Ultimate Speed Reader Deluxe

Reviewer: Cheryl Tyler
Teacher at Whites Creek High School
Nashville, Tennessee
E-mail: netyler@mindspring.com
Student Population who reviewed it: Combination of students: emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, regular education, honors, adults.

Ultimate Speed Reader Deluxe
CD-ROM for PC or Mac.
Davidson, 1995

This software comes with a booklet that explains all a teacher, parent or student need to know to operate Ultimate Speed Reader Deluxe. It gives the teacher/parent information on how to secure each user's work, password information, and how to keep current progress reports on the students.
Reviewed on a Power Mac 7100/80.
Requires 2x CD and 8 mgs of RAM. 256 color monitor. The hard drive needs 16 mgs of RAM.
PC needs a Windows compatible sound card, 486/33 MHz or faster with Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. DOS 6.0 or higher.
Macintosh needs a 68040 or Power Mac. System 7.1 or higher. Reviewed: March 1998.
List price is $29.99, but street price lower.

Rating: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, Way Cool!

Teachers and parents who used this and saw the student response loved it. One of my students who is very bright, but has done nothing for 3 years wanted to do it again. The reason is because he saw himself improve.

This software gives the teacher the ability to have baseline information on the student's reading speed and comprehension. This is nothing like the little speed reading things we did in the 1960s when everyone wanted to improve their speed reading to be like J. F. Kennedy.

A random passage appears on the screen (the teacher can manipulate which passages go to which students, if (s)he desires). A timer within the system begins timing without the reader knowing. At the end of the passage, the student is asked to answer 10 comprehension questions. Once the questions are answered, the student is given their reading score and comprehension score. Then comes a series of exercises to improve the speed. 2-, 3-, and 4-letters/numbers appear and disappear with increasing speed. It is the job of the reader to give feedback for what they see. There is a chance to correct their answer when wrong. Along the bottom a student can see their score. Finally there is an improvement score.

The cool things about this are there is comprehension testing, a teacher can set specific words, students are constantly reinforced, the teacher has access to all the student's work, each student can have a password, and it is a random selection of the reading topics.

This software is most relevant to English and reading. It is best used for Junior high and up, but I did use it with my 3rd grader. You can use it for regular education, but also special education (selectively--you need to have students use it who can already read on a 4th grade level). This is also great for adult education. My assistant does not like to read, but she loves this. This will motivate the kids who have never been motivated before to do anything. There is no sense of failure associated with this program.

I like EVERYTHING about this software!!

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