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Address technology integration while using the power of the computer to teach students important life skills. Here are two programs that can make it easy to differentiate instruction based on student needs and abilities.

Relate for Kids

Relate for Kids from RippleEffects is an individualized behavior training program for grades 3-6. Many student behaviors could be changed if students only knew what the problem was and how to develop a plan of action for changing the behavior. The colorful interface and realistic situations this program offers are terrific motivation for any class character education curriculum. The 27 topics cover behavior, health and social problems and are easy to use for a short presentation on a specific classroom problem or as a systematic skill-building curriculum.

Topics can be chosen in any order using the CHALLENGE CELLPHONE. (The teacher can customize the program to block out any of the topics.) The handdrawn illustrations are winsome and reflect the multicultural diversity of today's classrooms. The text-to-voice feature makes it easy for students of all ability levels to use the program. The use of children's voices throughout the program is particularly effective in increasing student comfort levels.

Exploring the topics. There are 11 ways to explore each topic, using a button system across the bottom of every screen. Each topic starts with PicTURE rr, a button which offers an experiential scenario with video and automatic text-to-voice to introduce the skill. The INFo button gives basic facts about the topic. The How To button gives step-by-step behavioral training. These three buttons also offer discussion questions.

This is followed with motivation and assessment that helps students learn and internalize the skills associated with the behavioral training. TRUE STORY is about a peer model who has successfully overcome a problem. MPDEL plays a movie that shows the specific behavior to be learned. IN THE WORLD encourages role play to transfer the training to Family, Friends, Media and Sports.

Assessment begins with IN YOUR MIND, which uses a brain graphic to index the five parts of internalizing thinking and writing about the skill being learned. MEMORIES records all answers and allows students to print, save to disk or copy to a word processing program for more in-depth writing about the topic. Writing prompts assist all ability levels. Interactive assessments earn points.

Individual student logins help protect confidentiality as students identify and work on behavior characteristics they need help with. Teachers can see results of skills done, but cannot read the Memories without student permission. The HE button on each screen brings up a "Privacy Respected" screen to use when the teacher or a classmate walks by the computer.

Visit www.rippleeffects.com or call 888-259-6618 for more information. Mac/Win. $499, single user.

Read, Write and Type! Learning System

The Read, Write & Type! Learning System from Talking Fingers, Inc. is an integrated reading, writing and keyboarding program for parents to use with their child at home, or for teachers to use in the classroom to integrate keyboarding into the language arts curriculum.

At the heart of the learning system is the Read, Write & Type! CD-ROM and the Spaceship Challenge CD-ROM. Read, Write & Type Versions 1 and 2 are licensed to The Learning Company. With Version 3, Talking Fingers, Inc. has put together a package in which students use the 40 basic sounds to build words by typing sounds and learning the correct fingering on the keyboard.

Games and challenges. The program includes more than 50 sound games and 118 typing challenges using over 200 words. There are 40 printable, animated stories and nine levels for phonics, reading comprehension and typing. The two KEYBOARD HOUSES help students keep left and right separate and each letter has a STORYTELLER associated with it to make it easy to remember where their rooms are in the Keyboard Houses.

There are dozens of interactive games to reinforce letters, sounds and words, and how to type them. At the STORY TREE, stories are read aloud and students see the text they will type. They then type each phrase or sentence and get help from a set of HELPING HANDs if they type the wrong letter.

POWER FOUNTAIN challenges students to type quickly and without mistakes. Students can practice writing in the EMAIL TOWER to send pretend e-mail and get real e-mail from students in other countries. You can even choose SPANISH HELP to get instructions in Spanish.

The Spaceship Challenge cD-Rom is an assessment tool for use with each lesson after Level 2. There are assessment activities for phoneme awareness and phonics, reading comprehension and spelling. Students who don't meet the criteria are given prescriptive activities to complete. The Spaceship Challenge CDROM also includes clip art, printable stories and certificates.

For more information, call 888-8398939 or visit www.talkingfingers.com The Home Edition is $79.95; the School Curriculum pack with software for five computers is $399.

Fonix iSpeak

The Fonix iSpeak program from Fonix Corporation is a new learning tool based on text-to-speech technology. The CDROM works on a Pentium II Windows 95 or better PC computer and makes it possible to have any selected text on your computer read aloud.

Some of the more obvious benefits of a text-to-speech software program are those that readily come to mind for those of us in the classroom: help for younger students in reading more difficult text, the ability to listen to their own writing and edit based on what they hear, and help for the visually impaired. The Fonix iSpeak does all these things and more while working in the background.

Because iSpeak lets you download email and other text from the Internet, or save a file on your computer, a person can also listen to the saved text while completing other tasks. If text is saved as an MP3 file, it can be listened to from anywhere on a portable MP3 player.

It's so easy to use! Any text can be saved to the clipboard and then read aloud. The cusTOMIZE menu makes it possible to read one file, a group of files or words as they're typed on the keyboard. This is a powerful reinforcement for student writing. The text-to-speech function makes it easier for all students to do in-depth research using the Internet and electronic encyclopedia programs.

Fonix iSpeak 2.0 can be configured to use a male or female voice. The speed, pitch and volume can also be adjusted and the new voice saved. The voices seem realistic and the text is read with feeling and the correct emphasis! I see so many possibilities for using this software in the classroom. You can use it for an oral test when a special needs student requires modification. You can highlight and copy new words or difficult words for them to read.

For more information, call Fonix at 801-553-6600 or visit www.fonix.com Windows 95/98. $69.00.

LUCKY SUBSCRIBER

Suzanna Long, Findlay, OH