Stories and More: Time and Place

Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Edmark

Age Group: Age 8 and Up
Type: Language Arts, Teaching Tools
Price: $60

PC version requires:
Win95/8, P90, 10M hd, 16M RAM, CDx2

Mac version requires:
System 7.5.3, PowerPC, 10M HD, 16M RAM, CDx2

Description:

Edmark has released one of its strongest programs in recent memory! Stories and More: Time and Place is specifically designed to enhance reading comprehension and offers supportive tools to help educators connect outside content to the story. We reviewed the school version, which is in a Mac/Windows CD format. It came with two CD's, a Teacher's Guide that includes lesson ideas, vocabulary lists, activities, discussion ideas, art projects and worksheets. The Stories and More titles have four sections: Starting Off, Story Time, Thinking About and Going Beyond. Each section questions students and helps them connect their general knowledge to specific events. This particular program focuses on three books: Rosaboxen by Alice McLerran, The House on Maple Street, by Bonnie Pryor, and Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams.

Features:

  • Optimizes reading comprehension.
  • Children work at their own pace.
  • Includes open-ended questions as well as more structured material.
  • Promotes recall of text.
  • Uses a child's general knowledge to improve comprehension.

Technical Aspects:

We ran this program on our iMac DV, which has a G3 processor and 128M RAM. Installation was a breeze and there were no glitches or problems during runtime. The interface is very child-friendly and the graphics are beautifully done - richly detailed, while the soundtrack helps bring the stories to life.

Report and Conclusions:

This is an excellent program that will inspire educators as well as students because it can be used to support current curriculum and applies to reading comprehension, an important lifetime skill. It certainly beats the old "read this paragraph" and answer multiple choice questions! The stories chosen for this title are excellent and will provide a mental workout kids will enjoy. I would highly recommend this program to teachers and homeschool groups because the double disks provide a way to allow families to use the software and pass it on to others who need it. This is probably not a program that kids will replay continually, but if you have children at several different levels of development, it would be a good family investment.




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