Reading Blaster is an educational program which works on mastering pre-primer reading skills. This engaging program uses problem-solving skills which will help develop literacy and comprehension skills students need to acquire to read. It is designed for students ages 4 through 6 or grades pre-school through first. It is also designed for students with disabilities who struggle in mastering basic reading skills that prevent them from being good readers.
This program can be used in regular classrooms as well as special education classrooms. Its interacting program allows students to work individually on their reading skills. It is also a great program to use on a projection screen and work on the games together. Reading Blaster helps reinforce many of the literacy students are learning in these grades. It is a flexible program for students to use; they may stop and go with the program as they wish and work in different areas of the game at different times.
The program is based around two friends and a robotic dog. Their mission is to find the treasures from a treasure chest. To find the treasures, students must first complete five series of games of their choice. They have between four and five activities to choose from, each focusing on three different areas of reading. The first is matching letters, sounds, and words together. Second is recognizing uppercase and lowercase letters, and finally, placing letters in alphabetical order. Once a student completes five individual games with at least 80% mastery, they are rewarded with five stars. After five stars have been collected then they are rewarded with a piece of treasure from the chest. Along with receiving pieces of treasure, students are also allowed access to practice writing with letters, make collages with pictures the game provides to represent a certain letter, as well as receive and write emails. Reading Blaster provides constant positive feedback to the students and is a great way to keep students’ attention.
Reading Blaster is a great program that works on pre-primer reading skills and computer skills. As students become older they are required to know more and more about computers. This game helps them work on using a computer by following directions, understanding how to use the mouse pointer, and finally, understanding the keyboard. This is vital for students to know and this interactive computer program is a great way to reinforce these skills.
Knowledge Adventure is internationally known company that focuses on multimedia software for the classroom and the home. It is an award winning company that has been recognized for its educational work. Reading Blaster, as well as many other programs, have been used in many situations and been shown to be very effective among students with or without disabilities working on beginning literacy skills.
Content:
Reading Blaster contains five progressively challenging activities, eight read-along story books, a wide variety of extension activities that are printable for classroom use, and a progress tracker which assesses the students’ progress along the way. The game comes with a manual to help understand set-up as well as the company’s contact information if there are any questions.
Adult Management Features, Support Website & Support of Software:
This software comes with a well detailed manual to help with the set-up. It also provides many printable activities that can be printed out and used for cooperative learning. This educational software would be compatible to use with a SMART Board and work on the activities as a class. The program is matched up with national standards so a teacher can feel confident in letting their students used the educational computer program. Reading Blaster also provides the teacher instant feedback in addition to showing how students are performing in certain literacy areas. Reading is an ongoing process and there are follow up programs to this one. Once students have mastered the areas of the program, teachers can look into a more challenging version to work on with students. If further assistance is needed with the program, the user friendly website can be searched for answers as well as contacting the company directly.
Value:
This program is a wonderful value for classroom use. For one classroom it costs a total of $60. In the No Child Left Behind Act, under Title II Part D, it states the primary goal of the section titled Enhancing Education Through Technology is to improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in elementary schools and secondary school. Grants are also available to help meet financial costs.
Reflection on Knowledge Adventure: Reading Blaster Ages 4-6
Reading Blaster is an educational program that helps students ages 4-6, as well students with disabilities, learn to work on beginning reading skills. Its interactive approach is very engaging to the students using the program. It is a program that allows for most students with or without disabilities to work on their problem solving skills in the area of basic literacy skills.
This program and the company that creates this program are internationally known. It is reliable and the products they produce have been shown to make an educational difference on students. Its reasonable price makes it easy to purchase, but if not, there are grants available to help.
I was able to complete several of the stages in the game. I received several of the treasures from the chest. The program was well designed in the fact that it was easy to work and very motivating to keep going.
I have looked at other programs that focus on beginning literacy skills. Most of the programs do not work on the basic literacy skills Reading Blaster does. Many of the students in the K-2 special education classroom struggle in the areas that this program is designed to teach. Reading Blaster is a program that would benefit students with or without disabilities who are learning to read.
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