Grade: Kindergarten or first grade

Materials:
 Dinosoft Computer Software
The objective to this computer software is to teach a child beginning, middle, and ending consonant sounds of words.  Since my portrait of a learner child is in kindergarten I would just use the beginning and ending sounds for him to do.  At the beginning of the software it asks the child what he or she would like to do first and I will have him use the mouse and choose the first option.  Then I will explain to him what he will be doing.  This software will show him three pictures and he must say them out loud in order to figure out the answer.  For instance, if the game is looking for a picture that has the beginning sound of an “s” and he is given the pictures of a toaster, a sock, and a couch.  He will have to say each picture and recognize the “s” sound at the beginning of sock.

Strengths:
The strengths to this software are the following: it teaches a child his or her letters and letter sounds.  This gives them visuals to go along with the letter and after an answer is given it shows the words that go with the picture and then the child can see what the word looks like and where the beginning sound comes in the word.  This piece of software also can teach child sounds of letters that come at the end of a word.

Weaknesses:
There are some weaknesses though and they come with the beginning sounds.  At times the computer will ask for a word that begins with the “s” sound and give three pictures two of which have the “s” beginning sound, but one word begins with “s” while the other one begins with “st.”  A kindergartner is not yet ready to distinguish those types of words yet.  And as for the middle letter sounds that should be used for the older kindergartners or early first grade.  The other weakness is that it will ask you if you want the computer to show you the answer right away and if you say no, it will show it anyway.  It does not give you a chance to figure it out yourself.

This goes along with the picture sorts we were doing together on our own to familiarize him with his letters and letter sounds.  In this software teaching he will control everything he does on the computer.  Afterwards we will go over his letters and letter sounds so he doesn’t forget them and possibly do another picture sort.  This way I know he actually learned something from it.