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Reasons we teach keyboarding
Keyboard programs at Mount Mahogany - Keyboard Chatter & Keyboard Craze
Keyboarding.org - a site with information about keyboarding, teaching keyboarding, and research about carpal tunnel syndrome. It also has information about the two keyboarding programs we use at Mount Mahogany, Keyboard Chatter and Keyboard Craze, as well as evaluations of different keyboarding programs you can get at home.
 tah State Office of Education Keyboarding Statement
We Believe:
- A strong keyboarding skill is imperative in almost every career option.
- A strong keyboarding skill is important for functioning day-by-day in our technologically advanced society.
- Efficient and effective keyboarding can result only from proper keyboarding techniques (touch typing).
Therefore:
- Keyboarding courses at all levels will stress proper keybarding techniques.
- Credit for keyboarding classes will be given only to those students who consistently exhibit proper keyboarding techniques - those who have mastered the elements of touch typing.
- Proper keyboarding techniques will be encouraged, reviewed, and emphasized in all courses where a keyboard is used.
Proper Keyboarding Techniques:
- Eyes on copy - not on hands, the keyboard, or monitor.
- Keys struck with the proper fingers which remain curved over the home keys.
- Wrists parallel to the slant of the keyboard but not resting on the keyboard.
- Chair the proper distance from the keyboard (elbows hanging loosely at the sides of the body).
- Proper sitting position: back straight, feet placed for balance.
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 eyboard Programs at Mount Mahogany
Two different programs, both adopted and supported by the Alpine School District, are used to teach keyboarding at the elementary level. Keyboard Chatter is a twenty lesson program used to introduce the keyboard as well as proper keyboarding technique. After Keyboard Chatter has been completed, Keyboard Craze is used to build upon those skills and develop speed and accuracy. Below is a description of both programs.
In second grade, I formally introduce the keyboard to the students and we do several small projects to help them become familiar with the keyboard and the special functions of some of the keys. They also are introduced to the properties of text and font that are available with a word processing program.
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eyboard Chatter
Introduction:
Keyboard Chatter will help all students learn to type using the correct technique and the correct position. We will make certain that each student learns the proper fingering so that each one can "chat with the computer" as rapidly and efficiently as possible. Today's technologically advanced society makes a strong keyboarding skill so valuable for everyone; we want to give the students the opportunity to efficiently interact with the computer at an early age before bad keyboarding habits are formed. A nice bonus is that the Keyboard Chatter practice drills are made up of the spelling and reading words that the students are working to master in school.
Any encouragemtn you can give your student through extra practice, praise, reinforcement, etc. will be really helpful. Ask your student about the keys that were learned and practiced in class. Ask him or her which finger is used to tap each key. Students can practice "tapping" the keys whether or not they have a keyboard at home. "Tapping" on the table or desk can reinforce key location and decrease finger response time.
We have watched exciting things happen in Keyboard Chatter classes: students learn the keys quickly and master appropriate technique. However, the 20 half-hour classes do not provide enough time to truly internalize the skill. It needs to be practiced, practiced, practiced!
Keyboard Chatter Lesson-By-Lesson Outline
Lesson |
Class Concepts |
| 1 |
Keyboarding Techniques and Position
Left/Right Review
Home Row Introduction: A S D F J K L ; |
| 2 |
Home Row Keys: Review, Drill, Reinforcement |
| 3 |
Enter Key
Space Bar
Left and Right Shift Keys |
| 4 |
Left Middle Finger Family: D E C |
| 5 |
Right Middle Finger Family: K I , |
| 6 |
Left Index Finger Family: F R V |
| 7 |
Right Index Finger Family: J U M |
| 8 |
Review |
| 9 |
Left Ring Finger Family: S W X |
| 10 |
Right Ring Finger Family: L O . |
| 11 |
Review |
| 12 |
Left Index Finger Center Keys: G T B |
| 13 |
Right Index Finger Center Keys: H Y N |
| 14 |
Review |
| 15 |
Punctuation Marks Introduction, Review, and Drill: . , ; ? / :
Skillbuilding Drills Introduction |
| 16 |
Left Pinky Finger Family: A Q Z |
| 17 |
Right Pinky Finger Fmaily: ; P |
| 18 |
Skillbuilding |
| 19 |
Skillbuilding |
| 20 |
Skillbuilding |
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eyboard Craze
Keyboard Craze is a 70-lesson curriculum for helping elementary students in grades 3 through 6 build keyboarding speed and accuracy after they have learned the alphabetic keyboard. It is not a curriculum for introducing the keyboard. Keyboard Craze requires only a simple word processing package. It is a teacher-directed approach to building keyboarding speed and accuracy.
