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Phonics Alive!

The Sound Blender
The Sound Blender
The Sound Blender
The Sound Blender


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The Phonics Alive! literacy software family


Phonics based literacy software teaching sound blending.



THE PROGRAM

The Sound Blender is a new and innovative Australian made literacy program teaching students the essential skills and phonologic knowledge of blending sounds. All forms of digraphs, diphthongs, silent letters and suffixes are explored and explained, e.g. ch, sh, een, kn, ar, aw, au, ith, wr, et and many more. The Sound Blender introduces and consolidates advanced decoding skills to assist students to recognise and decode previously unknown words.

The Sound Blender is a sequenced package that allows the student to work at their own pace. It consists of 12 modules. Each module will take an average student approximately 15 minutes to complete. It is self paced and highly interactive. Each module contains Introduction, Rhyming Exercises, Blending Exercises and a Keyboard Exercise to enable students to develop a fast paced blending process. Keyboard stickers are provided in lower case letters for this purpose. In Phonics Alive! 1, young students were introduced to the sounds of letters in the alphabet. These sounds were taught as beginning, medial and ending sounds. Now the Sound Blender takes the next step!

WHO WILL BENEFIT?
The program is suitable for students in a progressive stage of learning to read and write, those who are experiencing reading and writing difficulties, and it is of great benefit to those for whom English is a second language. The program is easy and enjoyable to use. It is important that all students working with the Sound Blender have a reasonable knowledge of single sounds contained in Phonics Alive! 1.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE RESULTS

The program follows students progress throughout each module and a record of achievement can be viewed whilst in the program, or can be printed for later diagnostic analysis.

NAVIGATION

The program has an extensive navigation interface that can:

  • return the student to where they left off the last time they used the program, or select a different task,
  • help the teacher/parent plan lessons for students and keep track of their progress via the Administration Page,
  • place the student anywhere in the program at any time,
  • add or delete student's names in the Administration Page or the Name Page, display on-screen, all tasks included in the complete program.

System requirements

Windows
Compatible?
Minimum RAM
Recomended RAM
Windows 3.11
Yes
8
16
Windows 95/98/SE/ME
Yes
32
64
Windows NT 4.0 (SP6+)
*1
Windows 2000/XP
Yes
Macintosh
Compatible?
Minimum RAM
Recomended RAM
MacOS 8.1 -> 8.6
Yes
32
64
MacOS 9.x
Yes
64
64
MacOS X (Classic)
*2
128
128+
*1 We do not recommend running any of our programs under Windows NT 4.0 due to sound and video driver issues which can be difficult resolve. Windows NT 4.0 can certainly be used as a file server for our programs in a multiuser environment such as a school.
*2 MacOS X Classic environment is currently used to run the programs.

 

Advanced Software
 

Available in International English and North American versions!