Teach students to type the letters of the alphabet or a sentence using each letter of the alphabet such as: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Students must keep their fingers on home row keys while typing. Use a clock with a second hand to time students completing the assignment. Students should write their start time and stop time. Review this assignment once each week to allow students to track their improvements.
Begin class by playing a popular song your students enjoy. Instruct students to listen to the lyrics and type the first word of each sentence they hear when replaying the song. You might need to pause the music from time to time to allow students to complete the words and minimize frustration. Review the list when the song is complete.
Invite students to invent a humorous character together. Students will enjoy talking about what this character looks like and the type of trouble he gets himself in. Each student must type a short paragraph detailing a silly problem this character experiences. After a sufficient amount of time has passed, ring a bell and each student must move to the computer to his right. At this computer, students must retype their paragraph they previously typed under the paragraph created by the first student. Ring the bell again and students move to the next computer to re-type their paragraph again. When each student has typed her paragraph at each computer, students return to the original computer to read the humorous class story. By typing their story repeatedly, students will make improvements to their accuracy and speed.
Find a short, silly story in a newspaper, magazine or book. In each sentence, circle one or two words of various parts of speech, such as nouns or verbs. Read the story to the class as they are seated at their computers. As you reach the circled words, say the type of speech of the word rather than the actual word. Students must type a word that fits that part of speech. They will create a list of words on their computers that will complete the story. Reread the story and invite a student volunteer to fill in the blanks using the words she typed on his computer.