Wordy Querty: Foundations for Reading & Writing Fluency

© 2006 Talking Fingers, Inc.
$35, Windows XP, Windows 98, Mac OSX
Teaches: reading and writing, phonics, typing/keyboarding, music
CTR Rating: 84%

CTR Review

Designed to continue where Read, Write & Type leaves off, this systematic reading, typing and spelling program is designed for 2nd to 5th graders who have learned the basics of phonics and word identification and are ready for more. It could be used for reinforcement of an existing curriculum or on a stand-alone basis. After signing in, children see a progress menu that tells them where they are in the program. The 20 activities consist of word sorting, fill in the blank, sing-alongs, typing spoken sentences and so on. The activities introduce children to word families and challenge them with words that do not conform to spelling conventions; a key strength of this program. For example, in the Balloon Popping Game, children hear a sentence ("The girls will come.") and then must pop balloons with the words from the sentence. One unique and noteworthy feature of this program is the use of animated music videos, from the creators of Animusic. The more activities children complete, the more musical inventions they see assembled. These activities are well thought-out and are extremely solid pedagogy, but they can be scripted and sluggish. For example, it is not possible to click through the sometimes wordy instructions or songs, creating frustrating delays. This is one of the rare programs that uses the QWERTY computer keyboard as a means to introduce words and languages by integrating typing basics along with phonics. It is priced and designed for either individual home use (with stand-alone copies at $35 each) or school use. We reviewed the stand-alone version on Windows. In all, this is a very complete system, but not perfect for everyone. Cost is $35 for the home edition; $55 for a single school edition (2 programs); $149 for a lab edition (6 programs), and $499 for a site license (25 computers). There are three installation options: stand alone, sever install and client install.