EMAILNOTICES>noFirst off, I appreciate the suggestions that have already come my way on my first post. Thank you! Please keep ‘em coming!One thing that has become quite clear is that typing is necessary. The school says that all the kids got 2 weeks worth of instruction at the top of the year, so further instruction isn’t necessary. I’d like a quantified measure of my son’s typing skills, and I’d like a goal to shoot for. My strong suspicion is that further instruction will be necessary, in spite of what the school says, because my boy is sitting next to me right now hunting and pecking. (I’d teach him myself, but I don’t know how to type. I’m the fastest 6-finger typist in the world :)If he got anything out of the two weeks of instruction earlier this year, I’m not seeing it.What is a reasonable goal for an 11-year-old kid to shoot for in typing?As a goal, I was thinking something like “By this time next year, Raven will type [45? 50? 60?] WPM with [x] errors as measured by a [y]- minute timed test.”Errors are going to be difficult to measure, because he cannot spell and doesn’t know much about punctuation. How does one separate the intentional from the unintentional errors?What’s a reasonable WPM? Assume this child has no particular visual- motor difficulties. In fact, it’s a strength.Thanks.
Re: Typing speed -- reasonable goal?
In my classes of 6th and 7th graders my grading scale begins at passing =5 correct words per minute (cwpm) and an A+ =20 cwpm. At the end of the quarter passing grade is 15 cwpm and an A+ is 30 cwpm. I’ve designed it for mastery -no one fails, most end up in the a,a+ range with a few off the chart in the 80 wpm range.The critical part is developing the body position and hand position for independent finger action. All that stuff about sitting up straight and letting your spine and shoulders hold up the upper body is essential. The arched, rounded hand position will allow the fingers to do the action instead of the arm and wrist. I am careful with this in the beginning so that kids learn to feel the right positions and can self-correct. Sore shoulders means bad posture.Next-develop the kinestethic learning. That finger has to ‘feel’ like a j or a k. Any peeking at the keyboard will ensure that the ‘touch’ learning does NOT develop. I often cover the hands of the student to eliminate the peeking. A tea towel works fine-we make a joke out of it - I invite them to my fancy French restaurant! They don’t mind and some ask for the covers. It takes only a few classes of hands covered for the touch typing to kick in.I use a one minute test. Since I provide them with the material to copy, spelling and grammar are not issues. The best book I’ve encountered for young students is Ready, Set, Keyboard. Its quite old but the reading level is easy -3rd grade- without being condescending. I’ve used with 7th graders with great success. Each lesson has a language arts component. There is a test every five lessons. Amazon could get you a copy.Vocational speeds begin at 60 cwpm but I tell the kids we are not here to get them jobs -we are here to make their academic work easier (they like the more efficient chatting!). At mid-20’s cwpm you are beating most hunt and peckers. With the touch typing they will only get faster with more practice.Caveat- We are teaching keyboarding to MUCH younger students than we used to have. Most, but not all, kids are developmentally ready at grade 6, I find that by 7th grade it is very rare to find a kid that is not able to handle it and to me would indicate some OT needs. I also acknowledge to the kids that the keyboarding practice is boring but we, as a class, agree that a quarter of boring is worth the lifelong skill and, if we do it right, they will never have to do it again.There is also a good practice program available for download at www.letterchase.com I use it for extra practice after I have taught each key.Good luck
Re: Typing speed -- typewriter or computer?
