Junior Wordsplits

Crash

Rosetta McLeod

CRASH COURSE By Rosetta McLeod PROGRAMMED BY TEACHERS It is interesting to see that my favourite programs this month were designed, written and produced by practising teachers. Andy Watson in Aberdeen and Bill Elliot in Plymouth, have both become aware that much of the educational software on the market is not really what teachers in schools are looking for, and so have come up with their own products. If you expect these to be amateurish, you'd be wrong - Expose and Nightmare/Potholer are both extremely professional packages which have been thoroughly tested in the classroom. STARTER WORDSPLITS AND JUNIOR WORDSPLITS Producer: Sulis Retail Price: £7.95 each Age Range: Starter Wordsplits 4-8 years; Junior Wordsplits 9-11 years. Both of these programs are aimed at improving word recognition and spelling by matching up two halves of words. In Starter Wordsplits, there are 14 different categories to choose from, such as Sounds, Movement, Animals, Nature and People. Each category has 18 words to be completed more than enough to hold a young child's interest. The word ending appears on the right of the screen, and can be brought in line with its beginning by using keys 7 (up) and 6 (down). To make the two halves join up, the child must press 5. Junior Wordsplits is a more difficult version of the same game, and you can choose to practise beginnings such as for/fore/four and des/dis or endings like - ary/-ery/-ory and -ance/-ence/-ense. Each game begins in black and white, with colour being introduced for each correct answer. With each completion of a section the time taken is given. The programs are easy to operate and useful in their own way, but I would like to have seen a more imaginative use of graphics in Starter Wordsplits to motivate the younger children. COMMENTS Control keys: 7 to move up, 6 to move down. 5 to make the word Keyboard play: good Graphics: very limited Use of colour: builds up from black and white at the start