• Overview
• Features
• Special Needs
• Keyboard Instruction
  • Program Description
  • Technique Builder™ Patented Homerow and Shift Key Requirement System
  • Keyboarding Myths
  • Time Requirements
  • Assessments
  • Research
  • FAQs
• Accessories
• Pricing
• Testimonials

Time Requirements

Three facts must be recognized.

1. Good keyboarding skills are an essential literacy skill.
2. Keyboarding skills must be taught properly at the right time.
3. Classroom time is valuable and very limited.

All current research supports brief, daily practice as the best format for the development of good homerow habits and the development of quick, accurate finger skills. (Proper habits and technique cannot be established with a once-a-week instructional format, no matter how many years it’s provided. )

The Writer Keyboarding program follows this recommendation. Our program strongly recommends practice for 15 minutes each day, 4-5 days per week. Keyboarding skills will be attained within 6-8 weeks.

We recommend that teachers choose a “transition” time.

• When students walk into the classroom in the morning
• Just before they go home at the end of the day
• Just before or just after recess
• That time between subjects

Often teachers schedule “Do nows” during these transition times. “Do nows” are best described as brief, regularly scheduled, daily activities that do not require a great deal of teacher guidance or preparation. These activities quickly refocus student attention and energy from outside activity to learning.

“Come in, pick up your Writer and get started”. Students pick up their Writer, press On, open their work folder and begin their lessons. Hands and Fingers are in proper position; eyes are on the Writer screen within 60 seconds of students walking into the classroom.

The Writer Keyboarding Program is a perfect transition activity.

For your keyboarding program to succeed in establishing proper habits, critical elements must be in place. Keyboarding programs are doomed to fail if they do not have these essential elements. Your keyboarding program must...

• Have a school-wide commitment
• Be classroom based
• Be easy for teachers to implement (very little prep., no manual grading, no manual tracking – as automatic as possible)
• Provide brief, well monitored, daily practice. (To acquire proper habits, practice must be massed or front loaded – practice spread over months or years will not lead to mastery)
• Provide application of the new skill on a regular and ongoing bases
• Be fun for students and teachers