More Features of the Read Write & Type!™ Learning System
Based on extensive research and over 12 years of classroom testing, Read, Write & Type!™ teaches children to write whatever they can say and read whatever they can write!
- Presents words in the context of meaningful stories
- Allows children to sound-out hundreds of words and thousands of letter combinations
- Offers immediate and specific feedback and help
- Provides diagnostic assessment and prescriptive help
- Develops critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Accommodates the needs of visual, auditory, and tactile learners
- Can be used in different learning situations - one-to-one, small groups, whole classrooms or computer labs.
- Lets children work at their own pace
- Is fun, engaging and interactive for all children
- Is cost-effective
- Optimizes time for parents and teachers, since the software is rich in instruction
- Includes a word-processor and simulated e-mail
The Plot
Designed by the developer of Reader Rabbit, the Read, Write & Type™! Learning System is packed with colorful characters who inhabit a fascinating world, filled with music and animation. The RWT!™ Learning System adventure takes place in a fantasy world inside the computer. A lively gang of storytellers (Ann the Ant, Bud, the Banjo Cass the Cat, etc.) live in two houses that look like the two halves of a keyboard. A mischievous computer virus called Vexor tries to steal the letters and prevent the storytellers from writing down their stories. Two Helping Hands, Lefty and Rightway, help children foil Vexor through 40 exciting levels, building hundreds of animated sentences and stories as they go. Children are rewarded with certificates of advancement after every four letters.
Games at each level provide systematic instruction and practice with all 40 of the sounds in English words. Children learn to identify beginning, middle and ending sounds in words, blend sounds together, spell regular words, read, write, touch-type, and word-process. An E-mail Tower offers a word processor for writing original stories and sending simulated e-mail. A Power Fountain Game helps youngsters develop speed and accuracy in typing. The Spaceship CD-ROM provides extra instruction and assessment games, and tracks progress in these skills. It also holds 40 printable RWT Stories, and clip art of pictures and RWT!™ characters to illustrate original stories.
Curriculum Standards
As in many states across the country, the California Academic Standards Commission has recently set the following standards:
- First-graders need to be able to read aloud fluently.
- All students need have mastered keyboard skills by the third grade.
The California Language Arts Framework calls for "a systematic phonics program taught in meaningful contexts, kept simple, and completed in the early grades."
(You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document. It's free and you can get it by clicking here.)