REVIEW OF
"DECODING"
"DECODING"
Reviewed by Michael
Bennett
A
program by H. Jake Olbrich
Decoding is an educational program that teaches spelling and word pronunciation by phonetic sounds. It also includes brief meanings for most of the words it contains. Over 100 phonetic sounds are featured at four levels of word difficulty. A fifth level shows the syllabic structure of the words at the highest level.
Background
Here is a little background information from the help file that can be accessed by the main program:
- This program is based on the book, Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulties by Jerome Rosner, published by Walker Publishing Company. Our program is from the paperback edition, page 159-217.
- [The program] should be used with another person: perhaps an older student or parent. It is primarily an electronic blackboard with a dictionary.
- It is an ideal learning tool for those students with difficulty remembering the long, short and sometimes schwa sound of the vowels and when and where to use them. This program removes the confusion because each sound is used in groups and levels.
- This program is practice and association. The sound to be practiced is always the same in every word. So, there is always one part of every word that they know.
- A little correction and reinforcement at appropriate times, [not] scoring, no timing, no drill, just learning. Mothers of near non-readers have told us they can notice a remarkable improvement after just two or three, one hour sessions per week.
- The program is a short BASIC program that accesses all the word files. I say "all" the word files because they fill up three single density disks! Each disk contains 36 units. The words, their syllables and the dictionary meanings are stored in DATA statements that are ENTERed into the program beginning on line 11100. Someone familiar with the function of DATA statements in Atari programs could easily copy the pattern in one of the files and create their own.
- The phonetic sounds featured in the words provided by the program are:
Disk 1: AT, AP, AB, AND, IT, AG, IN, IG. IB, ICK, OD, OT, OM, EN, ELL, ED, ET, ECK, EST, AD, AS, AM, ACK, AN, IP, ID, IM, ILL, OP, OG, ONG, OB, ESS, ENT, EM, and EB.
Disk 2: ACE, ACT, ADE, AGE, AKE, ALE, AME, ANE, ANG, ANK, APE, ASH, AST, ATE, AVE, AY, EAM, EAT, IDE, IFF, IND, ING, INK, ISH, ITE, OKE, OLD, ONE, UB, UCK, UD, UG, UM, UN, UP, and UT.
Disk 3: ABLE, AI, ALK, ALL, AR, ARE, AW, BULL, COW, DULL, EE, ER, EV, EW, ICE, IGHT, IR, IRE, OA, OCK, OI, OLL, ON, OO, OOK, OR, ORE, OU, OVE, SOW, TION, UE, UFF, URE, US, and USH.
Mechanics
Function keys are used to put more words on the screen and to access the dictionary. Since student users often ask about word meanings, Mr. Olbrich felt a need to add this feature. Definitions of any word containing a particular phonetic sound can be displayed no matter which level has been selected.
Impressions
After I had examined the program for quite awhile, my eight year old son came into the room to see what I was doing on the computer. He sat down beside me and within minutes was pronouncing words far beyond the difficulty I had seen in the vocabulary lists he had been bringing home from school! My opinion of the programs is high and I would heartily recommend it to any parent or teacher who has children learning to read.
[Mr. Olbrich has kindly released these programs into the public domain; I submitted them to GEnie for the eight-bit Atari library. If you do not yet subscribe to GEnie, the three-disk series on phonics decoding is available directly from the author for $5. Ed.]
Support is available from the author, a member of the Rockford Atari Computer Club:
[The author and his wife, Terri, have tested and used these programs in tutoring special needs students, including adult education. My own use of the program proves it to be simple to use, with good documentation on the disk. It's not meant for completely independent study, as you must have a tutor available to check pronunciation; but the immediate access to definitions in the dictionary is helpful. While many educators today stress "whole word" learning, a phonics approach is important for new word-attack skills as well as for students with special needs.
A few comments on the BASIC program: it is easily modified and quite robust, though not "bulletproof". The break key has not been trapped, so an unguided user might accidentally interrupt a lesson. Other than this, hitting a wrong key or entering a non-existent lesson will not cause any problems; errors are well "TRAPped".
The word lists are contained in ENTERed program DATA statements. Each level ends with an asterisk (*), the vocabulary word DATA ends with two asterisks (*,*), and dictionary words and definitions end with "END,AAA". By typing in BASIC DATA lines and LISTing them to disk you could add your own words and definitions, or even create lists for a foreign language, which Mr. Olbrich has begun implementing on disk #3.
Thank you, Mr. Olbrich, for making these available in the public domain. Ed.]
REVIEW OF
"ELEMENTS OF
CHEMISTRY"
"ELEMENTS OF
CHEMISTRY"
Reviewed by Michael
Bennett
A
program by Barton Bresnik
Elements of Chemistry is a drill and practice program for the Atari that is useful as a basic review of the elements in the periodic table. Written in BASIC with some machine language routines to speed things up, Elements is a straightforward approach to the electron configuration, mass, and position of the elements in the periodic table. It also calculates the molecular mass of a compound. [The membrane keyboard of the Atari 400 might make this useful in the chemistry laboratory. Ed.]
Menu
- view
The menu gives you three choices. You may choose to view elements individually as to their symbol, atomic number, atomic mass, or electron configuration (including the s, p, d, and f orbitals).
Menu
- quiz
You may also choose to take a quiz on your knowledge of the positions of the elements on the periodic table. The computer chooses one element at random and then you must type the symbol of any adjacent element. This process continues as you wind your way across a nice representation of the periodic table for two minutes. A bonus round may be awarded in which you are asked to list the members of certain families, such as the halogens or lanthanides.
Menu
- mass
The third feature of Elements is a molecular mass function. You may enter the formula of any compound and the program will display how to find the molecular mass of that compound. The formula you entered is also displayed with true subscripts in a sharp looking format. The computed mass is shown at the top of the screen.
Drill
Elements of Chemistry is a good program for drilling the locations of the elements in the periodic table [which shows chemical relationships] and for showing the user how to figure molecular masses. It would make a useful addition to any chemistry curriculum or a home collection for a family with budding chemistry students.
Shareware
It is available as shareware (if it's useful to you, a $5 donation is requested) from the GEnie eight-bit Atari library as file #5805, ELEMCHM2.ARC, or from the author: