Overview of the District Program

District Program Overview

Changes are happening for 2021-22, we are now using Typing Club.  Please refer to the curriculum map for your grade for updates.  Updates will be coming shortly on this page and the rest of the Keyboarding course.  

 

The Canyons School District Instructional Supports Department has created a District-wide keyboarding program to assist teachers in keyboarding instruction.

The following information outlines how you will use the Keyboard Chatter, Craze, and Connection curriculum and the Keyboarding for Kids program to help your students reach keyboarding mastery. Combine these tools with fun activities, and tie it all together with a fun theme, and you'll be ready to have a successful keyboarding year!

 

The Plan

What does keyboarding look like in Canyons School District?

 

Teachers will introduce basic concepts of keyboarding to their students. Basic concepts include the location of letters on the keyboard, proper posture when sitting at the computer, and proper home row hand position. Students are not expected to be fluent at keyboarding at this age, but they should understand that there is a proper way to type. Teachers should help students avoid developing bad habits. Students should be able to use the keyboard to enter simple words like their names.

Second grade has the opportunity to focus on keyboarding at the beginning of each school year as their first science content integration unit. Resources second grade teachers may use during this time include the first few lessons in the Keyboard Chatter curriculum and Dance Mat Typing Links to an external site., a free online keyboarding program. 

There are resources for these grades on subsequent Canvas pages.  

 

Every class will use the Keyboard Chatter, Craze, or Connection program for 20 consecutive days, 30 minutes per day, during the first six weeks of the school year to establish good keyboarding technique. Some schools choose to use Keyboard Chatter in all three grades because their students still need basic skill instruction. Keyboard Craze may be used in 4th and 5th grade if teachers feel students are ready for more challenging curriculum. Keyboard Connection may be used in 5th grade if students have mastered technique and are ready to focus on accuracy and speed building.

After the initial 20 days of instruction, teachers will provide follow-up keyboarding instruction at least 10 minutes once a week for the remainder of the school year to reinforce technique and to develop accuracy and speed. Additional keyboarding activities and lessons should be used as needed. Proper keyboarding technique should be reinforced whenever students are keying on keyboards.

 

Every student will be enrolled in keyboarding all year as a stand-alone course or embedded into the CTE Intro course. Sixth-grade keyboarding teachers will use the Keyboard Craze and/or Keyboard Connection programs for instruction and the Keyboard Mastery program for online drills and testing. All 6th grade keyboarding teachers should earn their USBE  Links to an external site.Elementary or Secondary Keyboarding Endorsement Links to an external site..

 

Middle school principals will decide which, if any, keyboarding courses will be available for students in grades 7-8. All 7th and 8th grade keyboarding teachers should earn their Secondary Keyboarding Endorsement Links to an external site.  Links to an external site.by completing an approved USBE Keyboarding Endorsement plan.

 

Occasionally incoming sixth-grade students request to test out of middle school keyboarding altogether. Each middle school's administrator and keyboarding teacher should discuss whether testing out will be an option at their school. If keyboarding is embedded into the CTE Intro course, testing out of keyboarding may not be an option. If a school is following the stand-alone keyboarding model and the decision is made to allow testing out, the following requirements are recommended:

• Achieving 5th grade keyboarding mastery does NOT automatically qualify a student to opt out of keyboarding in sixth grade. 5th grade mastery level is only 25 words per minute, which is not considered fluent keyboarding speed.
• In order to test out, students should have solid keyboarding skill. Solid keyboarding skill is comprised of perfect technique and a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 WPM with 90 percent accuracy.
• If a student feels s/he has solid keyboarding skill, s/he may set up an appointment with the middle school keyboarding teacher to take a 1- or 2-minute timed keyboarding test which the teacher will use to assess whether or not the student has solid keyboarding skill.
• If approved by the middle school keyboarding teacher and administrator, the student may un-enroll from sixth-grade keyboarding.

 

The pdf on the following page shows a comparison of the state keyboarding curriculum throughout the various grade levels. Please note that while keyboarding is not taught in grades 7-12 in Canyons School District, the concepts listed for those grade levels can be included in sixth-grade keyboarding classes. Individual student goal-setting to increase keyboarding technique, speed, and accuracy should be utilized in all grades.
Links to an external site.