots of keyboarding games to my library website, but they still aren’t as fun as the Google Earth flight simulator they’re all using this month.
davestuartjr says
Hi Mary,
Yes–interesting is right! I’m intrigued that your elementary schools went FROM keyboarding instruction to…. something else? It seems that they were perhaps ahead of their time!
I agree with you–the computer-based assessments will put students to the test. Perhaps a lack of keyboarding proficiency is partially to blame for the low 2011 NAEP writing scores that coincided with the first time the test was offered via computer? My students have been grappling with this question, among others, posed by Esther Cepeda’s great article: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IolQxHTw_UBOv0c9OT56Bl3x0iXBMm7Cy8EZtaIKXUA/edit
Thanks for the comment, Mary!
Carol Herberholz says
Would you share your keyboarding games with me.
Marilyn Shaw says
More keyboarding at: http://marypeters.utma.com/elementary_keyboarding.htm
Michael Clark says
Mary – Michael Clark, education reporter with Cincinnati Enquirer and I’m doing a story on how elementary teachers are reacting to this Common Core change re: keyboarding skills being taught to grades 3-6. Can you please email asap at mclark@enquirer.com?
And any other elementary teachers wanting to toss me some comments please feel free.
Especially teachers in Ohio and Kentucky. Thanks so much.
Celeste says
Dear Dave,
I really enjoyed your article on the Common Core, it’s exciting to see how this is changing the way we teach and am so glad that the Common Core is being implemented in schools across the US.
My company has just developed some new CCSS courses, and I would love to have you check them out. Click here: http://www.teacherstep.com/
We have developed courses by Teachers for Teachers; and they are fantastic as they teach how to apply the new Common Core State Standards in the classroom and awards 3 graduate credits per course.
Hope to hear back from you soon, my email address is below.
And thank you so much – your articles are inspiring!
Warmest Regards,
-The TeacherStep Team
celeste@teacherstep.com
davestuartjr says
Dear Celeste,
Thanks for bringing my attention to the resources and classes at http://www.teacherstep.com. I would love to check them out and I will email you to discuss this further.
georginafarmer says
Dear Dave,
Great news. No way should the learning of keyboarding be spread over years. You should learn what finger hits what key fast and, then, this new learning should be put into practice immediately and intensely until your brain “gets it”.
Let me explain: keyboarding is a muscle-memory skill, like riding a bicycle. The first time you use the keyboard, the brain co-ordinates all the perceptive, cognitive and physical brain cells needed to do this activity. When you repeat this activity over and over, the brain cells involved reach out and connect with each other forming a neural pathway which, eventually, becomes part of your brain.
It’s the continual and constant “doing” of keyboarding that builds the muscle memory required for students to keyboard automatically without thinking about it. You can’t be half-hearted, you need to throw yourself into it and give it all you’ve got. It’s only for a short space of time and the reward at the end is amazing. Once you attain “automaticity”, you can’t forget this skill, even if you try, you’ve got it for life! How good is that?
The Nail It Now keyboarding method splits the keyboard in two, it’s easier to learn one side at a time. Then, a fun sentence for each home row (eg Animals in the Snow Dig for Food like Grass) and five up and down linkages (eg Food Raw Vegetables and Food Teddy Biscuits) . . . and you have learned the left side of the keyboard in around 35 minutes.
You practice on any computer with Microsoft Word (or any other word processing program) and you type words, not random letters, words with regularly-repeated letters, bee, beech, beef, been, beep, fantastic for keyboarding practice. When you are comfortable with the left side, you learn the right.
You can revise the keyboard aloud or in your head in a waiting room, walking the dog, preparing dinner, it all builds muscle memory. A teacher recently reported “It went nicely; the kids have been walking around saying “animals in the snow dig for food” like a chant. It is very sweet”. Then, you graduate to “doing” your daily “real” computer work, emails, instant messages, the lot. More muscle memory building! Pretty soon, you “get” it and never forget it.
This way the keyboarding Common Core standards would be a “breeze” for elementary students and their productivity would be doubled. I would love you to check it out and let me know what you think. The left side is free for everyone to give it a good “go” http://www.nailitnow.com.au/typingtutor/previewchildren/freedemo.html
Thanks, Dave
Cheers,
Georgie (short for Georgina
Nail It Now
georgie@nailitnow.com.au
davestuartjr says
Georgie, thanks so much for such a high quality response. Your comment simply makes this post 100 times more awesome. Thanks so much — I’ll be re-tweeting this post soon to draw attention to your addition!
