One student practicing how to type with his fingers in the proper position.
At the beginning of summer school, I had numerous students were subpar typers and their frustration showed loudly. They were uncomfortable typing and wanted to peck at every key. Working with the different types of keyboards — smartphone, tablet, and keyboard — they were familiar with the idea of typing, but not in school. Many of them referred to texting or adding comments online to Facebook profiles.
As a result, I made it a personal goal to look past the moans and groans of typing to build this group of student’s skills. At first I had them using an online program called Type To Learn to get them familiar with familiar with the keys and holding their hands in the proper location. Next, I assigned them a few short sentences from a Phonics program we were working on in-class.
Before you know it, students were mastering small tasks (i.e. 4 sentences) and wanted to write other things. A few of the creative students wanted to write a short story while others merely complied with the assignments.
…but most importantly…everyone improved and showed growth from day one of summer school until the end!
Typing is becoming a major challenge because many state tests are moving to the computer. Shown is one of my summer school students (sometimes reluctant) but practicing her typing skills.
