Applying Pink's Research to Keyboarding Instruction

Keyboarding Proficiency

Part One

In a recent article, keyboarding was named one of the top ten skills students in the 21st century need to learn.

Keyboarding is considered an algorithmic task, and when it comes to keyboarding, Daniel Pink, author of Drive, states, “Only routine, algorithmic tasks benefit to a degree from "if-then," "carrot/stick" rewards.  Those tasks also profit when people understand the "rationale for the task," "acknowledge that the task is boring," and are allowed to complete the task in their own way.”

Hence, when it comes to proficiency in keyboarding, we need to consider the following questions:

1.     What’s the best way for you to master this task?

Student Ideas:
Go to typing school, play typing games.
Practice.
Do something you enjoy while keyboarding like playing games.
Find a fun game.
Find a words you like and practice typing those.
To get better do your own level; then if you get better you can move up.

2.     Is the BBC program the best program for you?

Student Ideas:
The finish line comes too soon.
I like "All the Right Type" better.
If you're flying through it, it's too easy--do something just right for you.
Try "Microsoft Word" to practice typing words you like.
Try "Typing Pal" if it's online
Look for programs that are just right for you online.

3.     What do we consider mastery?


Student Ideas:
You passed all levels, and you're really fast.
Your "fluent" in typing.
You're typing the same speed as you read, think and write on paper.
You don't make many mistakes.
When you get to write an essay easily and quickly.

4.     When do we decide that you’ve mastered the task, and it’s time to move on to something else (what will that something else be)?

Student Ideas:
Write two paragraphs with getting three or less wrong.
Writing an essay without any help.
Spell words online.
Copy a list on Word.
30-45 words per minute with five or less mistakes (45 wpm seems like min. standard)
Look for online tests.

5.     How can teachers, parents and other students help you to master this task?

6.     What are the best “carrot-stick” rewards for this task?

We’ll talk about these questions tomorrow.


Part Two (to be continued. . .)

1. Practice every night 10-20 minutes.
2. Using tips from notes above.
3. We'll talk about this again next week, and make some decisions related to the questions above.

Keyboarding Links

911 Remembered: Moving Forward

When tragedy strikes, I always tell young children, "Bad things happen, but most often good things happen.  So when bad things happen, we have to help each other, learn from the event and move forward."

As I think back to 9-11, my heart breaks for all who lost those they loved on that day, and for the great pain those who died experienced.  I am struck by the powerful devastation, hurt, pain and loss a few people caused for so many.

As a teacher, I will keep 9-11 alive in my heart as a reminder of the importance to teach the knowledge, skills and concepts that help children move forward in life with positive action.  I will give students more time to talk to me and to each other so they have a chance to express their needs, questions and desires--an opportunity to foster a positive direction and philosophy for living.

I will also continue to support child-centered, peaceful, positive school communities for young children, and work towards equity and opportunity for all of the world's children because often hate, destruction and crime are the result of childhood neglect and harm.

Again, my prayers and thoughts go to all who suffered personal loss and pain related to 9-11.  I am grateful for the heroic, selfless acts of so many fire fighters, police, government officials, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and others.

Student Quotes

I'm going to keep a collection of student quotes.  It's students' own words that are often most revealing and rewarding.  So, far this year there have been a few quotes that made my day.

"I like writing when it's on the computer." spoken after an ePortfolio lesson


"I'm just like Tomie DePaola, I keep all my Lego creations all over the house."  said after watching an video about Tomie DePaola's life as an author.


"It's just like the movie, the man laughed at the kids, but the kids had a good idea."  student making a great connection between a collaboration film and our "Math Talk" protocol discussion.

Student ePortfolios

Rather than paper/pencil reading response books and/or journals, students have created their own ePortfolios this year.  ePortfolios will house students' weekly reading response letters, self portrait poetry anthology, free writes, personal narratives, multi media compositions, mini research reports and more.

There are many benefits to ePortfolios:

• Students are essentially creating their own book of stories, poems, reading response letters, and eventually multi-media compositions.
• Students are motivated--they eagerly add text and images to their ePortfolio.
• The ePortfolios are easy to update anywhere there is a computer since they're on the Internet.
• The ePortfolio system facilitates regular teacher commenting and updates.
• It's easy to differentiate as there are many entry points with this exercise and room for unlimited reading, writing, research and presentation growth and creativity.
• Unlike paper/pencil, it's much easier to edit and write with skill and depth in real time.
• Family members and friends far and near can easily access students' work with permission.

