Writers

Writers are used in many of the elementary classrooms at the school district my daughters attend.  They are used in the second to fifth grade classrooms to help students with their typing skills.  The students log in using their name and start typing the words shown on the screen.  The writer times the keystrokes typed per minute and their accuracy.  The student can not continue to the next level on the Writer until they have passed the current one with a certain amount of WPM and accuracy.

 

Each student has one they can use and they are kept in a cart.  The teachers usually have the student work on their Writers 10-15 minutes per day.

What I like about these is that they focus only on typing speed and accuracy.  Unlike laptops and computers where students can get distracted with so many different activities.  I also like that it keeps track of the students scores and displays their rate of speed and accuracy on the screen as soon as they have finished a section.