““Best Pencil” Best Pencil” PracticesPractices

““Best Pencil” Best Pencil” PracticesPractices

With a focus on keyboardingWith a focus on keyboarding

What is “Best Pencil” Writing?

• Practicing writers need to be immersed in a print rich environment as well as to have the opportunity to experiment with writing. 

• When experimenting, it is important to make sure that each child is using their "best pencil". 

• For some children this is a pencil or marker while for others it is a computer or stamps. 

Providing every child with the appropriate writing tool allows them to work to their

fullest potential. 

Why is keyboarding important?

• Dysgraphia: A writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters or write in a defined space.

• Keyboarding skills are no longer vocational in nature, but necessary to communicate, extract, and disseminate information.

Overlays: Intellitools

• Overlay Maker (Intellitools) is a great way to customize keyboards for your students.

• Key guards are also available.

Basic QWERTY keyboard Single Handed Overlay

with Pictures

Paper Keyboard

• Great for printing out for students to practice at home!

Zoom Caps

• ZoomCaps™ are adhesive labels for computer keyboards. The letters, numbers, and symbols are enlarged and use the American Printing House for the Blind, APHont™ for easier viewing by individual with low vision.

• You can also choose which keys you want to put them on, to help students with ADD who may experience difficulties filtering out unwanted stimuli.

AlphaSmart

• Portable device• Great for note taking!• Wireless Printing• Spell Checker• Student Response System

Talking Word Processors

1. The learner types a letter.

2. The computer not only places the letter on the computer screen, but says the letter out loud.

3. When several letters are typed together and the spacebar is pushed, the computer turns that sequence of letters into a word.

What is it?

"...the keys to effective computer use by children with language disabilities are to implement the computer both as an access tool and as a personal meaning tool; that is, to use the technology to provide access to speech and text, link it to their personal meaning systems, and thereby allow them to participate in the natural processes of language learning." (Meyers, 1994, p. 272)

Why use it?

Talking Word Processors

Students with learning disabilities find that having

written material to read aloud assists them to better edit, comprehend and organize.

• Intellitalk (Intellitools)

• Write Out Loud: Don Johnston

• Co-Writer: Don Johnston

Setting up a Computer for “Universal Access”• PC users

• Go to My Computer → Control Panel → Accessibility Options

• You can change settings related to Keyboard, Sound, Display, Mouse as well as some other general settings

MAC users

• Go to Apple Menu → System Preferences → Universal Access

• You can change settings related to Keyboard, Sound, Display, Mouse as well as some other general settings

Other Fun Ideas

• Typing Songs/Mnemonic Rhymes

• 10 Finger Breakout

• Speedskin

• Keyboarding Games