IAR Already??? Part 1

 The IAR exam isn't until April, so why in the name of all that is good in this world am I writing about it now?????

Because there are things we can do all school year to help kids get ready for that assessment.

I'm not talking about "teaching to the test" type stuff. I am talking about experiential stuff. That's what is hardest to prep the kids for, the experience of taking that test.  So, how can this be accomplished? I plan to share some ideas with you over the course of the next 4 posts (I didn't want to do them all in 1 because that's overwhelming, so I'm trying to break the suggestions into bite-sized pieces).

Keyboarding

One of the biggest challenges for kids is being able to find the right keys on their keyboards as well as being able to type all the things they need to type in their allotted time. So the sooner we can make sure kids know where to find the keys, the easier it will be for them.

• Letters: just having the kids know where to find letters on the keyboard can be challenging enough. Having kids play online keyboarding games or giving them paper keyboards to practice "typing" on can help. The more they get to look at a keyboard, the more likely they will be to find the letters.
• Numbers: kids need to know how to find the numbers, too. It may seem obvious since the numbers are in order, but I have seen lots of kids struggle to find the numbers they want to type.
• Special keys: kids need to know how to use the shift key (to capitalize or use some pieces of punctuation), tab key (to indent or move between elements), backspace key, and even the CTRL key. Try to find opportunities for kids to have to use these keys.
• Fingers: I'll be honest, I am not so worried about kids learning home row finger placement (I know I should, but I'm not). What I have seen students struggle with is using more than one finger to do something, like hold down shift and a letter key to create a capital letter. So often, they try to do it with 1 hand, or they try to press 2 keys at the EXACT same time rather than hold down one and then tap the other. Giving them some opportunities to work with more than one finger at a time on the keyboard will surely help alleviate some of the frustration kids have operating the keyboard.

All of these keyboarding skills will ultimately help the kids manage the time limit they face with the IAR test. It just saddens me to think there are some kids whose score simply doesn't reflect what they know because they ran out of time because they struggle with the keyboard. 

How do you help your students learn their way around a keyboard? Share a strategy in the comments and I'll send you a cool Google sticker!