MauBak says
Are you taking developmental abilities into consideration? We start key recognition in 1st grade and build on it until 3rd grade when they start on an actual keyboarding program. Most tech teachers only see kids once a week and have to reiterate the skills over and over. Kids generally don;t practice “keyboarding” at home…they play games. I incorporate some keyboarding games into my lesson so it feels good to the kids because trust me, if it isn’t fun…they don’t want to do it. I agree with the author’s description of ambiguity in what constitues a “page” and a “single sitting”. By that limited definition, you could increase the font size to 100 and type 10 words on a page. There needs to be a prescripted definition of what a “page” is…font size, spacing and even font face.
davestuartjr says
Maubak, thanks for sharing! I’m intrigued by the key recognition work you’re doing — what does that look like?
georginafarmer says
Thanks Dave, I appreciate it, I am trying to get the word out and not finding it easy, I keep hitting bureaucratic “brick walls”. All I ask is that the Nail It Now keyboarding method is tried in the classroom. The whole left side is free and it would only take 35 minutes. Teachers who do try it love it.
It costs nothing to listen and it costs nothing to try a product. If education bureaucrats see all sales people as marketing pests, they will miss out on something wonderful.
How wonderful it would be if every student could touch type by the start of Grade 4. It’s not going to happen with traditional software methods.
Currently, young children spend a couple of years in the early grades playing keyboarding software “familiarization” games with two fingers. Then, all of a sudden, in Grades 3 or 4, they are expected to drop this bad habit like a hot potato and learn to keyboard correctly. Easier said than done. By this time, two-finger keyboarding is so firmly entrenched, the students think it is the only way to use the keyboard.
So, how to nip entrenched two-finger keyboarding in the bud? Well, there’s a simple and easy solution, cover the keys. This will stop two-finger typing dead in its tracks. The kids won’t like it but, if they look at the keys, they learn NOTHING! Schools would be amazed at how many students in all grades come to a full stop if the keys are covered.
Students hate the bulky, unwieldy plastic covers and so do I, they should be comfortable keyboarding. Instead, I recommend placing removable, adhesive dots on the 30 main keys and coloring the “bump” keys F and J to help students place their fingers correctly. You can buy sheets of these dots at any newsagency.
The dots are in place, now the older students are ready, if not particularly willing, to learn “proper” keyboarding. The method used needs to immediately grab their interest. The Nail It Now colorful PowerPoint slides for Grades 3-6 get down to business straightaway, the keyboard is split into two easy sides, a fun sentence is assigned to the Home row and five up and down association words for each side.
The students learn the whole keyboard and correct finger use in two lessons. All the teacher has to do is project each slide, in turn, onto a wall. The students open Microsoft Word (or any other word processing program) and start keyboarding words, not random letters, straightaway.
Then, practice, practice, practice to get those brain cells reaching out and connecting, first, the Nail It Now confidence-building exercises and, then, “real” computer work, instant messaging, etc. Recently, a customer called Joe ”did” the left side and exercises but, busy at work, stopped. To his amazement, he found his left fingers were automatically finding the keys. He’d “got it” and didn’t know it. Needless to say, he made the time to learn the right side!
Dave, I love information about stuff. I hope you do too because I have written heaps. The Nail It Now PowerPoint slides for Grades 3-6 are at this link http://www.nailitnow.com.au/typingtutorlicence/highergradeelementary/how.html
Cheers
Georgie (short for Georgina
Nail It Now
georgie@nailitnow.com.au
School says
Our school is using TypngAgent this year. It is a web-based program. We have not evaluated it’s effectiveness yet, but the students seem to enjoy it. You can hear a pin-drop in the room as the students are concentrating on their assigned tasks. They are motivated to learn.
M says
I find that the schools somehow expect kids to learn how to type without really teaching them. My daughter’s 5th grade teacher announced that the kids would need to type assignments this year. I asked when they would be taught how to type – the response was “we don’t teach them”. I have talked with other parents who have the same problem. The schools provide sporadic time in a computer lab to use a typing program, but it isn’t enough to make the kids proficient.
davestuartjr says
M, this is nuts — Common Core seems to make it pretty clear that schools need to get on this, but I think in many schools it’s kind a systemic gap — there aren’t keyboarding classes in some schools, or simply throwing the kids at a program every now and then (like what you’re mentioning) is considered a solution. I learned keyboarding during a semester of strictly enforced “no look” keyboarding instruction.
