Keyboarding Words Per Minute Goal Tracker

Keyboarding Words Per Minute Goal Tracker

Most students in grades 3 and up are working on keyboarding with a focus on words per minute.  This keyboarding words per minute goal tracker is super easy to collect data on how a student is progressing.  Even better, have the students monitor their own progress recording how they are improving each day.

This FREE words per minute goal tracker is available in Word format and PDF (at the end of the post to download).  You can print it out and write in the words per minute during the week or enter the data directly into the Word document to create a graph.

If you want to enter the data directly into the Word document follow these steps:

Step 1 – Open the Word document

Step 2 – Click on the chart.

Step 3 – Click Design. (right side of top tabs)

Step 4 – Click on Edit Data (upper right hand corner of document)

Step 5 – Enter your words per minute in column B for the correct days of the week and your chart will be created.

If you like to record data with pen and paper that is fine too!  Just print the document in PDF format and bring it along.  Or print two to a page so you are all set to go for two weeks at a time.

To get your FREE copy of the Keyboarding Words Per Minute Goal Tracker enter your email at the bottom to sign up for our newsletter.  The downloads will open up in new tabs once you enter your email.

If you need to collect data on additional keyboarding skills check out Keyboarding Rubrics.

This is an electronic book of 28 rubrics to assess keyboarding skills.  A rubric is a scoring guide to judge performance on a specific task. Have you ever wanted to quantify general keyboarding skills, operating the mouse, word processing or keyboarding skills by grade level?   Keyboarding Rubrics can be used as an assessment tool to quantify an individual’s written productivity.  By using the rubric, each individual can be scored based on the same criteria.

Keyboarding Rubrics Table of Contents:

GENERAL INFORMATION ON RUBRICS
SUGGESTED USES AND HOW TO SCORE THE RUBRICS
WORK STATION AREA CHECKLIST
KEYBOARDING AND THE COMMON CORE GRADES 3-12
HANDWRITING AND KEYBOARDING FLUENCY REFERENCE CHART
PROPER POSITIONING FOR KEYBOARDING
BEGINNER SKILLS FOR KEYBOARDING
BASIC SKILLS FOR KEYBOARDING
OVERALL KEYBOARDING
OPERATING THE MOUSE
WORD PROCESSING
PRE-KINDERGARTEN: KEYBOARDING
KINDERGARTEN: KEYBOARDING
TYPING NAME
FIRST GRADE: KEYBOARDING
SECOND GRADE: KEYBOARDING
THIRD GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY
THIRD GRADE: WORD PROCESSING
FOURTH GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY
FOURTH GRADE: WRITING APPLICATION
FOURTH GRADE: WORD PROCESSING
FIFTH GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY
FIFTH GRADE: WRITING APPLICATION
FIFTH GRADE: WORD PROCESSING
SIXTH GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY

SIXTH GRADE: WRITING APPLICATION
SIXTH GRADE: WORD PROCESSING
SEVENTH GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY
SEVENTH GRADE: WRITING APPLICATION
SEVENTH GRADE: WORD PROCESSING
EIGHTH GRADE: FORM, PRODUCTION AND FLUENCY
EIGHTH GRADE: WRITING APPLICATION
EIGHTH GRADE: WORD PROCESSING

The rubrics will be delivered electronically in PDF format and in Word format so that you can edit the document if necessary. This allows you to customize the rubric to your individual caseload if necessary. If you do not have Microsoft Word you can download Open Office (www.openoffice.org) for free which is compatible with all most Office suites.

Some suggested uses of Keyboarding Rubrics are:

• assessment at initial evaluation and annual reviews
• pre and post therapy session
• progress reports
• establish entrance or exit criteria for therapy
• creating measurable goals

FIND OUT MORE

 

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5 Reasons to Use Rubrics for School Based Therapists

Rubrics are an excellent tool for school based therapists to utilize throughout the school year for ongoing assessment of a student’s skills.  A rubric is a scoring guide to judge performance on a specific task. A skill is broken down into different components and a numerical value is given to each component. The performance is then scored by totaling the sum of the numerical values.

Here are 5 reasons why you should use rubrics for school based therapists:

1. A rubric informs the individual of what is expected of a task.  It clarifies step by step what is required for proficiency.  The student will know all the steps that are needed to complete a task.
2. It provides a standard to assess the quality of how a task is completed.
3. The score on a rubric can determine if changes (improvements or regression) have occurred over time. It is a great tool to use after a long weekend, absences or school vacation to determine if regression has occurred to justify summer services.
4. It can help increase the consistency of scoring.  Instead of documenting minimal, moderate or significant progress, you can document an actual score to have a more quantitative measure.
5. Use a rubric to compare the abilities of a student with a peer to determine if the student’s skills are functional.

