Keyboarding

A hot topic right now in schools is keyboarding.  Several conversations I've heard at different schools ask questions about when is the right time to start teaching keyboarding, how much to expect from students, and- possibly most pressing- how will we accomplish a keyboarding task with limited tech access?

Keyboarding skills are now time-sensitive for students.  Standardized testing is shifting to computerized administration, but may schools still don't offer typing electives until middle school.  I thought I would share 2 programs I have had experience with- Typing Pal and Tux Typing.

I used Typing Pal last year with my 3rd grade class.  Since the students would be tested in 4th grade for the Smarter Balanced assessment, our principal recommended that we take 1 hour each week to devote strictly to keyboarding.  One thing I really enjoy about Typing Pal:  It has several lessons at the beginning specific to proper finger placement and posture.  These are essential to developing good typing skills.  The program bumps the students up a level once they meet proficiency for both speed and accuracy.  My 3rd graders loved this program, and often raced each other during our keyboarding hour.  Many of them accessed the program at home for extra practice.  

I love that Typing Pal shows you individual student reports, including a breakdown of whether or not their finger placement is working.  

Finger placement is essential with the Typing Pal program.

Screenshot of a typical student report- categories on the left. 

Another program I have used is Tux Typing.  I had *almost* forgotten about this program in the midst of Typing Pal, but I recently found out that my school had access to it on CD (yay!), so I had it installed on my student computers.  This one is better- in my opinion- for the younger grades to get motivated to learn keyboarding skills,  It's much more colorful and appealing to the eye.  I think many of my 3rd graders would have found it a little silly, but let me tell you the 1st graders go NUTS for time on this program!

...see what I mean?  FUN!  

Regardless of which program you use for keyboarding in your classroom, this is now an ESSENTIAL skill for all students!  I had my first keyboarding lesson in 7th grade.  Now that would be way too late to start!  There are tons of great programs out there- these are just 2 of many!  Get your students on the computers and get them typing- I think it's never too early to start!  

IXL and Raz-Kids

2 programs I have really missed using this year are IXL and Raz-Kids.  These are paid programs that my current school/district does not subscribe to.  They are fairly expensive, so I understand the hesitation to purchase them for classrooms, but I feel the void of not using them this year.  I recently wrote a grant to get funding for Raz-Kids for next year's first graders- we'll see what happens with that.

Let's talk about IXL first.

IXL provides standards and skills-based practice for students in grades K-12.  I have used IXL with Kindergarten classes, as well as 3rd grade.  It's a great program because it has any skill you could want students to work on, and you can monitor their progress as they use the program.

This is JUST the first grade math page.  You can assign students a subject or skill to work on independently at the computer or on a tablet.  They can also access IXL at home.

Sample question from IXL first grade math.

My school purchased the math license for IXL, so we only used it for math practice.  We had other programs that centered on reading...one of the programs for the younger grades was Raz-Kids.  

Here is a student home page.  They have to read several books before they can build their Raz Rocket.  The Rocket is also an optional feature- teachers can elect to turn this off.  I think the Rocket is pretty fun, but I can see how it could be distracting for the younger students.

This is an example of what a student would see as part of his or her reading choices- all done according to their guided reading level.  Teachers can choose levels for students, or let Raz-Kids assign them a level to work through based on their tests.

Sample page from a story.  Raz-Kids will read to the students through a certain level (I believe it's H).  

Sample page from a quiz.  The program will read the questions to the students through level H.  Students can take the quiz as many times as needed in order to pass.

When so much emphasis is placed on phonics, Raz-Kids is a wonderful tool to reinforce comprehension.  Unfortunately it runs about $99.95 per classroom (with bulk rates offered), so it can be a little spendy for large schools and districts.

Spelling City

Spelling City is a pretty popular site, partially because it is a free site and also because it offers fun ways for students to practice their spelling words.  There is a typing component as well, which is great to reinforce keyboarding skills.  I used this site frequently with my 3rd grade students, and this year I have taught my 1st grade class to use it effectively.  They really love playing the games, and I know it has contributed to their wonderful scores on their weekly spelling tests!

This is the home page your students will see when they access your Spelling City page.  They can choose from the lists at the bottom of the page.  I typically only show the current week's list for my students to practice, since we build our lists around our phonics skill for the week.

The students can choose from any of the activities in the green column, or the pink column if you choose to pay for the extended version of the site.  Personally, I think the free version serves all the needs of my class.

This is Hang Mouse.  The students LOVE this game!  They get 6 changes to guess the letters in the word, or else the cat gets the mouse.

This is the spelling test portion of Spelling City.  Students hear the word spoken and used in a sentence, then they type it into the blank space.

I like to use Spelling City at my Word Work station during Balanced Literacy time.  I also find that students will beg to go on the site during free time or inside recess.  What a great resource!