For the first time since I've been a teacher my students don't have weekly keyboarding practice at school. I'm on the tech committee that helped to make that decision and I do like having an extra 1/2 hour each week of time in the classroom. One concern is that students may not pick-up typing skills as quickly, especially if they are not practicing at home, which we are encouraging them to do.
I am providing students with more times each week to use the iDiary app, giving them individual "real world" practice with keyboarding. Some days they have free choice of the topic to write about and other days I give them a specific question or topic to respond to. Some of the things I've asked them to write about is what they are learning in PE, their favorite activity in music class, what whole class reading book they've enjoyed the most and why, the book they would like me to read aloud to the class next and why, and a description of their favorite breakfast. Not only do these writings help me get to know the students better, they are also expressing themselves in opinion format most of the time (CCS) and practicing keyboarding. After they type their sentences (minimum 2 for 1st grade and 4 for 2nd grade) they can illustrate or add stickers if they want.
No samples here--the students love the idea that these are PRIVATE (except for me)!
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