Planning the Training
Don’t start without a good game plan. Have a clear idea of the direction you want to give to the training, and then adjust your plan over the year to suit your students’ needs.
Winning Formula
- Make Typing Pal a game! — Each practice session with Typing Pal is an opportunity for the students to improve in an atmosphere that is both fun and stimulating. When they set out to break their personal record and their fingers hit the keys at full speed without making any errors, it’s certainly very exciting! If you can transmit this playful attitude to them, the students will persevere and succeed.
- Plan brief sessions or take breaks — Avoid imposing overly long practice sessions. The students will become tired and discouraged. Plan shorter sessions and allow for breaks. Extend the sessions gradually if you find the students are still engrossed and concentrated.
- Schedule frequent sessions — Students who practice frequently will progress faster. In addition to the sessions with you at school, they can also practice at home.
- Don’t stop the training too soon — If the students have reached their targets, it’s too soon to stop! The typing method needs time to become permanently ingrained. By stopping too early, bad habits may quickly return. Your students have finished? Increase their targets and push their limits.
First Lesson
- Underscore the advantages of efficient typing — Start a discussion with your students about the importance of being able to type quickly without errors.
- Present the 7 keys to success — Show them the 7 Keys to Success video or introduce them to the core principles of a good typing technique, yourself.
- Determine the students’ skill level — Have your students complete the initial test. It will give you an idea of your students’ skill level and can be used later to measure their progress. The initial test is optional.
- Do a few activities — Depending on how much time is left in the period, have your students do a few of the exercises in the first step.
- Adjust the targets — Take the time to analyze your students’ results and assess the group’s skill level. Adjust the targets accordingly. If students are at different levels, you may want to set more challenging targets for highly skilled students or lower the targets for those experiencing difficulties.
Long-Term Planning
- We suggest that you plan about one hour of practice per week, divided into three or four sessions. For example, students can practice once in class and the other times at home or in the school library.
- You can monitor the students’ progress to ensure that the group is advancing at the same pace by combining the following suggestions:
- Unlock access to a new set of exercises each week.
- Only unlock the test when the students are in class in order to control the conditions in which the test is taken.
- Encourage the students to win the golden icons for each activity by completing it perfectly.
- When their daily or weekly targets have been met, students can play games, do improvement activities or type practice texts. Raise the targets to get the students to do even better.