I must say, I was a bit nervous about the task of facilitating the creation of 22 student ePortfolios with my class.  As I always do, I created one for myself first.  Doing the project myself always gives me an inside view of what it takes for project creation. 

Then I transfered my process into a number of steps for student creation.

Students created their ePortfolios similar to the ePortfolio I developed this summer. 

• Students logged into their student Google account, opened a site, picked a template, chose privacy settings, uploaded a photo (taken just minutes before on PhotoBooth) and saved the site.

• Next, they added text to their home page: All About the Author.  Students also added the following pages: Free Write, Self Portrait Poetry Anthology, and Reading Response Letters (I like the announcement template best as it allows a new post for each entry). Later in the year students will add more pages and images.

• Then students shared their site with me.  We updated page settings to include comments and updates so that each time a student updates his/her site, I receive an email about it.  I respond to students' writing regularly.

Originally, I was going to add writer's craft to the ePortfolios, but I decided to use a blog for that so that students could read each others' craft practice.  Students will be able to access each others' ePortfolios at a later date to read and view longer compositions (written and multimedia).

This is a new project for my class and me.  The students' enthusiasm, creativity, sharing and writing has been amazing.  To date, this is an empowering and engaging project. One that requires plenty of time upfront to practice using the site as it takes time to remember how to log in, edit pages, write and add new pages.

Let me know if you have further suggestions or ideas related to ePortfolios.  I've added a few technical notes, teaching tips and templates to guide your work should you decide to embark on this endeavor. 

Google ePortfolio Technical Notes: Creating and Editing Pages

1. Log into computer, Log into student Google docs.
2. Open Google Sites.
3. Open your ePortfolio. 
4. Click create Page.  Use an announcement page.  Name it. Save page.
5. Go to Other Options. Click Share...  Add teacher email. Save.

ePortfolio Teaching Tips

• Adding images to entries enhances students' comprehension and inspires better writing.
• Allowing students to share exemplars prior to tech workshop and ePortfolio work inspires enthusiasm and high quality work.
• Adding comments that include descriptive praise and writing tips effects better writing and responses.
• Make the time to teach spellcheck techniques as well as word definition and thesauri tools.  Snappy Words is a fun and useful thesaurus/dictionary to use.
• Create a table or chart to monitor students' ePortfolio work.  On the chart you can list names, notes and teaching targets.
• Get into the habit of monitoring the ePortfolios daily.  Add comments to students' pages and note students' needs and progress on the monitoring chart for classroom conferences and teaching.

ePortfolio Guiding Templates and Instructions

• Weekly Reading Letter
• All About the Author
• Self Portrait Poetry Anthology

Math Talk

"Mathematics is a Language" - Josiah Willard Gibbs

Today I introduced the idea of "Math Talk" to my students.  I've read, discussed and heard about many initiatives related to giving students the opportunity to talk about and share math concepts.  Like every teaching venue, it's important to personalize the approach for your students and your overall classroom goals and style.

We started by transitioning to math by listening to a YouTube math song.  Then, using the strategies I'm employing with the daily 5, I started by engaging students in a discussion about the purpose of Math Talk.  Together we came up with many ideas including the following:

• to understand.
• to learn.
• to "know how to do it."
• to come up with strategies.
• to feel more comfortable
• to teach others
• to practice math language.

Then we discussed "Math Talk" protocols:

• Time: we agreed on 18 minutes and had a time keeper.
• Sharing Ideas:
• respect all ideas - no "making fun" of ideas.
• don't think anyone's idea is "stupid."
• be open minded to ideas.
• raise hand when you have an idea as we can't all talk at once.
• Pay Attention
• no side talk--write it down if you think you're going to forget.
• look at speaker (now and then, sometimes you may need to look elsewhere).
• try to stay focused; don't do other things.

After that, we tried our first "Math Talk."  Ms. Phipps, the student teacher was our time keeper.  I sat in the front of the room and scribed the notes related to our "Patterns for Counting to 1,000" discussion on a Google doc which students could view on the big screen.  At the end of the discussion, I published the notes and put the link on our closed NING network for students and parents to revisit at home.  

I'm excited to think about the journey ahead related to "Math Talk."  I'm also open to your thoughts, suggestions and ideas as we travel this road to deeper math understanding.  Thanks for listening.