Manuel Bettencourt
May 6, 2004
Dr. Shawkey
EDUU 609
GLENCOE KEYBOARDING W/
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
The curriculum is divided into 8 units. Each unit except the last one further divided into 20 lessons. Unit 8, because of its complexity, contains only 10 lessons. Each unit opens with a two-page spread which provides a list of unit objectives (what the students will learn in the unit), Words to Learn (words that are introduced to the student which are used within the unit), and a Career Bit (a brief description of a career in which keyboarding skill is helpful
In Units 1 and 2 students will learn to operate the keyboard by touch with speed and accuracy—a skill the student will be able to use throughout their education and career. In Unit 3, students will be introduced to the ten-key numeric keypad and some basic word processing features.
In Units 4 and 5 students will use keyboarding skill to create documents and to format them correctly. In addition, student will continue to learn about more advanced word processing features as they progress.
Unit 6 includes desktop publishing lessons where they will continue word processing features such as draw and text/word art to use them and create a variety of documents including some original designs. Students will also learn about inserting, sizing, and positioning graphics.
In Unit 7, they will learn about spreadsheets: what they are, how to create them, how to use them for “what if” queries, and how to create pie and bar charts.
Finally, in Unit 8, they will learn about databases: what they are, how they can be used, how to create database tables, how to sort, and how to query databases.
Each lesson is divided into several sections. Every lesson begins with a Warmup that students should begin typing as soon as they are settled at the keyboard. In the early lesson, New-Key sections introduce the new keys for that lesson and provide students with practice lines on these keys.
Every lesson contains a Skillbuilding section that is easy to identify because of its blue background. The skillbuilding sections contain a variety of different activities including Technique Timings, Diagnostic Practice, Paced Practice, and 1-, 3-, and 5-minute timings.
Many skillbuilding sections include a Pretest, Practice, Posttest routine. This routine is designed to help students improve either speed or accuracy through step-by-step procedures. The Pretest helps students identify their speed or accuracy needs. The Practice activities contain a variety of intensive improvement drills. Finally, the Posttest measure their improvement.
The adoption process is a fairly easy routine, it is just a matter of having it pass through all the right groups of people that view the material. It starts by the teacher or teachers designing the curriculum. When the teachers are finished designing the curriculum they have to present it to the department and the department chair. If it passes this phase it is passed on to the curriculum team at the district level. In this phase it may be passed back to the teachers for them to do more work on it or it may pass this and go on to the Assistant Superintendent, who is in charge of all curriculum development. This is the area that is the hardest to pass. The Assistant Superintendent will either okay it or pass it back for further development. If it is passed by the Assistant Superintendent it goes to the school board for approval and funds are then used to purchase the materials.
In this particular curriculum, it requires students to be very motivated. Students will have to complete assignments by doing it with a hands-on approach. In my opinion keyboarding is one of the most important things that students learn in school. They will have to use this skill in almost all of their classes. The theory behind this curriculum is that students will develop this skill and be able to use it across the curriculums. They will also be able to use it in their career fields. Teachers are required to be very active in their approach to this curriculum. They will have to monitoring and providing valuable feedback to students as they complete their assignments. Teachers need to make sure that students are using the appropriate techniques.
As of right now the standards that were created by the state are not tested.
This is a new curriculum and it is still in the beginning stages. Within the next couple of years we will be able to see whether or not this curriculum is providing students with the necessary tools to be successful. I will know if the implementation will be successful or unsuccessful, because I will be the one teaching it and monitoring it.
In order for this curriculum to be successful I believe that the staff teaching it will need to know what they are doing. It is imperative that teachers have the working knowledge that goes along with what the students are learning. It will be ineffective to have a teacher that doesn’t know much about computers teaching this class. It is very important that teachers have access to the materials they need to teach this class. The curriculum has been shared with the other members of the staff, so that they can provide input on what they expect of students to know when it comes to computer use for their particular class. The information is presented at the board meetings and parents also provided information at the beginning of the school year. It is the vision of the school district that students leave Gustine High with a knowledge of technology that will help them further their education or career.
If I was a new principal or curriculum coordinator, I would feel very confident that the students are being provided with the necessary tools that will make them successful in this field. I would be sure that I got information throughout the school year from the teacher to see what students have achieved. It is important that this curriculum have multiple assessments throughout the coursework. The assessments will provide the teacher with the area that each student should focus on to improve their skills.