Word
Munchers Deluxe
Riverdeep
1-888-242-6747
https://www.riverdeep.net
Grade Level(s) K-5
Language Arts: Word Recognition Skills
Reviewed by
Mary Erin P. Clem
SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION: Word Munchers Deluxe is about
a character named Muncher in story land.
The Muncher spends his time reading books and eating words thereby
increasing his brainpower. The
software opens with a video of the Muncher sitting in a comfortable chair
with a book and a bowl of popcorn. A
game-show-like announcer’s voice says, “Chapter one, words munching and
you. Say, do you like to read? Can you dodge obstacles to success? Then join the fun and dive right in to
Word Munchers Deluxe.” The Muncher
dives into his book for the game menu to appear.
The first menu displays
three options: “play with Troggles”, “play Troggle free”, and “quit”. The game board, which resembles a
checkerboard book, is situated above the three purple oval menu keys. The Muncher, which looks like a bright
green raisin, walks around the board eating words as the Troggles, who are
the enemies appear on the game board to eat the Muncher. Some of the Troggle characters include a
blue worm, a purple spider and a flying typewriter.
After students make a
selection from the first menu, the second menu looks like an open book with
different colored grade level tabs on the right that look like
bookmarks. The left hand side of the
page displays the selected grade level and playing categories. The student may select one of the
categories such as grammar, phonics, vocabulary, sentences and
challenge. For first and second
grade, there is also a classification category. After a category from a specific grade
level has been chosen, another menu appears on the right side of the
book. For example, if a student
selects grammar from the left side of the menu then subcategories of nouns,
action verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs will be displayed. All of the square boxes are selected by
displaying an X in the box. Students
may deselect any of the boxes before beginning the game. In addition, students may also select
“random” or “in order” play. Below
the book are three other menu options: “OK”, “cancel” and “quit”.
Once menu categories have
been selected, the game will begin.
Two commentators announce to the student what the object of the
current game is. Also, when the
student is unfamiliar with a word on the game board, the student may select
the word by holding down the mouse and one of the commentators will say the
selected word. This is a great
auditory option for students for students who are building their vocabulary
and phonics skills.
A scoreboard is displayed
in the upper-left corner of the screen.
The top center of the screen displays the “target” or the game
objective. Game objectives may
include categories such as present tense verbs, adjectives, or
fill-in-the-blank sentences. Words
appear on the playing board framed by different colored tops. The object of the game is to eat all of
the words prescribed by the target.
ACCURACY OF CONTENT: The help menu of Word Munchers Deluxe excellently
demonstrates how to play the game.
In addition, the help menu narration benefits young students or
auditory learners. While the game is
easy to start playing without reading directions, students will benefit
from watching the help menu video.
TECHNICAL QUALITY: The software runs on both Mac and PC
platforms, which can be helpful for school systems that use both. Game installation ran smoothly on the
reviewer’s Mac. It should be noted
that Mac users need to have the classic-nine operating system as opposed to
the later OS X system.
There are a few drawbacks
and technical issues of the software.
For example, the screen display of the game is small, however the
graphics were unaffected. Secondly,
the checkerboard pattern on the book has a texture that similar to
particleboard that is distracting when pictorial representations of the
word are used. The other technical
drawback of the game is pictorial images themselves because the images lack
contrast and therefore are hard to see.
Furthermore, students may have difficulty identifying the image because
the student may need to think about synonyms for some of the images. For instance, if the objective is to
identify all of the pictures that end with a “b” sound and there is a
picture of a bed, students may need to think of other words such as crib to
meet the objective.
USE OF TECHNOLOGY: Teachers are not be able to
modify the software, but may instruct students to choose certain topics
from the menu. The software does
contain a “Hall of Fame” for high scores, but there aren’t any other specific
ways to track student progress.
Overall, the software makes good use of technology because it allows
students to work autonomously to increase phonemic awareness, build word
identification strategies and syntax.
ROLE OF STUDENTS: Students are limited to the
prescribed format of the software.
However, students may select different grade levels or different
combinations such as selecting criteria from the submenus.
ROLE OF TEACHER: The teacher should guide students through
the navigation system, before the students use the program. The software package includes lesson
plans, vocabulary lists, coloring pages, flash cards, puzzles, and writing
prompts about the characters. The
word lists may be the most useful to teachers who may want to expose
students to the words they may encounter in the software.
CLASSROOM USAGE: Students should work individually with this
software or with a partner in the Troggle Free game mode. This software can easily be incorporated
into language arts lessons or may be used during free choice time or center
time, depending on the structure of the classroom.
CRITICAL SUMMARY: Overall, Word Munchers Deluxe is useful for expanding students’
knowledge of word patterns, word recognition and identification of parts of
speech. The software’s strength’s
are in the voice-activated help menu and word identification system. Also, the “troggle free” play allows
students play the game at a slower pace.
The graphics and sound enhance the overall quality of the
program. However, the software could
be greatly improved if the game could be played on the full screen size.
OVERALL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1 TO
10) 8.5
EXPLANATION OF RATING:
This is a very worthwhile piece of software for students
to use in a computer lab or the classroom.
Students may navigate around the software easily and will enjoy the
fun characters. Word Munchers Deluxe receives a high rating because of the
technical quality mixed with the creative format.
|
