We want to empower students to become balanced individuals who are able to show both competence in the information age as well as common sense/wisdom. In this quest to access information, to think globally, and to become life-long learners, we would suggest entering into a partnership with your local high school business department as well as with your media specialist, classroom teachers, and/or computer/technology coordinators to develop a district keyboarding program beginning with the elementary grades. This will enable the broader concept of preparing your students for entry into the 21st century work force.

In 1985, the elementary school media specialist in our small district came to our Business Department at the high school with a plea: "Students are coming into the library to work on a typewriter/computer, and they are hunting and pecking! Help!" That event snowballed into an articulated K-12 keyboarding program in our district that was to have a major impact on our own students as well as on our business program at the high school. From an articulated program within our own district that was developed by a team (that media specialist, a middle school computer teacher, and a high school business teacher) and continuing through the participation in a statewide effort that was being started by a college business teacher from Eastern Oregon State College, a small group of educators (elementary/middle/high school teachers; computer coordinators; business teachers from high schools as well as community and four-year colleges; administrators) would eventually reach out to touch elementary students and their "keyboarding lives" throughout the northwest. This group (Council for Keying Education) would eventually settle into 12 dedicated educators from Oregon (representing all levels of education) whose main purpose was to assist educators in their goal to teach keyboarding properly to the elementary-age students. The group was eventually to study research, develop a generic Scope and Sequence, promote appropriate keyboarding "by touch" activities within school districts, contribute to the National Business Education Association's document, ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL KEYBOARDING STRATEGIES GUIDE, (Second Edition, 1997, National Business Education Association, Reston, Virginia) and write and publish KEYBOARDING TOOLBOX (ISTE Publishing Company, 1993) which includes Keyboarding Techniques (Position), Developing Keyboarding Accuracy, Developing Speed Skills, and Reinforcing Skills for teaching keyboarding to younger students.

One spinoff of the Council for Keying Education activities was the giving of workshops to elementary/middle school teachers and computer coordinators who understood the need for early keyboarding instruction and who wanted to teach such a course to their students. These workshops were planned and given by a team consisting of an elementary educator who was responsible for teaching keyboarding (initial instruction as well as reinforcement) to elementary-age students and a high school business teacher. This article is not to answer "how" and "why" and "when" questions for teaching early keyboarding. That information is covered thoroughly by Dr. Lloyd Bartholome on this web site under "Research and Position Papers." The purpose of this article is to share an agenda for such workshops with suggested topics to follow--information that a "team" from any school district (elementary educator/high school business teacher) might find helpful in developing its own early keyboarding program or preparing a district articulation for keyboarding.

The workshop time frame needs to be developed around the educators' schedule who must be in attendance. A two-day workshop (six to ten hours total) seemed to work best. This allowed time (e.g. on the first day) for sharing information, for practicing hands-on techniques, and for discussing specific suggestions for initial instruction, reinforcement drills, and motivational activities. On the second day, time included built-in work periods for teams of teachers to practice and set up their instructional program for teaching keyboarding in their schools. It did work best to have these two workshop days be adjacent. Putting all of the information, practice, and development portions into a one-day (six to eight hours) seemed overwhelming to already exhausted teachers. Participants' enthusiasm and creativity thrived better on a two-day workshop.

(The following is a sample agenda . . . the one used to explain workshop "parts" in this article.)

Because participants come to the workshop with so many questions running through their minds, it is important to start with an overview that addresses some basic issues. The Council for Keying Education wrestled with many issues and reached the following consensus on these basics:

• Students should learn to keyboard when they are going to use it. At this early age, if they do not use it, they will lose it.

• Keyboarding needs to be taught by a trained instructor. We encourage a "team approach" - the elementary educator and the high school business teacher developing the program together. The high school typing teacher can teach the class - if instructed by the elementary teacher on the techniques for handling elementary-age students; the elementary classroom teacher (or other elementary educator) can teach the class if given the proper techniques for the skill by a business educator.