It sucked, but I thank God for that class 19 years later as I type this comment at a proficient rate! I’d be writing my principal and then working my way up the ladder on this one until it gets addressed. No one in their right mind can argue typing isn’t important.
Michael Clark says
Please contact me for a story I’m doing this week.
Michael Clark, education reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer. I’d like to get some elementary school parents reaction to the growing requirement for keyboarding skills at younger grades. Thanks so much.
mclark@enquirer.com
Sarah O'Leary says
While I kind of surprise myself to say “yay” to a new standard and “yay” to more tech time in the elementary classroom this is one change I can really get behind.
I have struggled and argued for 5 years in I&RS, 504 and IEP meetings for dedicated class time to go to keyboard instruction for my 2 boys who have extreme writing challenges. We’ve been told repeatedly (and as recently as 2 weeks ago), “Are you kidding? We don’t do that. Wait ’til high school. They will have to learn that at home, etc.”
Now I feel I have a new tack to take. There is a mandate for this instruction. If common sense was not enough to convince them that being able to produce meaningful (and legible) writing is an imperative perhaps Common Core will.
davestuartjr says
Sarah, I hope this tack worked! Keyboarding isn’t going to go away as a critical life skill for all kids to master!
redkayak says
Currently I am teaching middle school technology. Most sixth grade students come in with poor keyboarding skills. Many students make uppercase letters by hitting the CapsLock key, typing the letter, and hitting CapsLock again. They hit the space bar with their forefinger. I have one student who uses the technique of leaning on her left arm and typing with her right forefinger. I mentioned this to her parents at open house and her mother told me I won’t break her of that habit and she knows many pharmacists who use two finger typing every day. After twelve weeks of prompting her she will at least use the forefinger on both hands.
They don’t have time to spend on keyboarding in the lower grades. They get computer time one class a week. In between they are at home using the computer with their own techniques. Our superintendent told me at one time that they should have keyboarding under control by second grade! We have a long way to go.
Michael Clark says
May I use your comments for a story I’m doing on the coming implementation of keyboarding standards for elementary students?
If so, what is your name and school you teach at please?
Many thanks.
Michael Clark
education reporter
Cincinnati Enquirer
Carrie Shaw says
Michael, If you are looking for comments about a proven keyboarding program I would be happy to send you information.
I have been selling a very unique educator developed typing program called Keyboard Classroom for over 16 years now.
Along with educators at the Ben Bronz Academy in West Hartford, Connecticut, we’ve studied children in various learning environments for over two decades, watching and developing methods to improve their learning process. We’ve paid specific attention to children with attention problems, special education needs, and learning disabilities and concluded that young people with and without these learning issues, can succeed more effectively through the use of computers for drill and practice. And when they learn to touch type, they are able to channel their focus on what they’re learning. Their fingers actually become an unwitting extension of their brains!
The Common Core may be giving our teachers the Standards- but teachers/parents need to choose the Curriculum!
Students NEED to learn how to proficiently type starting in 3rd grade! Learn about our reputable and proven program called Keyboard Classroom.
J. Pratt says
It is so heartwarming to know I’m not the only one that feels that keyboarding is important! Parents along with administrators feel that it isn’t. I scringe when I see students using two fingers and any finger to hit the spacebar, backspace key, tab key, etc. I’ve been fighting this for a very long time and it has caused me to be shifted all over the place to different schools. However, I still stand firm that is what is exactly needed in our elementary schools. So I’m glad that CCSS has started to incorporate this. The only thing is subjects like keyboarding, music, art, spanish, physical education is not needed to pass on to the other grade so the students really don’t take the class seriously!!
Ms. J
US Virgin Island
Carrie Shaw says
I have been teaching keyboarding skills to students for the past 15 years. The only typing program that taught my kids how to type successfully within 4-6 months was Keyboard Classroom (www.keyboardclassroom.com). This skill is NOT to be fooled around with!
