Kids feel bored learning how to type

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Permalink Reply by Yoke on May 23, 2008 at 4:22am

Thanks, I really appreciate your inputs ;)

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Permalink Reply by Joanne Penn on May 23, 2008 at 10:02pm

I'm so glad you asked this question because I am a typing teacher of 4th and 5th grade students. I have been looking for ideas, comments, feedback about keyboarding. I'm a new member and have just discovered this month old discussion tonight. Is this still an open discussion or is it closed? It looks like no one has written for a while.

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Permalink Reply by Yoke on May 24, 2008 at 2:01am

This discussion is open, but it's pretty much an old post...I posted this about a month ago...but I'm still looking for more ideas. I really appreciate everybody for replying my discussion :)

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Permalink Reply by Joanne Penn on May 29, 2008 at 10:02pm

Hi,
I have a simple game my 4th graders like. I call it musical chairs. Here's how it goes. I often play music for them and say a letter 4x; they 'echo' the letter back 4x as they type it. Then I go on to the next letter - all in rhythm of course.

So, with musical chairs, I establish 3 typing criteria that all students have to do while I echo letters to them. Usually these 3 items are that they have to keep their wrists off the table, have to type the correct letter, and can not backspace.

I choose 6 students to start the game, and they get out of their seats and roam around the room, watching the seated students type. Meanwhile I'm playing the music and echoing letters to them. When a roaming student finds a seated student not doing one of the 3 items, the roaming student sits in the chair of the seated student, and the seated student gets up - now there's a new roaming student.

They really like this game. In the end, I ask how many students never had to get up - in other words, they were the students who were not found to be making mistakes. I acknowledge these students for their good typing.

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen DeLander on May 24, 2008 at 12:16am

Hi. Popcap's Typershark game is pretty cool. It has a diver in the water with sharks approaching him. The sharks have letters on them, and will 'die' if their letter is typed. So the kids are typing to save the diver.

It can be adjusted at a variety of typing skill levels.

Popcap tries to get you to buy the games, but you can play online for free at:

http://www.popcap.com/games/free/typershark

Have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Robitaille on May 26, 2008 at 5:05am

I successfully taught keyboarding skills to Australian 1st grade students (age 6-7). They knew their letters by then. The key to the success was to take it slow and to practice in short increments. Add variety to the lessons. I would frequently do different kind of typing lessons, incorporating typing software, websites, games and even a blank word processor page. I spent six months on the home row alone. (I only saw the students once per week.) This enabled them to get a solid foundation on the home row before moving onto other letters. They were confident typists by the time we moved to the top and bottom rows. We only typed for about 5 minutes each lesson. Sure, some of the students still got bored with it, but most of them persisted well because they knew the typing component of my lesson was reasonably short. Do everything you can to make it fun and to add variety to it. Oh, and by the way, Typershark was a huge hit with them!

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Permalink Reply by Brian Love on May 27, 2008 at 7:22am

We use the Type to Learn Software in my school district, I reward kids with keys from old keyboards when they earn a certain percentage on each mission. I agree with Karen regarding BBC's Dance Mat Typing, my kids like it alot. I've also used SuperHyperSpiderTyper from Funschool. I think they key is to vary how you teach these concepts.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Johnson on May 28, 2008 at 10:33am

I'm not sure where you teach, but in my district follows standards that teach typing in 2nd grade. Ages 5-6 work on skills, but being that their hands are small and attentions short, we don't formally practice typing at that age like we do at 2nd grade. I might have a look at the standards for that age and if typing is indeed intended to be taught for your young group, they might simply need more regular practice. I know that with a fourth grade group I had, typing for 10 minutes a day was FAR superior to the occasional work done other wise. Good luck.

Erik

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