• Initial keyboarding should be taught in "teacher-directed" fashions (juj space, juj space, etc.) as opposed to software-directed, self-instruction. Supplemental and individualized programs may be used only after keys are learned, for makeup, or for specialized instruction.
• Reinforcement instruction is critical--
• Immediate reinforcement as keys are learned.
• Use in regular classroom applications throughout the year in which the keyboarding was learned.
• Teacher-directed instruction (on a shorter-term basis) the following year(s).
• A district-wide articulation (K-12) should be established with an appropriate scope and sequence. (Overkill of the subject can be devastating to the students' success rates and positive attitudes so the skill must be developed throughout the years in an articulated fashion.)
• Emphasis should be on: technique; position, eyes on copy!
• Instructors should be enthusiastic about the skill and positive in their approach with students. The instructor is the "key" in a successful keyboarding program.
• CKE recommends 30-45 minutes per day for approximately six to seven weeks, learning no more than two letters on an instruction day, with skill building drills and applications included in the lessons.
• Instruction may be on computers or on typewriters - some classrooms have a combination . . . which has +/- situations. Instruction should NEVER be on "dead" (nonpowered) keyboards (this allows students to practice unchecked, incorrect keying habits).

The Council for Keying Education developed the following philosophy before determining a Scope and Sequence it could recommend to others:

Every student should develop keyboarding skills beginning with instruction in the elementary grades. These skills should be taught by a trained instructor* and followed by continuing reinforcement and applications.

*(Definition: Trained Instructor--An instructor who has been properly inserviced in the area of teaching keyboarding, e.g. teacher-directed methods for teaching keyboarding, methods for working with young children, goals for proper technique for "touch" keyboarding, knowledge/use of computers.)

From that, the group developed a "Needs Assessment" (not summarized in this article). To assist your thoughts regarding articulation, however, CKE's Scope and Sequence is briefly summarized here:

Prekeyboarding Activities, e.g. use little finger on right hand for RETURN key, use right thumb for space bar.

Early Keyboarding Activities, e.g. put two hands on correct HOME keys, use appropriate posture.

Formal Keyboarding Technique Instruction with Appropriate Feedback, e.g. appropriate body posture, home row keys, alpha keys/punctuation/shift/special keys, numeric/symbols/numeric pad.

Skill Building: Pretest/Practice/Post test, e.g. drills, timings from text(s).

Reinforcement, e.g. during current and subsequent years.

To bring articulation into perspective on a local level, the following summary is an example from one school's articulated keyboarding program. This is shared mostly to give the reader a picture of the flow of an articulated keyboarding program. Individual school districts, of course, would have their own workable articulation.

Because districts use several different word processing packages, students should be taught "generic" word processing concepts, e.g.:

Getting to know their computer; menu bar and what it is, shift key, tab key, cap lock, return , arrow keys, wraparound

• moving the cursor
• making additions and deletions

• erasing and undo

• moving back and forth on the screen

• finding/replacing

• retrieving a file

• formatting

• printing

• using the spell check feature

• formatting a disk (if necessary)

• saving work

Contributions from a business teacher . . .

The business member of the team will need to direct the next section of the workshop--techniques important to a "touch" typing skill! The areas to be covered would be as follows:

Speed and Accuracy--"To develop keyboarding efficiency, students need to balance their emphasis on accuracy and speed. During initial keyboarding instruction, speed should not be emphasized to the point that students feel they are no longer able to control the keyboard. Neither should accuracy be emphasized to the point that students are expected to produce perfect copy while learning new keys." (KEYBOARDING TOOLBOX, pp. 9-24) This source gives further examples for developing speed and accuracy, e.g.:

Basic Principles of Developing Accuracy/Speed: good techniques are more important than accuracy or speed alone and provide a foundation for a high level of accuracy; use copy that has longer syllables and harder words than would be used for speed drills; give 30-second and one-minute timings for drill work; avoid telling beginning students to strive for perfect copy ( . . . encourages students to watch their fingers).

Reinforcement--"Reinforcement activities are drills that help students maintain and improve their keyboarding skill. Reinforce keyboarding skill: extensively during the year of initial instruction (e.g. daily repetition of new keys as they are learned, review of keys previously learned before presentation of new keys); briefly reinforce during each succeeding year." (KEYBOARDING TOOLBOX, pp. 25 - 30). 

Timings/Word Processing Applications--At the early-age level of initial instruction, timings should be used only to show a student his/her progress, not as a graded feature of the learning process. Word processing applications should be used to enhance the keyboarding skill and can be used evaluate the students' productive level of a keyboarding skill. 

