As a teacher, how can I maintain the focus and dedication of my students to improve their typing skills?
Hi,
Keep going with why. Ask students to reflect aloud (or in a typed document!) on any tasks that need good keyboarding skills, especially activities important to them in school and elsewhere. Tell students that once they start making personal connections to why typing matters, they’ll see even more reasons to learn proper keyboarding.
Best Regards,
Lyka Remeticado
Community Associate at Typesy
Hello, @millahood!
It is likely that students in your class will be at differing levels of typing proficiency. There are many ways to keep your advanced students engaged while you focus your attention on your struggling students. Consider hosting competitions for highest WPM or accuracy, allow your most advanced students to tutor less experienced classmates, or challenge your adept typists by blindfolding them or covering the letters on their keyboard. Having a few ideas up your sleeve will ensure your skilled typists don’t become bored and distracting to others who need time to practice.
Keep in mind: typing practice does not need to be a mundane task! Utilize typing games to keep students engaged, and before you know it, students will be begging to practice their keyboarding skills. Aside from keeping lessons fun, typing games allow students to track their progress, happily focus on areas of weakness, and practice their hand-eye coordination, a skill much needed in touch typing.
Regards, Kerry
Put students in charge of their own progress! Have them set goals for themselves and hold themselves accountable for their own successes and failures. When working with students to set goals, keep in mind that in general, the average typist can type 41 WPM and should be maintaining an accuracy rate around 92%, about 8 mistakes per 100 words. Remind students that a high WPM with low accuracy is not a desirable goal; the amount of time needed to correct typing errors should be taken into account when testing a true WPM. To improve on accuracy, students should slow their typing to focus more on typing correctly rather than quickly. As the amount of mistakes lowers, only then should students be pushing for a higher WPM.
If made to track and reflect on their progress throughout the course, students will be more likely to remain focused and motivated.
Regards,
Alex (The Reimagined Classroom Teacher)