Need some examples?  You can download some free rubrics:

1.  Dressing Rubric – Putting On and Taking Off Socks
2.  Overall Personal Hygiene Rubric
3.  Meal Time Rubric – Using a Spoon
4.  Mobility Rubric – Walking in a Line
5.  Overall Handwriting Rubric
6.  Proper Positioning for Keyboarding Rubric

 

For a limited time, you can also download free Scissor Skill Rubric today.  It’s the perfect tool to have on hand to measure baseline performance as well as progress over time.  You’ll have a way to quantify performance in this area and to show that your scissor skill strategies (and the child’s hard work) are paying off.  This is all to get ready for the launch of The Scissor Skills Book on May 1st.

The post 5 Reasons to Use Rubrics for School Based Therapists appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Electronic Medical Records – Pediatric Therapy

Are you familiar with electronic medical records abbreviated as EMR?  For most school based occupational and physical therapists, electronic medical records are not being used in school districts.  Some school districts do run software programs to generate and monitor progress for students’ IEPs. I recently had the chance to view a demonstration of an EMR system specifically for pediatric therapists called Fusion.  I have to admit I was quite impressed.  My background is as a school based physical therapist so my perspective is based on my experience from working in school districts and not as an outpatient therapist.  I will say this though, after seeing how easy it was to use this EMR system (which is ICD-10 & HIPAA Compliant), it made me want to open my own practice since the software seemed so streamlined, efficient and easy to use.  (There are affiliate links in this post).

In my opinion, here are the benefits of using Fusion for school based pediatric therapists:

1. Documentation tools – need to write up an evaluation?  This has 80+ therapist built evaluation templates and standardized tests.  No need to copy and paste information on each standardized test – it is all done for you with a simple click.  A SOAP note format is used for documentation of individual sessions.
2. Access –  it is web based software therefore you can log in from any device to use it.  Home computer, school computer, tablet, etc – just log in and start documenting.
3. Easy scheduling – the scheduling feature is amazing if all the therapists that you work with are using Fusion.  You can view a client’s schedule including other services. No more running around to check if you can schedule a make up session at a certain time or day – just log in and see what Johnny’s schedule is for the week and add in your therapy make up session.
4. Automated progress graphing – this is my favorite feature!  You can visually graph goal progress tracking data in percentages, trials (x of y), feet, reps, assistance levels, and any other metric you use!  This is an amazing feature for RTI data collection, quarterly and annual progress reports.

If you are an outpatient therapist or you own a clinic the billing and management tools are also amazing!

I highly suggest scheduling a demonstration for yourself.  Each therapist has different tools that they need so when they walk you through the software you can ask any questions you may have specific to your situation as a pediatric therapist.  Fill out the form below to request a demo.

The post Electronic Medical Records – Pediatric Therapy appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

5 Reasons to Use Student Generated Data Collection

Do you struggle to keep up with data collection when it comes to tracking progress for school based therapy services?  Why not encourage the students themselves to help with data collection?  Here are 5 reasons why student generated data collection is beneficial:

1. students learn to take ownership of their own progress and set appropriate goals.
2. motivational levels may increase when students organize and collect the data.
3. students learn to organize information and graphically represent the information.
4. data collection becomes part of the routine to make it more efficient.
5. therapists get help with data collection to indicate goal attainment.

Not sure how to get started with student generated data collection? Check out this video to get more information on student generated data collection using My Goal Tracker –

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What? Why? and How? to Use Rubrics for School Based Therapy

What are rubrics?

Rubrics are an excellent tool for school based therapists to utilize throughout the school year for ongoing assessment of a student's skills.  A rubric is a scoring guide to judge performance on a specific task. A skill is broken down into different components and a numerical value is given to each component. The performance is then scored by totaling the sum of the numerical values.

Why should school based therapists use rubrics?

The purpose of rubrics are to:

• assess performance on completing complex tasks
• assess changes in performance over time in one individual
• inform the individual of what is expected for the task
• increase consistency of scoring
• promote learning

How should school based therapists use rubrics?

1.  Use as assessment tools to evaluate an individual's ability to complete a task.

2.  Compares abilities between peers because each individual can be scored based on the same criteria.

3.  To inform the individual of what is expected of them to complete the task. This encourages feedback and self assessment on the task.