Stephanie says
I have been teaching the touch method of keyboarding for 30 year now at the high school level! However, the semester class also includes letters, memos, and MLA reports. I use keyboard covers that go 4″ above the hands blocking the view. Students can get rid of the covers once they reach 35 wpm. I teach it the old fashion way – doing calls out loud “a space s space d space” etc. going faster and faster, introducing new letters each day. I do speed timings every day. As kids graduate and come back to visit, they continually say it is one of the best classes they ever took. With all that being said, we head into proficiency based report cards using the common core standards. I recently had a meeting with our new principle and assistant principle on this specific course – Keyboarding. I was told that I would no longer be able to teach this course as it does not address any of the graduation standards and that I needed to develop a new course. Not a big deal as I am now a graphics and computer technology teacher. But what a shame! Because there are no direct common core standards that are specifically addressed with this course, we must eliminate a course that should be a graduation requirement. But then again, maybe I am from the old school and really all the kids need are two thumbs!
georginafarmer says
Stephanie, the only reason to drop keyboarding in high school is if students have already learned to touch type in elementary school!!! It is so important. Students who can’t touch type are severely disadvantaged. That’s not right.
I am interested that you went against the current teacher keyboarding trend in 3 ways: 1) you by-passed the many software game typing tutors that teach 2-4 keys per lesson and spread lessons over Grades 1-6, 2) you taught keyboarding every day for a semester and 3) you used covers. Way to go.
I just don’t understand why keyboarding teaching is spread over Grades 1-6. Keyboarding is a muscle-memory skill like riding a bicycle and should be taught the same way, ie: learn the mechanics fast (you should learn the keyboard in a day or 2) and, then, immediately put what you have learned into practice. This is where some effort is required, teachers and parents need to get “on board” and that includes ensuring the keys are covered. You will be amazed how quickly students pick it up. Soon their brain “gets it” and, like riding a bicycle, off they go and you never have to teach keyboarding again.
Grades 1-2 students are too young to do enough typing to build muscle memory, but they should learn the keyboard. In my experience, they are so proud they know what finger hits what key, they wouldn’t dream of using 2 fingers to type their stories and other short pieces. They also love telling their two-finger typing parents they are using the wrong finger.
Dave, this post is hot, you wrote it 2 years ago and it’s still of interest today,so many varying opinions (I contributed a couple of posts in February, 2013). I still think there’s a long way to go before everyone with an input rates the importance of keyboarding to elementary school students.
Cheers
Georgie (short for Georgina
Nail It Now
georgie@nailitnow.com.au
adrienne dewolfe says
I must admit that this obsession with keyboarding in this standard truly drives me nuts. I see smart principals and teachers talking about getting devices simply so they can practice keyboarding and take “that test.” I’ve actually had a 3rd grade team of teachers tell me that they don’t do much online with their kiddos because they are just hoping they can keyboard by the end of third grade. REALLY?
I’ve read through the comments, but I see no mention of the idea that keyboarding could be and very likely will be broadened to encompass other entry methods. My son has been competently using voice to tex since he was 7. How much longer will the “main” input device be QWERTY? Is this really a skill our young students need to devote time to mastering?
David says
Here is a great way to teach students how to independently learn how to type:
http://thetypingcoach.com
Jenlee says
To All, Thank you!
The concern with keyboarding in this post and comments is wonderful to see. I ran across this as I am doing an evaluation of the keyboarding program in my elementary school. I am a teacher who has hired on as a para-educator, but was offered 1.5 days a week to teach “Tech/Lib.” We are using a new specialist rotation schedule this year that ensures equitable planning times for teachers. I share the “Tech/Lib” spot over the course of the week with the librarian who teaches library. She gets the students 2.5 days a week with no Friday classes for either of us (she is at the another school half the week). How does all this translate? It takes 3 weeks to see all of the K-2 students (I’ll see each class 11-12 times all year) and I see the 3-5 grade classes 2ce during those 3 weeks (22-23 times all year). Each class is 45 minutes, during which I have to fit in keyboarding, digital citizenship, learning to use programs and applications, and library checkouts. Obviously, it doesn’t all get done in each class.