Motivational drills are included in most keyboarding texts and are a part of the sources given for this document, e.g. NBEA's ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL KEYBOARDING STRATEGIES GUIDE, CKE's KEYBOARDING TOOLBOX.

 Contributions from an elementary educator . . . Day 1 Tips

Before starting any instruction, it is important to have a long-range plan in place. Go through the elementary keyboarding text (several are available) and set up the number of lessons needed to complete the alphabet, several of the punctuation keys, and build in review and reinforcement time (We did not do numbers at this level.) This allows flexibility when schedule interruptions occur. And they DO occur--Walk for trees, National school assemblies, Trina's seeing eye puppy, etc. With a plan, it is easy to pick up where you left off the next session.

The first day we show a basic school-based video, produced at our school, of keyboarding in the "real world." As students arrive, they are assigned a permanent computer station at which they are to remain throughout the entire term. General lab and equipment rules are then discussed. It is important to establish your lab and computer rules ahead of time and have them posted so all students can see them. For example, our main rule is NO TALKING. They come in, put in the word processing disk (if lab is not networked), type their names on the screen, and wait for directions. They hear that the first five minutes of the lesson will always be a warm-up time with directions on the board. Next, I gave a one-minute timed handwriting test . This test will help students recognize when they can type faster than writing or printing copy. We go over a technique sheet on the overhead, and I demonstrate correct typing position at a keyboard. When using laptops, teachers and students should be made aware of the procedures for replacing batteries, connecting to printers, or checking loose connections.

. . . Classroom Management/Layout/Scheduling

Of course, the procedures above are the beginning of managing your keyboarding sessions. The procedures need to be established in advance to minimize the loss of "time on task." As far as classroom or lab layouts are concerned, we have found that most instructors have little choice of the style of lab or positioning of computers. Unless you have designed the lab from the beginning of construction, you probably deal with what your building has. If there is an opportunity to design the classroom/lab to be used, select an arrangement that tends to make monitoring students at the keyboard easier, e.g. the Chevron style (see ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL KEYBOARDING STRATEGIES GUIDE, Second Edition, 1997, National Business Education Association, Reston, Virginia, for an explanation of various room layouts with advantages and disadvantages).

Scheduling classes is another obstacle in establishing a keyboarding program. As a media specialist with the computer lab as part of the media center, I was fortunate to be able to take half of a teacher's class for keyboarding while he/she enjoyed working with the other half of the class for small group activities. At first, we managed to work a schedule of daily 25 - 30 minute classes for ten weeks, for all fourth grades. After a couple of years, we added the third grades. In order to do this we had to shorten to seven weeks. These are problems your team will have to help solve.

. . . Cooperative Computers

If you have a lab that will house an entire classroom, you will not need this information. We originally had to begin with 15 students in our lab. Several schools who faced this problem used cooperative computers. Actually, there were some advantages. There was an extra person to help monitor each computer and directions had to be given only once. They exchanged positions at regular intervals. The students check: body centered on 'J', one-hand span from the keyboard, feet flat, back straight, fingers curved, wrist level, eyes on copy, and correct finger path for the letter being taught. We encouraged the observing student to point out the good techniques being used and softly whisper corrections. One way to test if a student is "peeking" or not is to cover his/her hands with a soft towel. This provides immediate feedback to the student. If you are dealing with a ratio of 1 computer to 20 students, you could teach the finger path and the lesson to the entire class. The teacher will demonstrate correct posture and techniques. Always insist that students look at you as you teach the letters. The students will then individually practice at the computer, with a partner who will monitor the techniques. A 10- to 15-minute time frame could be scheduled before the students change positions. A chart of the class, with the lessons noted at the top, could be used by the students to check off completed sessions. The teacher needs to monitor occasionally to remind students of good keyboarding skills and to encourage them. This is not the best method, but, even with limited equipment, it enables keyboarding skills to be acquired by students. As in other cooperative learning situations, cooperative keyboarding partners foster the following benefits:

• Partners celebrate each other's successes

• Partners encourage each other to complete assignments

• Partners discuss materials being learned

• Partners help each other by analyzing and diagnosing problems. They often relate materials they are using to classroom work.

• Partners become motivated by enjoyable experiences when working together.

