Then in 3rd grade we switch to the earlier version of Type to Learn (less
fun, more work). There is a keyboarding requirement in 5th - 8th grade.
Letters are sent home in the summer and all students in grades 3 - 8 spend
the first two weeks of the year doing keyboarding in their lab time. If they
have not completed their requirement by that time, they need to come up at
recess or on their own time to pass the keyboarding "test" which is in Type
to Learn. By the time of graduation, 8th grade students are expected to type
30 wpm with 95% accuracy and they often exceed that. They come back to tell
us how grateful they are that they know how to type.
Ann Masters
Holy Child Academy
Old Westbury, NY
> From: Doug Fodeman <dfodeman@brookwood.edu>
> Reply-To: A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
> Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:46:57 -0500
> To: <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Do we need to teach keyboarding?
>
> About 7-8 years ago we shifted our keyboarding curriculum so that home key
> finger placement and introduction to the keyboard started in the 2nd half of
> the 2nd grade with a program that also supported the students' phonics-based
> reading curriculum. Then
> from 3rd grade through 5th grade the students meet for 30 minutes each week to
> use an earlier version of Type to Learn (less entertainment-version). Once
> those students hit the 5th grade our 5th grade teachers reported to us that
> their kids were writing
> better, longer, faster and were more willing to edit their work. We wondered
> if they really WERE writing better. We then partnered with a psychologist who
> had done studies on whether or not keyboarding, versus handwriting, improved
> the written
> expression of kids with learning disabilities (which it did!). For 3 years we
> conducted studies on our own 4th, 5th and 6th graders on standardized writing
> tests completed in either hand-written form or keyboarded on a computer (no
> spell check or
> grammer check allowed). In each year's study the keyboarded writing samples
> out-scored the handwritten samples overall. We even published the study a few
> years ago.
>
> By the end of their 5th grade year, our students are usually keyboarding over
> 40 wpm and more than 90% accuracy. (we track it.) We are strong advocates for
> keyboard instruction. I personally feel that if we don't provide proper
> keyboard instruction to
> our students, we also put them at risk for a life-time of bad habits and at
> risk for back and wrist problems (i.e. we teach them proper posture and
> hand-placement.)
>
> I respectfully disagree that we should just expect our kids to get keyboarding
> on their own or after a few lessons. Would we do the same for cursive
> writing? If the last ten years suggest what the next ten may be like, they
> will need more digital
> skills and proper keyboarding is an essential skill for high school, college
> and many careers.
>
> Doug Fodeman
>
> Co-Director, ChildrenOnline.org
> ================================
> Douglas Fodeman
> Director of Technology
> Brookwood School
> Manchester, MA 01944
> http://www.Brookwood.edu
> (978) 526-4500 X6233
> ================================
>
>
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