On day 2 of the “I Am” poem project, the students had the chance to turn their “I Am” poems into a Microsoft Word document. I also got the chance to attempt to wean them from the “hunt-and-peck” typing method, although I suspect it will take several sessions before at least a few of them start using their other fingers in addition to their pointer fingers to type. Old habits die hard, even when you are seven years old.
I showed the students how to place their hands on the keyboard and where to place their fingers – they were able to do this at first, but lapsed into hunt-and-peck almost immediately. You have to keep reminding them how to place their hands on the keyboards, but I wanted to make sure not to cross the line into constant nagging. I didn’t want to slow the kids down even more, or frustrate them to the point where they would simply give up.
The students seemed to enjoy typing out their poems, but those who had a harder time with it lost interest a little bit more quickly than those who caught on right away and were able to complete the activity without a lot of assistance. With the exception of two or three students, the activity was relatively challenging for them. Keeping that in mind, however, the students were able to stay focused on the task at hand provided the instructors (me and Ms. V) were there to help and answer questions. The activity also helped them with their spelling, as they were able to identify misspelled words via the red squiggly underlines.
Around 5:00pm it was apparent that the kids had pretty much had it, so I thought this would be a good time to wrap up the activity and finish the day’s session by reading them a story. I had brought both “I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato” and “The Serif Fairy,” and I thought the former would be fun for the kids at the end of a long day. Plus, I figured it would make a nice, lighthearted intro to typography, typefaces, and the aesthetic aspects of text.
Not surprisingly, they loved the story, and didn’t hesitate to blurt out their food preferences as I was reading. I pointed out the words whose appearance differed from the “regular,” courier-style font Child used for the main text, and asked the kids their thoughts on “mixed-up,” “silly” font used for the words listing the foods Lola refused to eat. I also had the kids pay attention to the text sections where the sentences were formed to create wavy lines resembling strands of spaghetti or waves of water, and asked them why they thought the author wanted them to look that way.
Hopefully this story was a good introduction. Next week we’ll be spending most of the session talking about fonts and typefaces. I’ll read “The Serif Fairy” to them, and engage them in a typeface activity before they apply what they’ve learned to their own poems.
