Tracking Student Progress
Tracking Student Progress
What are some ways to track student keyboarding progress?
- Periodically retest students on high-frequency words to see how their speed and accuracy are improving.
- Try putting high-frequency words in as created lessons in KBK so that the program will grade the timings for you.
- Let students work with you to set their own keyboarding goals.
- Remind students what their individual keyboarding goals are. Keep them updated on their progress toward goals by print goal sheets: Goals for keyboarding.pdf Download Goals for keyboarding.pdf
- Track class progress for school motivation.
- If a student reaches their goal early, adjust it!
Student Motivation
To help motivate students, report class keyboarding progress as a school. Each elementary school in Canyons District received materials to build a keyboarding racetrack bulletin board. (Ask your Ed Tech if you're not sure where yours is located.) Use the bulletin board to gamify keyboarding instruction by:
- Using the car cutouts to represent classes.
- Move the cars along the racetrack to show progress toward specific class keyboarding goals:
- Perfect technique moves cars halfway around the track.
- Speed and accuracy move the cars around the second half of the track.
- Move each car around the track based on what percentage of the class has met their goals.
- OR move each car to certain points on the track that are labeled with technique and speed markers.
- Award praise, prizes, or incentives to classes as they complete the race.
This is one example of how your race track could be set up:
Oakdale Elementary decided to create a pirate map to track student keyboarding progress to match their school's theme for the year:
Oakdale's plan for tracking student progress includes:
- Set 8 keyboarding goals for classes to achieve in order:
- Perfect Posture
- Feet placed for balance
- Body centered to the ‘h’ key with elbows at sides
- Sit up straight
- Perfect Hand Position
- Curve fingers over the home row keys
- Wrists off the keyboard
- Perfect Fingering
- Eyes on the printed copy
- Keys by touch with correct fingering
- Keys with a smooth rhythm
- Perfect Technique (all of the above put together)
- 10 WPM with 3 or fewer errors
- 15 WPM with 3 or fewer errors
- 20 WPM with 3 or fewer errors
- 25 WPM with 2 or fewer errors
- Once a month their pirate ships are moved along the map to show class progress. Ships are moved once 85% of the entire class has reached the next goal. This way, individual students are not singled out. Rather, it is a class-wide goal to help everyone achieve.
- Prizes worth pennies are awarded for classes as they reach certain points on the map.
Draper Elementary used an adventure theme to track their keyboarding progress:
They also celebrate students who meet their goals in KBK:
Work with the grade 3-5 teachers in your school to develop a plan for setting goals and tracking student progress that will work best for you!