Literacy - Typing Home Position

Today, some students* learned about the "home position" on the keyboard. This is where your fingers should rest on the keyboard when not actively typing. By starting at the home position, you can easily and quickly navigate your fingers around the keyboard for faster typing. This process doesn't happen overnight, though; it takes practice to become a fluent and accurate typewriter.

As you can see in the diagram below, the fingers on the left hand should rest on the following keys (from left to right): A, S, D, F, Space Bar. The fingers on the right hand should rest on the following keys (from left to right): Space Bar, J, K, L, Semi-colon (;). On all keyboards, the F and J keys have a bump or indentation on them to indicate that your index fingers should rest there. Also, you use your thumbs to press the space bar.

The students worked on correct finger placement on the home position keys and even began typing without using the "pecking" method (one finger to type every key). The program used to help the students develop these skills is Type to Learn 3. Some repetitive patterns they worked on typing are similar to the following:

f j f j f j f j
j f j f j f j f
f j f    f j f
j f j    j f j


*Those who didn't get to it today will be taught it tomorrow.


Sources:
http://www.bigpants.ca/juggling/images/Controls_Keyboard_HomeRow.gif
Type to Learn 3 program