Blue ribbon software

Here are some great new programs to help you get the new school year off to a good start! Writing assessment has never been easier and two new products for math and reading will add some pizazz to your curriculum.

Perfect Copy

Looking for something besides blackline masters for reinforcement of student writing skills? Perfect Copy from Advantage Learning Systems is a writing skills development program for K-8 that may be a "perfect" fit.

In-context editing. Covering 200 of the most common errors in word usage, grammar and punctuation, Perfect Copy uses passages from children's literature to engage students in the editing process. Each lesson focuses on a different writing skill and provides text for students to edit. A Word List provides all the words for correction and some that don't belong.

Three levels of clues can be given. Rules concerning the writing skill focus are also available. There's even a "beep" when a word is clicked that doesn't need to be corrected. All "helps" can be turned on or off in the management system.

When students log in, an assignment screen lists available lessons. Each passage can be printed for work offline or to take home as a "perfect copy." All text tells where the article came from and gives the Accelerated Reader Quiz # as a cross-reference. Summary shows a progress report, and a point total is given for completed assignments based on article length, errors and percent correct.

Task management. The student database maintains scores and averages, and prints 10 customized diagnostic reports. As administrator, a teacher can set up the classes that will be using the software in the school, manage the articles that will be used, set program preferences and work with reports.

Using the Classroom option, teachers can manage these same functions for the classroom and also print reports. All reports can be customized and saved for later use. The straightforward interface makes it easy to change options in order to individualize for each child as needed. One of the features I particularly like is the ability to hide an article. This keeps the student focused on one skill.

For more information, call 800 4204 or visit www.advlearn.com Mac or Win Starter Kit, $339 per level (12, 3/4, 5/6 or 7/8).

Reader Rabbit's Second Grade

If you're looking for a software program that will keep students truly interested, look no further than Reader Rabbit's Second Grade from The Learning Company. It's excellent!

This is a software program that will help build fluency in reading, writing, science and math, while developing thinking skills. By using the scope and sequence chart that is provided, teachers can easily integrate this program into their daily lesson plans.

Laughter fills the room as the children progress through the story in which Sam, the lion, must save his friend, Reader Rabbit, from Sir Drayson Dragon's castle.

There are also student comments like these: "Wow, this is awesome and fun" or "This is really neat." While having fun, students sharpen their awareness of geometric shapes, fact/opinion, fact/fantasy, cause/effect, parts of speech, main ideas/details, as well as critical thinking and literacy skills.

Integration guide. A detailed integration guide to use with the curriculum helps start the program. The guide is matched to educational objectives that support the curriculum and is filled with student activities.

For more information, visit www. learningco.com or call 800-686322. Mac/Win95 CD; cost $49.95.

Tammy J. Burgess

The Cruncher 2.0

Ready to crunch some numbers? The Cruncher2.0 from Knowledge Adventure is a tool that will help students (starting with third grade) understand and create their own spreadsheets.

The Cruncher 2.0 will guide your students as they gather and input information, calculate data and create charts and graphs from spreadsheets. This software program is divided into three areas for student exploration.

Tutorials. The program's tutorials make it easy for even third graders to create spreadsheets with the help of two awesome and funny characters. The tutorials use real-life situations to teach how a spreadsheet calculates, by using the numbers in different cells. In "Fish in Water," for example, students build an aquarium by placing fish and plants in spreadsheet cells.

Projects. Ready-to-use project templates allow students to jump right into spreadsheets. Motivating topics like baseball statistics and TV commercials can be correlated to the class curriculum with guided practice in gathering data and creating a spreadsheet. Each project includes a HyperStudio connection for extending the spreadsheet into multimedia.

Spreadsheets. Finally, the spreadsheet itself shows how each cell is calculated, breaking it down into mathematical equations. With The Cruncher 2.0, students can create well-designed spreadsheets that tie in with the national standards and will correlate with their math, language arts, science, geography and social studies lessons.

Students will love to personalize their spreadsheets with the large library of cool stickers, great sounds and neat pictures. You can add Internet links or import your own pictures and sounds. This is a wonderful reallife tool for the elementary classroom. Students will display their spreadsheets and feel creative, confident and enthusiastic. The program is a great introduction to spreadsheets and produces sophisticated results.

For more information, call 800-5457677 or visit the website at www. knowledgeadventure.com Ma/Win 95 hybrid CD; cost $99.

LUCKY SUBSCRIBER

Anna Brown, Jamaica Plain, MA Gail Tanner, Skowhegan, ME Erla Staine, Hawthorne, CA

Copyright Early Years, Inc. Sep 1999
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