What is "Practice How We Play"?
What is "Practice How We Play"?
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Practice How We Play is Birdville ISD’s district-wide initiative to build a culture of digital fluency, academic readiness, and future-ready confidence. Just like athletes, performers, and competitors prepare through meaningful practice, students strengthen their minds and digital muscles each day as they read, write, create, and problem-solve using technology. By weaving purposeful digital experiences into everyday learning—typing, navigating online tools, and creating with confidence—students develop the skills and stamina to thrive on assessments and beyond. When students “practice how they play,” they’re not just preparing for tests—they’re preparing for life.
Practice How We Play.mp4Our Key Plays
Our Key Plays
Each edition of Practice How We Play spotlights a Key Play—a focused area of digital fluency designed to help students build confidence using technology in authentic ways. Each Key Play offers practical ideas, classroom-ready strategies, and simple ways to embed digital skill practice into daily instruction. Campus staff can use these activities to give students meaningful opportunities to strengthen essential online skills while engaging with content.
Future editions will highlight additional key plays such as:
Accessibility & Digital Communication – Using tools and strategies that help all learners participate and create.
Interactive Questioning & Composing – Practicing drag-and-drop, highlighting, and digital writing strategies.
Reflection & Mastery – Building confidence through review, creation, and digital showcase projects.
Key Play #1 - Incorporating Typing Through Digital Writing
Key Play #1 - Incorporating Typing Through Digital Writing
The Game Plan
The Game Plan
Just like athletes build muscle memory through daily drills, our students strengthen their skills through consistent typing practice. In the elementary grades especially, typing is a key part of digital fluency—it builds the foundation for success in digital writing, online assessments, and communication.
Even a few minutes of purposeful typing each day helps students improve accuracy, speed, and focus. More importantly, it prepares them to express ideas confidently in the digital world.
Typing and digital writing empower students to communicate as Empowered Learners, act as Responsible Citizens, and grow as Global Competitors and Entrepreneurs. To build these habits, teachers can incorporate frequent, structured opportunities for typing and digital composition into authentic classroom routines—like reflections, quick writes, or responses in Canvas, Lumio, or Peardeck. Each keystroke moves students closer to becoming confident, capable digital communicators.
Game Day Moves
Game Day Moves
Practice these plays in the classroom—and across campus—to have students ready to score! Typing practice is a district-wide priority and a key focus for elementary campuses. Every student should have regular, meaningful opportunities to type, write, and create digitally.
Embed typing into everyday routines. Use warm-ups that include short typing prompts or quick reflections.
Replace paper-based quick writes with digital entries using Canvas, Peardeck, or Lumio.
Model and reinforce proper keyboarding strategies—home row, shortcuts, posture, and accuracy.
Assign exit tickets, ECRs, or SCRs digitally to build fluency and stamina.
Provide campus-wide typing opportunities—library lessons, computer lab rotations, classroom centers, or before/after school practice.
Celebrate progress! Track growth with class leaderboards or goal charts to keep motivation high.
Drills for Success!
Drills for Success!
Teacher Led:
Canvas Text Entry Assignments (K-12) - Text entry assignment are great ways to collect exit tickets, quick writes, and warm ups.
Canvas Google Assignments (K-12) - Google Docs or Slides provide a structured place to plan and write.
Pear Deck Short Answer (6-12) - Pear Deck Short Answer activities allow for quick collection, review, and peer discussions.
Lumio Shout-it-Out Activities (K-5)- Use this for exit tickets, quick writes, and warm ups
Seesaw Text Tool Frame (PreK-2)- Use the Frame tool to help guide students to do a text response for exit tickets, quick writes, and warm ups.
Student Owned:
Typing Practice: typing.com, typetastic.com
Digital Journal: Use Canva, Google Docs/Slides
Write a Story: Use Canva, Google Docs/Slides
Templates:
Coming Soon!
Classroom Scores
Classroom Scores
Use the Typing Champion leaderboard to encourage and gamify typing practice in your classroom! Click to edit and print the template file then update as students practice typing. We recommend a 1-3 minute typing test on a site like typing.com or typtastic.com and requiring an accuracy score of at least 95%!
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