Teachers and administrators are encouraged to consider the following statements when allocating equipment and computer time for student keyboard fluency.

1. Students should be exposed to correct keyboarding techniques at an early age.

2. Keyboarding acquisition is an ongoing process, therefore instruction should be offered at every grade level.

3. Students should consistently improve speed and accuracy by applying keyboarding skills in all subject areas.

4. Opportunities for regular practice should be provided to allow students to attain and maintain speed and accuracy.

5. Practice is most effective when sessions are brief but frequent. Four sessions per week of 20 minutes each, for example, have proven much more effective than two sessions of 45 minutes each.

6. Frequent practice periods in a concentrated number of weeks have proven more effective than spreading practice over several months.

7. Students gain keyboarding skills much more effectively when the teacher is actively engaged in delivering instruction and monitoring progress.

8. Keyboarding software is best used for assessing speed and accuracy, and for providing extra practice, not for teaching students to keyboard.

9. Students should practice keyboarding skills during meaningful curricular activities.

Challenge students to type faster than they can write!

Handwriting / Keyboarding Rates

Suggestions for grade level appropriate keyboarding skills:

Kindergarten/1st Grade:

• No speed requirements

• Attention to correct hand and body positions, location of keys, smooth and rhythmic keystroke patterns as grade-level appropriate

• Students operate alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys as grade-level appropriate

• Students produce documents at the keyboard, proofread, and correct errors as grade-level appropriate

• Students use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling as grade-level appropriate

2nd Grade:

• 5 Words per Minute (WPM) at 80-100% accuracy

• Attention to correct hand and body positions, location of keys, smooth and rhythmic keystroke patterns as grade-level appropriate

• Students operate alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys as grade-level appropriate

• Students produce documents at the keyboard, proofread, and correct errors as grade-level appropriate

• Students use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling as grade-level appropriate

3rd Grade:

• 15 WPM at 80-100% accuracy

• Frequent practice for short periods of time over a concentrated number of weeks (i.e., 20 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 4 weeks)

• Students use proper keyboarding techniques such as correct hand and body positions and smooth and rhythmic keystroke patterns

• Students demonstrate touch keyboarding techniques for operating the alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys as grade-level appropriate

• Students produce documents at the keyboard, proofread, and correct errors

• Students use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, word division, and use of numbers and symbols as grade-level appropriate

4th Grade:

• 20 WPM at 80-100% accuracy

• Frequent practice for short periods of time over a concentrated number of weeks (i.e., 20 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 4 weeks)

• Students use proper keyboarding techniques such as correct hand and body positions and smooth and rhythmic keystroke patterns

• Students demonstrate touch-keyboarding techniques for operating the alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys as grade-level appropriate

• Students produce documents at the keyboard, proofread, and correct errors

• Students use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, word division, and use of numbers and symbols as grade-level appropriate

5th Grade:

• 25 WPM at 80-100% accuracy

• Frequent practice for short periods of time over a concentrated number of weeks (i.e., 20 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 3 weeks)

• Students use proper keyboarding techniques such as correct hand and body positions and smooth and rhythmic keystroke patterns

• Students demonstrate touch keyboarding techniques for operating the alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys as grade-level appropriate

• Students produce documents at the keyboard, proofread, and correct errors

• Students use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, word division, and use of numbers and symbols as grade-level appropriate

6th-8th Grade:

• 5 WPM per grade level at 80-100% accuracy (grade 6 = 30 WPM, grade 7 = 35 WPM, grade 8 = 40 WPM)

• Frequent practice for short periods of time over a concentrated number of weeks

• Demonstrate keyboarding proficiency in technique and posture while building speed

• Use digital keyboarding standards for data input such as one space after punctuation, the use of em/en dashes, and smart quotation marks

• Plan, create, and edit documents created with a word processor

• Integrate the use of the word processor into multiple curricular areas

9th-12th Grade:

• 50 WPM at 80-100% accuracy

• Frequent practice for short periods of time over a concentrated number of weeks

• Demonstrate keyboarding proficiency in technique and posture while building speed

• Use digital keyboarding standards in word processing such as one space after punctuation, the use of em/en dashes, and smart quotation marks

• Plan, create, and edit documents created with a word processor

• Integrate the use of the word processor into multiple curricular areas