Does anyone have any ideas of creative ways for my middle school students to work on their typing?

Question

We are working on typing correctly and they are getting pretty bored with the Mavis Beacon method.

Answer 1

1. Do they have any spelling words that they can type?

2. You can use hand towels to cover their hands, it works great.

3. Have them type some text out of a book BACKWARDS. It forces them to think about each letter, and it makes no sense on the screen, so they may tend to keep their eyes on the book.

4. Have them close their eyes, and dictate a few sentences to them...try to make them keep up with you by starting out slow and going faster and faster.

5. Have everyone start writing a story out of their head. No bathroom talk, just clean fun. After 5 minutes, tell everyone to stand up and move to the next computer. They must continue the story from the previous person. Keep doing that until the end of the period, let them go back to their original machines and read how the story ended up. Lots of fun.

6. Find some practice sentences for them to type. Set up a grid so it is like a race. You can use any holiday theme, depending on what time of year it is. For example, at Xmas...have them try to get across the frozen pond without falling. That means you have to type the sentences perfectly. If you don't, you fall in and have to start over. You can come up with lots of variation on this...a football field, race around the world, etc.

Answer 2

If you have the capabilities, start a class chatroom that you can supervise. Give them a topic that is interesting to them, and they will usually want to participate. I learned to type in middle school by using AOL. The peer pressure of not wanting to be the slowest one to answer will be pretty good motivation usually. There are also a lot of free typing games on the internet, such as Yahoo Typer Shark.

Answer 3

We have a pc game for that, its from encore software and it came with the elementry advantage software. Its like and adventure game where you move the character by typing the right keys for the direction, and it keeps changing what it is and you gather scrolls as you go through and you have to type whats on the scrolls. Way more fun than boring from a book stuff.

Answer 4

Try having them practice typing sentences or phrases you come up with WITHOUT looking at the keyboard. It would be fun to make a keyboard cover. You can buy those covers called "keyboard skins" (normally used to protect the keyboard from sticky fingers) and perhaps spray paint them black or use a black marker to cover the letters. (The "keyboard skins" look like molded keyboards, and you can still press down the keys with them on.) They are only about $10 each, and I think that the kids would find it fun!


Hope this helps! :o)

Answer 5

If you supervise them, you could let them play TyperShark on Yahoo games. It is free. I actually love the game, and it has helped me with my own skills. I suggested supervision just so you can make sure they are really playing TyperShark and not some other Yahoo game.

Answer 6

i'm a pupil and typically (searching on the instructor) that is slightly wierd for a instructor to be pounding fists and extreme fives. yet i love affirming good morning to my instructors and that is nice to have the "good morning" lower back. perhaps for your poster you should positioned some diverse techniques of a thanks to assert "good Morning" in diverse languages and also say "it doesn't remember the way you're saying it, this is nonetheless well mannered." wish it is sensible.

Answer 7

let them on yahoo answers, it's competetive.
Clear, correct, fast, and comprehensible answers win (usually).