Keyboard Craze is organized into seven lesson groups:
Technique Review Lessons
The five lessons in this section are designed to help keyboarding students understand that keyboarding speed and accuracy will only develop when proper keyboarding techniques are used. Study after study has found that the most important thing we teach students in beginning keyboarding classes is proper technique! Students should be expected to always use proper keyboarding techniques when keying; therefore, even though there are only five lessons in this section, keyboarding instructors should insist on proper technique throughout all of the lessons.
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Alphabet Review Lessons
The ten lessons in this section are designed to review the alphabetic keys of the keyboard as well as the "special keys": Tab, Shift, Space Bar, Return. It is expected that these keys have already been matered and have been used a great deal by the students. These lessons are reminders and mastery builders. They can be used to provide a review for students who still lack keyboarding confidence and to provide valuable speedbuilding drills for students who have matered the keyboard.
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High Frequency Words Lessons
The twenty lessons in this section are designed to build "word responses" for the 500 most frequently used words in a child's vocabulary. Numerous educational research studies have shown that these are the words that children read, spell, write, speak, and key most often. In fact, they make up over 80 percent of the words they use. Therefore, serious drill on these words will build confidence and efficiency.
While proper keyboarding technique is the most important thing we teach keyboarding students as they are learning the keyboard, building keyboarding vocabulary is the most important thing we do to build keyboarding speed and accuracy after the keyboard has been matered.
The purpose of all of the activities in the High Frequency Words lessons is to add words to the "keyboarding vocabulary" through developing "word responses" for the most frequently used words. This means that the words are drilled so thoroughly that each time they are keyed, the typist sees and keys the entire word, not individual letters of the word. All keyboarders have several of these words in their keyboarding vocabularies. The more words they have in their keyboarding vocabularies, the faster and more accurate they are at the keyboard.
Each lesson introduces, drills, and evaluates skill on 25 of high frequency words. The lessons encourage students to reach 25 words per minute on each individual group of words. Students are given logs of opportunities to reach that speed.
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High Frequency Phrases Lessons
The ten lessons in this section are intended to increase students' ability to key a series of words and spaces without pause or hesitiation. This is done by presenting and reinforcing short phrases that are made up of the most frequently used words and that appear often in writing. Focus is on the following:
- making the space at the end of each word a part of the word instead of hesitating before striking it
- keying complete phrases at a continuous, steady pace without pause
- mastering spelling of the words in the phrases so that there is no hesitation in keying caused by spelling uncertainties
Each lesson introduces, drills, and evaluates skill on ten of the high frequency phrases. Practicing the high frequency phrases increases keyboarding vocabulary and builds upon the word responses that are established in the High Frequency Words Lessons. Most of the words in the phrases are presented and drilled in the High Frequency Words Lessons.
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Speed Building Lessons
The ten lessons in this section are intended to increase students' keyboarding speed and accuracy. The students are encouraged to make major efforts to increase speed; in fact, they are expected to increase their keyboarding speed by one word per minute during each class period, while maintaining an acceptable number of errors. Speedbuilding is best accomplished when it is based on individual goals.
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Number Keypad Lessons
The ten lessons in this section are designed to build speed and confidence on the number keypad. Students love the change of working on the keypad. In addition, speed and accuracy on the keypad come very fast. Because there is so much statistical keying done in today's world, efficiency on the keypad is very valuable. Very little time is spent in today's keyboarding classroom building speed on teh numbers and symbols across the top of the keyboard because they are so much more difficult to use than the number keypad.
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Composition Lessons
The purpose of the five lessons in this secion is to give students an opportunity to apply their developing keyboarding skill to composing at the keyboard. Composing at the keyboard is a valuable skill which makes great writers out of good writers, because of the fact that thoughts can be recorded so much faster with the keyboard than with a pen or pencil. This reduces writer's block.
The Composing Lessons are very different from the lessons in other sections. Their focus is on providing students with opportunities to put their thoughts on paper through the keyboard. Some of the lesson projects produce wonderful documents. There are still, however, skillbuilding opportunities in each lesson.
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