Today’s post “How to Get Your Students Typing Faster and More Accurately” is sponsored by TypeDojo.com. I received compensation; however, all opinions are honest and my own.
Typing well is a very important goal in our homeschool. What exactly do I mean by “typing well?” It actually encompasses two different things: both Speed and Accuracy. Today, I’m happy to share with you how to get your students typing faster and more accurately.
Get Your Students Typing Faster and More Accurately
If a student types too slowly, their brain, which is composing what they are writing, is moving too quickly for their fingers.
But, if student types quickly, but inaccurately, it will require extra time to fix those mistakes later.
That’s why I was so excited to find TypeDojo.com. It’s a free website that has a plethora of typing tests to help your kids increase both their speed AND their accuracy.
How does TypeDojo help kids increase speed and accuracy in keyboarding?
Red and Blue
The first thing I noticed about the typing tests was that they use red and blue highlighting on the letters while typing. The letter, space, or character to be typed next is blue, and anything typed incorrectly is immediately red. As I was taking a test myself, I realized that it caused me to slow down and try to make fewer mistakes. There were two reasons for this: I didn’t want to see “red” and when I did, it was a little confusing to get back on track. So, it forced me to be more accurate. Ingenious!
Various types of tests
This was one of the most amazing parts of this FREE site. There are so many different types of tests you can take!
The first thing you choose is a whether to take a 1-Minute, 3-Minute, or 5-Minute test.
Next, you choose a Grade Level: choices from Grade 1 to Grade 8.
Finally, you choose a category of words. There are single words, phrases, sentences, etc. Look at all these choices!
- 2 letter words
- 3 letter words
- Dolch Words
- Sight Words
- Fry Words
- Academic Vocabulary Words
- Common Core Words – Math
- Common Nouns
- Number words
- Action Verbs
- Common Core Tier 2 Words
- Economics Words
- Words that convey time
- ELA Words
- Geography Words
- Health Words
- History Words
- Math Words
- Science Words
- Physical Education Words
- Technology Words
- Marzano Science Vocabulary Words
- Marzano Social Study Vocabulary Words
- Marzano Math Vocabulary Words
- Marzano ELA Vocabulary Words
- Left-Hand Words
- Right-Hand Words
- Home Row Exercises
- QWERTY Words
- And more!
Motivation to do Better
Immediately after completing a test (1, 3, or 5 minutes long) at TypeDojo.com, the student will see their score of WPM (words per minute) and the accuracy percentage. Several times I’d tell my kids to keep taking the same test over and over to raise both of those numbers.
A Certificate is also created that they can print out.
More Than Just Typing
I love how several of the tests combine other subjects with typing. They aren’t just typing random words, but typing sight words or various subject’s academic vocabulary words. So, these typing tests are also helping kids to read and spell better!
Other Great Features of TypeDojo.com
- It’s Free!
- There is nothing to download onto your computer.
- If you create a profile for each child (it’s free and is not required to do any of the tests), it will list all they have done so you can see the progress your child has made. You can also print any certificates you’d like that are listed there at a later date.
Other Typing Suggestions
TypeDojo.com doesn’t necessarily teach kids how to type, just how to type faster and more accurately.Here are some suggestions for learning to type and for games to practice typing.
- 100+ Online Courses for Homeschoolers: The Ultimate Guide for Homeschool Success
- Take Your Kids to Grammar Galaxy~ The Easy and Fun Way to do Language Arts!
- Grammarly ~ Cool Writing Tool
(Disclosure: This post contain affiliate links.)