5th grade Instructional Guide

Keyboarding

Keyboarding and Computer Science

The Keyboarding block is designed to help students demonstrate efficient digital input by the end of 5th grade. This begins with competency in keyboarding, appropriate and responsible use of technology, and basic computer science principles. Keyboarding by touch, rather than speed, is introduced in these standards. Keyboarding techniques are foundational to accuracy and speed. The following Keyboarding standards are aligned to the Utah K-5 Computer Science standards. Keyboarding Schedule Keyboarding should be a sustained effort throughout the school year. After setting up digital PBIS norms for the first week of instruction and practicing logins for Typing Club, students will use Typing Club for keyboard instruction and practice for 20 minutes a week. This time could be set up as a practice station during Skills-Based Instruction, see this link to the Tier 2 Manual pages 30-39 for more information. This time could also be set during the Science/Social Studies block. Proper keyboarding technique should be reinforced whenever students are typing on keyboards in class. During the second half of the year, students should be enrolled and mix in practice with the Practice Stories in Typing Club. These help to break up the monotony of the lessons, as well as give students practice with an actual story text. It is also set in a game format, which makes it fun for the kids. For DLI and ML students, some of these stories have also been translated and are available in DLI languages and other languages. Practicing this story in the more predominant language will help facilitate language acquisition when the same story is attempted in the less predominant language. There are also extensions for Vocab and Spelling and Digital Citizenship available as needed.