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Keyboarding
Prerequisites, Skills and Strategies
Keyboarding can be fun and young students are often very happy
to work on the computer. By the time a student reaches year 7 they should
be able to type at least 20-30 words per minute. If the student has basic
typing skills it will be a lot easier to learn the more advanced features
on the keyboard, and use them efficiently.
When to introduce keyboarding instruction requires an individual
appraisal. Students as young as Grade 1 have had success using the QWERTY
keyboard. Generally short lessons (five to ten minutes) works best with young
students. The time can be lengthened as progress is made.
The student who uses braille may use a typing program in audio
format. However, this can be time consuming and it may be more useful to dictate
letters, words or phrases for the student to type. For older students quotations
or passages from plays or poetry can be typed from memory or dictated. The
following method is only one of many which are available to teach keyboarding
skills to students.
Prerequisites
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Place fingers on home row
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Type individual letters on home row
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Type two letter words using home row keys
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Type three/five letter words using home row keys
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Type keys to strengthen little finger of right hand - (o,
p, ; return)
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Use shift key to type capital letters
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Type words with new letters and home row
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Type sentences with new letters and home row
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Type keys to strengthen little fingers of left hand (q)
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Type keys above home row with right hand (u, o, l)
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Type keys above home row with left hand (w, e, r,)
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Type keys with index finger of right/left hands (t, y, g,
h)
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Type words using new letters from home row
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Type sentences using new letters from home row
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Type keys on bottom row below home row (b, n)
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Type keys on bottom row below home row (c, v)
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Type keys on bottom row below home row (x, m)
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Type keys on bottom row below home row (z, , .)
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Use the function keys. The function keys (those named F1-F12)
are special keys which combine two or more key strokes into one single keystroke.
For example instead of using command +h for help, in some programs just
striking F1 will take the user right into the help menu. Most word processing
programs will give an explanation on the use of the function keys.
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Use shortcuts. Shortcuts allow the student to use less keystrokes
to perform actions on the keyboard. For example, if the students have many
windows open, by holding down the option and the command key and typing
"w", on a Macintosh computer, all the windows will close automatically.
Or, by typing command plus =, the student goes directly to the edit menu.
Thus, shortcuts allow the student to get into menus and operate programs
easily. The shift, the tab, the control, option and the command keys, combined
with the letters on the keyboard help to eliminate individual strokes. A
list of shortcuts often accompany applications.
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Use numeric keypad. The numeric keypad (the keys at the
far right of the keyboard) can help the student to operate programs such
as JAWS. The numbers replace the need to use the arrow keys, the return
key, and the function keys. The shift, option and command keys along with
the numbers are used instead.
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Type words using spelling rules:
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silent e rule, rat-rate, hat-hate, fat-fate; use other
vowels a, i, o, u, rip-ripe, not-note, cut-cute
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cannot end a word with U or V - must put UE and VE true,
blue, give, curve,
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the sound UV is spelled ove, love, dove, above, glove
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Type sentences using words from spelling rules (eg I love
the dove that landed on a glove.)
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Type journal entries, poems, stories and nursery rhymes
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At about the grade 3/4 level the vision resource teacher
and classroom teacher may wish to work with the entire class during computer
keyboarding lessons
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Accuracy and rhythm are important when a student starts
to type. The teacher made wish to have the students listen to a good typist
in order that they can hear what good rhythm sounds like on the keyboard.
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Type pre-test and post-test weekly spelling tests
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Type friends’ or local business phone numbers from
home row
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When the student is able to type from home row, more advanced
skills can be introduced such as timed test, the use of more advanced vocabulary
and typing words in categories. Emphasis can now be placed on speed.
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Number keys allow the student to produce documents within
word processor or spreadsheet