I had teachers give parents downloading instructions in English and Spanish at the fall parent teacher conferences for the Type to Learn 4 online program so 3rd-5th grade students could practice at home. In an attached survey, parents indicated having home access or not and signed an agreement to have their child practice 4-5 times a week. I had 61% response that showed only 66% of the responding families had home computers. As of this week, only 2 students (brothers) have accessed the program at home. When I handed out the surveys to teachers, one teacher asked if it was mandatory. Since it was for my own teaching information and not mandated, I said “No.” My mistake, as I got no surveys back for her class!
Judging by the variety of teacher responses to the keyboarding program, and lack of interest from both teachers and parents (despite signing a pledge), there are many things that will have to change before I can help make a crucial difference in the excellence of my students lives. But change comes slowly and I will try to effect change patiently enough that people perceive it as a good thing. I do believe that if we as adults want our children to have skills we value, we must see to it that they have the opportunities and models they will need to internalize them. From this perspective, if I see keyboarding as a valuable skill, I must help others around me, parents and teachers, see the value it has for our children and students. And, Adrienne, if I am reading the signs of the times right, Qwerty will be around until there is a universal replacement. However, it may be much shorter lived than Qwerty! Previous generations have used systems for lifetimes, but the rapid changes from cassette to DVD to streaming video is an example of digital change. Jam recipes, fairy tales, and taxes might not change nearly as much as the way we communicate in the next generation.
Carrie Shaw says
Hi Jenlee. Thanks for your comments. I feel the exact same way. I worked in a school system with children who had various learning disabilities and one of them was problems with written communication. After years of trying different typing programs we, as educators, decided to develop our own. We realize a child has to practice 15 minutes a day in order to develop a skill within 4 to 6 months. A child who practices something once a week six times a semester isn’t going to learn a thing. We realize that fluency is the key in learning a skill. And incentives keep a child motivated.
I’d like you and your school system to check out our website www. KeyboardClassroom. Email me with any questions you have on it. I’d love to work with you!
Carrie
DB says
I’m a Computer TA at a district on Long Island in an intermediate school. I’m having so many issues with keyboarding in my classroom. First of all, students come in once every TWO weeks, and secondly as I’m a TA and not a teacher (even though it’s my classroom) I don’t have the authority to require the students to practice their typing. Our computers are set up with Type to Learn 3, that teachers use as something to do if they’re ever finished their work. The program is so out of date, and students don’t take it seriously. There’s only so many times I can correct them to use the correct fingers and sit properly. I walk laps around my classroom trying to remind them. The issue is, once it’s time to do any kind of project that involves typing, it takes the students a ridiculous amount of time to complete it. Regardless if they’re using the hunt and peck or trying to use correct fingering. I’m not quite sure what to do anymore to battle this, and I know it’ll only get harder for them once they graduate from typing poems to typing research papers.
Carrie Shaw says
These are the EXACT reasons why our teachers developed OUR OWN typing program. Because all the others on the market DON’T teacher kids how to type. The kids “play’ on those programs when they are done with their schoolwork! I believe that learning how to type is just as important as math, science and art!
Check out the ‘finger guides’ that we developed with our program. They attach to the keyboard with velcro and are used to keep the student’s hands on the home row so they don’t lose their way around the keyboard when learning the letters. Tell me what you think of them? http://www.KeyboardClassroom.com
Carrie
David says
Be sure that whatever program you use, the students learn to type WITHOUT looking at the keyboard or monitor. And do so within a month’s time.
Here is a short video of some third graders after less than an hour of cumulative instructions over three different days using The Typing Coach method:
http://thetypingcoach.com/lusd/mod/page/view.php?id=31
C Lunt says
I teach keyboarding in an inner city Jr. High school. The problem I see is that keyboarding in the elementary schools is not funded properly in the districts with needier students and it seems to be at the bottom of the priority list. What happens is they start dropping the typing classes at the Jr. High and High School level without ensuring that it is being taught sufficiently in the lower grades. This creates bigger and bigger gaps between lower preforming groups of students and the better preforming students, because without the guidance from an outside influence to learn this skill, some never have the opportunity made available to them.
jason says
I teach a technology course at a middle school in the greater Cincinnati area. Keyboarding is only one week in my curriculum. My students have very poor keyboarding skills when coming into the 6th grade. I only have 8th graders in my class. So at the beginning of the course I start my lessons. We practice each day using an excel spreadsheet and they practice with their fingers on the home row working one finger QAZ, for example, for one minute per finger. They they complete an online course and they use a piece of cloth over their hands. Great site http://www.typing.com
For the rest of the quarter I use the same online course as bell work for the first 10 minutes of class. Kids do like this, we had a vote.
georginafarmer says
Hey Jason,
Could I suggest it’s easier to split the keyboard in two (it makes sense: you type the left side letters with your left hand and the right side with your right hand) – both sides are exactly the same!
