Word Processing & Keyboarding in Fourth Grade

A major goal of the fourth grade technology curriculum is to ensure students are comfortable with basic word processing skills such formatting and aligning text. Students practiced underlining, bolding, and highlighting text, changing font types and sizes, centering titles by creating Wacky Web Tales, and cutting and pasting text. They also practiced saving documents by navigating the Finder. They were introduced to the concept of a remote server for saving work and practiced logging in to the server using their own username and passwords. Using a server will help students work on files from multiple locations.

This week, students will continue to use Microsoft Word to publish a Spanish writing assignment. They will also be introduced to the program Type to Learn 4 to develop touch typing skills. Students will keyboard 20 minutes twice a week progressing through 34 lessons and 6 assessments at their own pace. Type to Learn 4 provides demonstration, practice, and assessment, with continuous reinforcement on the home row, ASDF JKL;. It teaches proper fingering for each key (letter, number, symbols) and emphasizes both accuracy and words per minute speed. Speedskins are also used to reinforce memorization of the keys. Many students will surpass the year end goal of 15 words per minute (WPM) with 95% accuracy.