Melanie+McAuley

1. The purpose of this software is to strengthen math skills. The game is for ages 6-12 so it is appropriate for students in the 1st through 6th grade. 2. The software categories this fits into are drill and practice, instructional game, or problem solving. It presents equations and problems for the player to solve. 3. I would integrate this software into my classroom during math time. Maybe once a week, I could take my second grade class to a computer lab to play all at once, or students can play individually if they finish an assignment early. 4. The strength of this program is that it has a lot of different math equations to solve in different ways and in different scenarios to work the students’ minds. The weakness is that while playing different games, there are no instructions on what to do. You basically have to just try things out to figure out what you are supposed to do. Also, it is an old game, since it has been around since I was in elementary school. 5. I checked all of my software out from my local library, but by researching it online, I found some similar software that has been updated. It costs $59.95 and can be found here:@http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=16119&langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10004 The software works on most Windows, but not on Windows 7, which is what I have. But I assume that most schools don’t use Windows 7.
 * Software Evaluations **
 * Math Blaster**

1. The purpose of this software is to help with reading skills. It is for grades 1st through 3rd. It is appropriate for reading and grammar lessons. 2. The software categories this game falls into are mostly drill and practice and instructional game. It has different levels and situations to practice reading skills. 3. One way I could integrate this game into my second grade classroom is during a reading lesson, I could have different stations where a certain number of students could go at a time and Reading Blasters could be one of the stations. 4. The strengths of this program is that it practices reading skills in many different ways, such as reading a story and answering questions, finding different syllables and matching words, all while playing a game to get clues to solve the mystery. I don’t think this game has any weaknesses. This is my favorite program out of all the ones I’m evaluating. 5. This program can be found on scholastic.com for $74.98. Here is the link: @http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_16059_-1_10001_10004. This game is made for Windows.
 * Reading Blaster**

1. The purpose of this software is to help students learn letters and spelling. It is for ages 5-8, so about kindergarten through 2nd grade. 2. The software categories this fits into are drill and practice and instructional game. It presents different forms of spelling with different games. 3. A scenario where I could integrate this game into my classroom is when I have spelling tests, this program allows the teacher to choose words that the students can play with, so I’ll use the words that are on the spelling tests. 4. The strengths of this program are that you can customize it and it senses the level of the reader and self-adjusts to make it harder or easier. A weakness is that this is for children 5-8, so the very top of it is where I would want to teach and it would be nice to have a bit of leeway for students that are more advanced. 5. This software costs $11.25 and can be found here: @http://www.amazon.com/Knowlege-Adventure-Jump-Start-Spelling/dp/B00069WGES. It requires Windows 95 and later.
 * Jump Start Spelling**

1. The purpose of this software is to allow the player to solve a mystery while learning about history, math and using strategy. It is for ages 5-10, which is about kindergarten through 4th grade. 2. The software categories that this program falls into are instructional game and problem solving. It presents a mystery that you have to solve. 3. One way I could use this program in my classroom is to play it altogether as a class. I could control it with the game projected on a screen and the students can play along and take turns playing the games. This would be good to use during a history lesson about Egypt because that is where it takes place. 4. The strengths of this game are that it incorporates different problem solving techniques and that it provides a history lesson within the story of the game. A weakness is that this game would be better played at home on the student’s own time unless there was a lot of extra time in class or we played it as a class. 5. The software costs $18.50 and can be found here: @http://www.amazon.com/Scooby-Doo-Jinx-at-Sphinx-Pc/dp/B00005LBVR. It requires Windows 95 or later.
 * Scooby-Doo! Jinx at the Sphinx**

1. The purpose of this program is to help enrich student’s learning skills through games and other activities that stimulate their minds. There is no age limit on it, but I would say it is appropriate for any elementary school student. 2. The software categories this program falls into are instructional game and problem solving. There are many different activities that deal with basic skills. 3. This program would best be used in a classroom during free time. It has many different types of games so it wouldn’t be appropriate for just one subject. So, if some students get done with an assignment early, they could play this game. 4. Some strengths of this game are that you can choose what level to play and if it is too hard or easy when you play, you can change it while you are still playing and some of the activities are multiplayer, so students can play together or against each other. A weakness of this game is that it would best be played at home where a student has time to go through and play all the games. 5. This software costs $22.44 and can be found here: @http://www.amazon.com/Lion-King-Disneys-Activity-Center/dp/B000B78ZKY. It works on Windows 95 or later. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 * The Lion King Disney’s Activity Center**