Need some examples?  You can download some free rubrics:

1.  Dressing Rubric - Putting On and Taking Off Socks: http://yourtherapysource.com/rubricsdressingfree.html

2,  Overall Personal Hygiene Rubric: http://yourtherapysource.com/rubricshygienefree.html

3.  Meal Time Rubric - Using a Spoon: http://yourtherapysource.com/rubricsmealfree.html

4.  Mobility Rubric - Walking in a Line: http://yourtherapysource.com/rubricsmobilityfree.html

Reference: Anders Jonsson, Gunilla Svingby The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review 2 (2007) 130–144

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Student Generated Data Collection

If you are a therapist or teacher, you know how hard it can be to keep up with data collection.  In my experience, it is never intentional to get behind.  Most of the time therapists and teachers are too busy teaching and interacting with the students.  Time gets the best of us and something has to give which can be data collection.

Why not turn over the data collection to the student?  By having the student's track their own progress, it creates ownership of goal achievement.  The graphic representation of the students progress can be highly motivating.  If improvements are not achieved, students can reflect on what changes need to be made to the intervention plan.  The biggest benefit of all - one less data collection form for you to fill out!

Check out My Goal Tracker at http://yourtherapysource.com/goaltracker.html.  This NEW electronic document  includes the following: samples of completed forms, goals setting worksheet, improvement ideas worksheet, goal tracking cards (for trials or percentage) and graphs to complete for daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly progress (number of trials out of 10, percentage or minutes). There is also one blank form for you to label if you are monitoring goals in a different manner. Complete the goal worksheet, print the necessary forms and place in a binder. The student can then graph his/her progress accordingly.

Know What Works - 6 Ways to Track Progress

Do you ever feel like you offer many tips and suggestions but have a hard time keeping up with how the student performs?  Pediatric therapists need to collect data to find out what is working for a specific student.  Here are 6 ways to track progress:

 

1.  Tally Marks - how many times did they write the letter B correctly out of 10?  This is a super simple way of keeping tabs on whether a strategy is working.  Allow the student to try 10 times and mark a tally on the paper each time it is done correctly.  To record the data to get a percentage based on the number of trials make two columns on a piece of paper.  If the student does it correctly simply record a tally mark on the left side of the paper.  If the student does not perform the task correctly record a tally mark on the right side of the paper.  You can then calculate percentages of how well the student is doing.  Have a smart phone or iPad?   There are several apps that allow for simple data collection such as TxTools where you can make tally marks or calculate percentages.   

 

2.  Standardized Testing - obviously this is an effective way of tracking progress from year to year although "year" is the key word.  On a week to week basis this is not an effective way of tracking progress.

 

3.  Rubrics - Create your own scoring systems for different skills to track a specific child's progress over time.  Break a skill down using task analysis and assign scores for each specific piece of the overall skill.  Here is a sample rubric for walking in a line.

 

4.  Goal Attainment Scaling - This is a method of quantifying whether a goal is achieved based on a scale of -2 (much less of expected outcome) to 2 (much more of expected outcome).   

 

5.  Graphs - Nothing shows progress or decline like a visual image such as a graph.  By plotting a student's progress over time teachers and parents can see very clearly the progress a student is making (or not making).   ie Progress Monitoring Forms make a chart and record tally marks - very nice visual to represent progress.  Here is an example for catching skills.

 

6.  Software - There are a few software programs to track progress.  For example, the Scale of Sensory Strategies (S.O.S.S.) Tool Kit™ enables automatic data entry within minutes using the Sensory Strategy Software program to generate a sensory strategy summary, a narrative report that summarizes the data taken during sensory trials.
 

Any other suggestions for collecting data?

Collecting Data in the School District, Clinic or Home

School based occupational and physical therapists are responsible to track a student's progress with regards to the goals that pertain to their area of expertise. This is done my daily notes, monthly progress reports and annual reviews. Goals are created by the IEP team and in some cases by the therapists themselves depending upon the school district. The goals that are created are measurable. The same holds true in the clinic and home - there should be goals that are measurable.

What about when it comes to modifications or interventions that a therapist recommends? These suggestions should be measured to determine whether they are effective or not. One way that this could be done is using Google Docs. You can use Google Docs to create data collection charts for free. You can then have the school staff or the therapist record the data regarding the outcomes. Here is an example of a form created using Google Docs to measure the effectiveness of physical activity breaks during the school day for a specific student. Once the form is completed the data is collected in a spreadsheet which looks like this.

This form was created as an example to track whether physical activity breaks are effecting the student's academic success. This could be done with many other modifications to get more specific data collection. In my opinion, this is a great tool to track sensory diets that are in place for a student. Depending upon the students that you work with you could track the use and outcomes of weighted vests, sitting on therapy ball in class, preferential seating, compression garments and more.

Maybe track when the best time would be for a student to use different types of adaptive equipment. For example, try using a standing frame at different times of the day or during different classes to determine the best time to utilize the equipment to effect the child's education.

Need ideas for physical activity breaks? Check out Mini Movement Breaks.
Create your own form to track the benefits of the physical activity breaks like this form.