• Partners learn to work together regardless of individual differences. With the current emphasis on cooperative learning, this is a very practical application of teamwork. This may be used at the terminal itself or away from the keyboards when planning material to be entered at a later time.

When students work collaboratively at the keyboard they can:

• Observe and imitate each other's use of the keyboard or computer, which increases their speed in mastering hardware and software.

• Observe, imitate, and build upon each other's strategies, thereby increasing their mastery of higher level reasoning processes.

• Experience the encouragement, support, warmth, and approval of a number of classmates.

• Have peers evaluate, diagnose, correct, and give feedback on their conceptual understanding and orally summarize the material.

• Be exposed to a greater diversity of ideas and procedures, more critical thinking, and more creative responses while completing the assignments.

• Encourage each other to stay on task and exert concentrated effort. Overall, cooperative learning with keyboarding promotes more and better work, more successful problem solving, and higher performance on factual recognition, applications, and problem-solving tasks.

. . . Monitoring

This is an absolutely essential activity, and you need to provide a deliberate plan to make certain students are not looking at their fingers after the first couple of lessons or so. Additional monitoring can be done by parent volunteers, high school students, cross-grade tutoring, video cameras, co-op partners, etc. It is very important that all techniques and correct position are monitored and maintained when students are at ANY keyboard. Students are to politely monitor and correct each other when they are using the computers or laptops in the lab or in the classroom. Parents are encouraged to require correct position and techniques at home as well.

With the keyboard so critical to all for a multitude of uses, composition at the keyboard is also a critical skill that needs to be addressed in a classroom and, therefore, in a keyboarding workshop. Right from an early age, keyboarders will be "writing" at their computer whether briefly creating or responding to email, writing a letter, or developing a report. Once again, the business teacher, who incorporates this into all keyboarding classes, can be a source of help. Typical "tips for successful composition" might include these.

Teach to Compos This most often can be done in the form of motivational drills/games. Typical "rules" for the game would be: no talking until asked to share keyed responses; respond quickly when keying in response (don't stop to ponder response); ignore spelling/grammar at this response mode; have fun! Build Input Skills from Simple to Complex, e.g.*

Single Strokes: Y for yes; N for no responses

Word Level: Teach only after all alphabetic keys have been taught!

Phrase Level

Sentence Level
Create captions for pictures
Answer riddles
Compose a sentence using these (red, hat, now, picture) words!

Paragraph Level
Describe a member of your family . . . or a friend . . . or your teacher (be careful of this one!)
Describe this room . . . this school . . . the playground
Describe a (preselected by you) picture, a slide, a transparency.
Explain briefly a project you are completing in another class.

Desktop Publishing
Design an invitation to a holiday function . . . to a school event.

Above all, when working with students on their composition skills, use humor, be enthusiastic, be positive!

*(Selected composition activities from Composition Exercises by Dr. Patricia L. Malone, Chemeketa Community College Instructor, Salem, Oregon.

The following list could suggest writing activities for students:

Each team should list local resources and come up with writing projects according to grade levels involved.

Either the elementary or high school team educator will be able to share with workshop participants motivational applications to enhance a keyboarding skill. Such examples might be: playing tic/tac/toe; keying as many words as possible from guide words on the board such as THANKSGIVING, SPRING VACATION; practicing composition through drills as listed above.

The second day of the workshop allows for two major activities: to allow for a question-answer period to discuss or clarify areas discussed on Day 1; and to allow educators to work on their own keying program with the "team" giving direction and support.

The question/answer period often allowed participants time to explore local problems with the team helping to suggest possible solutions.

Teachers were to bring their own district software packages they wished to explore/integrate into a planned keyboarding program. Usually, their first decision needed to be an articulated program, deciding which grade levels needed to be included. Our direction to them was that they needed to introduce keyboarding skills at the level students were going to use it. Usually this was third and fourth grades. Our school does have a second grade teacher who felt they needed this skill so she took training and is responsible for teaching her own class.

Teachers had time to look at some of the application projects (listed above) which the team brought to demonstrate.

 Summary

The real "key" to a successful keyboarding program for elementary-age students, we feel, is the partnership of the elementary educator and the high school business teacher to help build a viable program and to help in the training of educators who will be teaching keyboarding to their young students. A team approach broadens the base of skills in the partnership with the students being the real winners.