In our article entitled, “Key Phonics Enemies,” we discussed what can detriment an effective phonics software program. In this article, we address what can enable an effective phonics software program.

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Learning to read isn’t always easy. Thanks to our ever evolving language, the rules of phonics lessons seemingly change on a whim, new words erupt with the advent of each generation, and terms that we were once familiar with are no longer spoken. These changes can make full comprehension of our language extremely difficult to learn, and that’s why we must take extra care to not needlessly bombard the effort to learn with trivial things like arrogance, stress, and distractions.

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You can significantly improve the reading skills of your students or children by creating a phonics instruction environment that’s conducive to reading. Studies show that a phonics instruction environment’s ambience heightens our senses and focuses our attention on even the slightest of details. Since reading often requires us to pay attention to an extensive amount of detail, we can only expect great things from a room filled with books, magazines, flash cards, and everything that suggests reading is a primary focus.

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Since we’ve mentioned this debate in our articled entitled, “The Importance Of Literacy,” we thought we would expand upon that argument here for those who don’t appreciate the controversy.

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If you’re reading this, chances are you take literacy for granted. It comes so naturally for the majority of us, we can’t imagine what life is like for people who can not read. If you will for a moment, just try to imagine the life of the illiterate individual. This individual can not pass the written part of a driver’s test. He can not properly manage a bank account nor can he read the contents of his own utility bills. He must depend on the graciousness of other people to read things aloud to him, as if he were still a child. Either that or he must devise creative ways to hide his illiteracy from everyone he meets.

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SavySoftware has formed a new partnership with one of Rentacoder’s top certified experts to develop and donate educational software to some of the nation’s most disadvantaged schools. The move comes after learning the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) gave third world countries a higher literacy rate than that found in the U.S. It also comes after learning Schwarzenegger’s threat to cut California’s education budget.

As a result, Randy’s Reading Program (screenshot below), will be released as a full, free literacy course for grades K - 3. It will feature professional graphics, voiceover’s, hands-off video tutorials, and a rich vocabulary full of both short and long vowels, blends, ends, silent letters, multi-syllable words, unique spelling patterns and more. Designed to run on all versions of Windows, Randy’s Reading Program will release its first segment of eight March 30, 2008.

Read all about the exciting new capabilities through our downloadable press release! (.pdf format)

Features:

Extremely friendly user interface

Over 100 lessons

Friendly, clear female narration

Hands-off tutorial

Finger-to-sound visuals

Rich vocabulary

Covers short and long vowels

Introduces blends, ends, silent letters, multi-syllable words

Addresses unique spelling patterns and more

Compatible with Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Download the first segment now:

1. Download part one and part two of the program and run the setup file of each. (925KB)

2. Create a subfolder in your new C:/RRP directory. Name the subfolder, “sounds”.

3. Download and unzip the program’s sound files (sounds 1 and sounds 2) into the folder named, “c:/rrp/sounds”. (approx. 7MB)

3. Run the file named “rrp1.exe” or “rrp2.exe”

You can help support development with feedback, donations, and by registering any one of our other available programs.

Report bugs or make suggestions using the suggestion feature below.