Keyboarding

==Keyboarding is an important life skill for all students. Keyboarding skills are necessary for higher education and employment. The new state assessments coming our way in 2014 will be online. Students will require keyboarding skills in order to complete the state mandated testing.== ==CCPS offers the Type to Learn program for download at home. In most cases, this is a great program for learning keyboarding. Although, you may have that occasional student who will be reluctant to use the program but may respond to another. This page was created to share websites that your students may find fun and entertaining while learning keyboarding skills. Please share these websites with parents.== ==Generally, typically developing students are developmentally ready for learning keyboarding at the end of third grade age. At the elementary level, I've had the most success with fourth and fifth graders. We recommend daily practice of 15 to 20 minutes. Teachers will sometimes use the bus window time for keyboarding practice.==

==Type To Learn- This keyboarding program has the added feature of data collection for speed and accuracy for each student added to the program.==

=Fun and Free typing programs to recommend for home=

=[|Dance Mat Typing] Fun typing program from a BBC website that does a great job teaching home row.= ==This site is known as Dance Mat Typing. The animated characters have British accents. I have found this site to be helpful for those who have decreased attention spans and may struggle with the Type to Learn program. The dancing characters, accompanying music and comedic comments help to keep interest and attention.==

[|Free Typing Games]
==This site has multiple games, lessons and a timed typing test that will give you wpm. The games are reminiscent of space invaders and other games of this kind.== ==Before game playing, students should have some training with home row. The UK site above (Dance Mat) is fun for teaching home row.== ==The speed of the games cannot be adjusted so may be too difficult for the beginner who has had no keyboarding experience.==

==Weitzel (1985) recommends 20 days of keyboarding instruction for 35 minutes per day to reach 10 wpm.==

==In a keyboarding study conducted by Pisha, (1993) that involved 88 students ages 8-13, found that children in grades 5 & 6 made progress faster than younger students in grades 3 & 4. Students using keyboarding to complete homework showed higher keyboarding baselines and developed skills faster. Students receiving special education services had lower baseline keyboarding skills, but acquired skills at the same rate as students not receiving services. The study had the following results: students with LD in grades 5 & 6: 7-12 WPM, students with LD in grades 3 & 4: 0-3 WPM==

==Morocco, (1987) 4th graders with LD need regular practice in small increments along with opportunities to use keyboarding.==