That's a Fact Jack! Read #33

PC version requires:
P 166MHzr, Windows 95, 32MB RAM, 125MB HD

Mac version requires:
Power Mac (601), Mac OS 8.1 or higher, 32MB RAM, 105MB HD

Description:

That's a Fact Jack! Read #33: Discrimination and Prejudice in America is one of a series of 45 titles published by Tom Snyder Productions. Presented in an interactive game show format, each title in the series presents questions for ten novels concerning a particular theme. Discrimination and Prejudice in America is suitable for 6th - 8th grade levels; there are also titles for 3rd - 5th and 9th - 10th grade levels.

The novels covered in Discrimination and Prejudice in America include Sounder by William H. Armstrong, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor and seven others. The title is accompanied by a teacher's guide, which includes book previews and suggested writing and discussion questions. The guide provides the reading level and sophistication level for each book. Some books are identified as containing mature subject matter as well. An accompanying Admin Tool program allows the teacher to exclude particular books or questions from the quiz show.

Features:

• Interactive game show format
• Questions covering ten thematic novels
• Four question types: literal, inferential, hypothetical and points-of-evidence
• Three modes: whole class, small team and individual
• Admin Tool management and assessment program for teacher use

Technical Aspects:

On my 17" monitor, the game screen was surrounded by a small-scale black and white checked border, which at times gave a strobe effect that I did not like. Sometimes when the game screen changed, the previous screen did not completely disappear (see screenshot). This never affected gameplay, but could be disconcerting. Interestingly enough, on my kids' slower system with a 13" monitor, there was no border and the video ran flawlessly. Adjusting the resolution on a larger monitor may help.

There is a quirk to this program that takes some getting used to. When there are screens with options (such as how many players), the mouse is inoperative; particular keys on the keyboard must be pressed to make a selection. During gameplay, a player must "buzz in" using a particular letter on the keyboard, then press the number corresponding to the desired response.

Although the questions and answers are printed onscreen, explanations and other comments by the host are audio only. The game could be played by a hearing-impaired user, but the quiz show ambience would be greatly diminished.

Report and Conclusions:

I have read three of the books covered by the title, and initiated the game show for each of them. I soon discovered that the questions in the game show cover much more than facts about the storyline. Some questions require the player to make inferences based on the historical period or the personality traits of characters. There is also a section in which the player must determine whether statements support or are extraneous to a theme sentence. I was quite impressed with the broad range of question types and the thought processes required to successfully play the game.

The That's a Fact Jack! Read series was obviously developed for school rather than home use. While homeschools could benefit from the titles, the relatively high price tag may put the software beyond the reach of those on limited budgets. However, at the Tom Snyder Productions website (www.tomsnyder.com) parents and homeschoolers may look up lists of books pertinent to a wide variety of topics and may order a free catalog which includes overviews of the 450 books included in the series.