Then, to easily and quickly remember the left side home row, say aloud as you type “Animals in the Snow Dig for Food” (the Food finger does double the work and moves over to G: “Animals in the Snow Dig for Food Greedily”).
Then, when your pupils do QAZ, they “type A, up left to Q and down right to Z and say aloud “Animals Queensland Zoo”, SWX: “Snow White Xmas”, DEC “Dig Easter Chocolate”, “FRV Food Raw Vegetables”.
Then, the Food finger does double the work again: FTB “Food T-Bone”.
Then, they have learned the whole left side. See my posts above for more information.
Cheers,
Georgie (short for Georgina)
Nail It Now
http://www.nailitnow.com.au/typingtutorlicence/index.html
georgie@nailitnow.com.au
Rebekah says
I am not a teacher, but a parent. I can type, and I value the ability to type but I am not happy about the keyboarding requirement. First I don’t think it is good for young eyes to be staring at a computer screen for long hours. Second I am not sure that my fourth grader is coordinated enough to properly type. She has a hard time reaching the letters with her tiny little hands. My daughter’s teacher has implemented a 20 WPM with 90% accuracy standard that has to be reached by November 12th. It is a graded element on her report card. The kids are expected to learn with an online typing program that is done at home, and now in computer lab (which may happen once a week). Students who can not learn the standard are not allowed to work on the multimedia project on Native American’s which is also a common core requirement, at school (they have to do it at home). I recognize that children who have parents who purchased for them tablets and computers will have an unfair advantage over my daughter. My husband can not type, and yet he has an MBA from an elite school, and was the top of his class in college. He is an impressive finger pecker. Many of my law school classmates could not type, but they could write so much better than I could and ultimately my ability to type 75 WPM is not as valuable as the ability to quickly formulate a sentence. I would rather the focus be on learning the basics in elementary school, reading, writing and arithmetic. Not on keyboarding – which should never be a requirement.
Rocio says
I agree with Rebekah!
I want to make a couple of points. I am a homeschool parent and I plan on teaching my kids how to type after they’ve mastered cursive. Research shows that cursive writing helps connect the brain pathways. Playing an instrument is the only other method of duplicating that same connection. That’s what is needed to learn to write well, not typing or even technology. We are getting away from developing our children’s brains and too focused on mastering a skill that’s not necessary until middle school.
In the 70s I took a typing course in middle school 5 days a week. By the end of the school year I was an amazing typist. Why can’t we wait until 6th or 7th grade to teach typing for mastery and make it a required course? Done! Why do we have to drag it out and do something that small children aren’t developed to do as a whole. Maybe some kids can but others haven’t even developed the eye tracking necessary. It only makes this harder on the kids, teachers and parents. They’re still learning to read. The focus is off and it overtaxes our teachers. These children need to play outside and be kids. They need to read great books so they can hear great language in order to speak and write well. Parents need to spend time with their kids having fun especially in a society of two income families. These children are tired after a full day of school and so are the parents.
My second point is that because the teachers are feeling pressure from Common Core Standards, they blame the parent for not being involved in teaching their children how to type. That is not fair to the parents. The assumption is that parents have the time and means. It is not the government’s job to fill the parents’ schedule outside of school without their consent. If the school can’t find the time to teach typing or keyboarding appropriately -daily, then it should not be a requirement.
And in response to special needs kids, I have a dyslexic son who has learned cursive beautifully and it has actually helped him to become a better reader. I have no doubt that he will be able to type in the 7th grade just as well as a kid who started learning in 1st grade once a week. So all of you teachers who are stressed out over this typing problem, you shouldn’t be. Common Core won’t be around much longer as long as they’re not in tune with child development and you’ll realize you were worried for the wrong reasons. Stick with your instincts to teaching math, reading and writing. If students aren’t working up to their potential in those subjects, typing should be the least of your worries!
Rocio
Homeschooling parent
Accounting & Finance Degree
Masters in Education