I began by teaching my students how to open a Microsoft Word document (I have a whole unit on Microsoft office later, so I don't address any shortcuts or tool usage here).
I gave my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders a writing prompt: If you could invent one new subject to study at school, what would it be?
Notice my underlined words? The word "one" circles? There were also arrows drawn to the beginning capitalized letter and the ending punctuation. This is because those things are key! I want them to pick ONE (and only one) NEW (not ELA, math, PE, Art, etc) subject. I also expect every sentence to begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark. My students type at least four complete sentences and I read their response before they are able to move on to the next activity. For some students, the standard has to be amended. I have asked a student to verbally tell me his four sentences, then pick out one key word from each sentence for the student to sound out and type.
For my 2nd graders, I have them typing 5 sentences from the Dolch word 2nd grade list (provided by my school). I type the sentences and project them on the board and they just retype the sentences at their computer.
My 1st graders started by typing just sight words, 6 words, 5 times each.
My Kindergarteners at this point were still working on mouse skills...and opening and closing programs. I picked a different mouse control game for them and taught them again how to open a program, point their mouse, click their moues and close a program. Guys, the first month of Kindergarten is rough...don't get discouraged...it gets BETTER, I promise.
You can find my actual lesson plan here.
Are you adding any ELA into your computer class? What are some different ways to add ELA and Math? Do you have a writing prompt you just love?
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