Are you using a computer program to teach keyboarding, or typewriters? What course? I am wondering what your opinion is of computer typing courses for youngsters. I’d like my dd to learn keyboarding at home this summer, and it’s hard to evaluate the different programs from a distance.Mary: In my classes of 6th and 7th graders my grading scale begins at
: passing =5 correct words per minute (cwpm) and an A+ =20 cwpm. At
: the end of the quarter passing grade is 15 cwpm and an A+ is 30
: cwpm. I’ve designed it for mastery -no one fails, most end up in
: the a,a+ range with a few off the chart in the 80 wpm range.: The critical part is developing the body position and hand position
: for independent finger action. All that stuff about sitting up
: straight and letting your spine and shoulders hold up the upper
: body is essential. The arched, rounded hand position will allow
: the fingers to do the action instead of the arm and wrist. I am
: careful with this in the beginning so that kids learn to feel the
: right positions and can self-correct. Sore shoulders means bad
: posture.: Next-develop the kinestethic learning. That finger has to ‘feel’ like
: a j or a k. Any peeking at the keyboard will ensure that the
: ‘touch’ learning does NOT develop. I often cover the hands of the
: student to eliminate the peeking. A tea towel works fine-we make a
: joke out of it - I invite them to my fancy French restaurant! They
: don’t mind and some ask for the covers. It takes only a few
: classes of hands covered for the touch typing to kick in.: I use a one minute test. Since I provide them with the material to
: copy, spelling and grammar are not issues. The best book I’ve
: encountered for young students is Ready, Set, Keyboard. Its quite
: old but the reading level is easy -3rd grade- without being
: condescending. I’ve used with 7th graders with great success. Each
: lesson has a language arts component. There is a test every five
: lessons. Amazon could get you a copy.: Vocational speeds begin at 60 cwpm but I tell the kids we are not
: here to get them jobs -we are here to make their academic work
: easier (they like the more efficient chatting!). At mid-20’s cwpm
: you are beating most hunt and peckers. With the touch typing they
: will only get faster with more practice.: Caveat- We are teaching keyboarding to MUCH younger students than we
: used to have. Most, but not all, kids are developmentally ready at
: grade 6, I find that by 7th grade it is very rare to find a kid
: that is not able to handle it and to me would indicate some OT
: needs. I also acknowledge to the kids that the keyboarding
: practice is boring but we, as a class, agree that a quarter of
: boring is worth the lifelong skill and, if we do it right, they
: will never have to do it again.: There is also a good practice program available for download at
: www.letterchase.com I use it for extra practice after I have
: taught each key.: Good luck
Re: Typing speed -- typewriter or computer?
The keyboarding or touch typing skills are the same on a computer or a typewriter. What is different is the word-processing. Obviously, editing and formatting are for the computer. Since I incorporate language arts and writing into my lessons, I use a computer. (I haven’t seen a typewriter for ages and my students don’t know what they are/were.) since you obviously have a computer, I’d go with it for the ease of correcting mistakes, let alone spell check.
I am not much of a fan of learning the key reaches through software. I write my own material that is similiar to the Ready, Set, Keyboard book mentioned in my previous post(theirs is better, but my school couldn’t go for an almost out-of -print book) I like to use software for the necessary practice once the instruction has happened. UltraKey is boring but has a speech component which is very important for for some kids. It has easy text but not enough different activities. A good practice freebie is downloadable at www.letterchase.com
In general, I like software that is not too visually distracting, provides error analysis and allows the user to choose the excercise. I look for activities that work on specfic areas-single finger eg. my or consecutive errors eg. ee or adjacent errors, k for l or bottom row, etc, etc I prefer speed tests to be stationary text that is timed. I’ll use some ticker-tape text for speed practice but do not use screens with words or letters popping allover. There used to be a great old Mac program called Type! that did all of this and more in large type, high contrast, black and white screens.
There is an excellent program Read, Write and Type that is phoneme-based. Most kids will use it to help identify sounds and become more familiar with the keyboard. The reading level would be gr 1 or 2. But it would be an very exceptional student at grade 2 who used the correct hand/finger positions. It has a speech component and a wide variety of activities. The premise of the program is to be able to produce on the keyboard the sounds that you hear, not unlike PG mapping. Another issue with quite young children is hand size. There is a smaller keyboard made for kids-Little Fingers(http://store.learnserv.com/cgi-bin/lscatalog/DADE0005XX.html )
How young? Its a developmental issue for some kids, motor skills not there yet. But for all young students, research has consisently shown that they will forget and have to relearn if they do not use their keyboarding skills regularly. So unless you want to really put the time in to learn and stick with it, my opinion would be -don’t bother till they are grade 7-IMHO
Good luck
This is what my son had in 5th as short term objectives.Using keyboard xxx will type with proper hand poostion at the rate of 15 words a minute.Using keyboard xxx will type with proper hand poostion at the rate of 25 words a minute.(baseline was 10 words a minute) At about 12 words per minute my son could type faster than he could write. Using instant messenger at home is a good way to help improve speed.Helen