Greygum Software

The PM Gems Software offers many useful features, including:

• stories read in clear speech with Australian accents;
• the ability to hear individual words spoken aloud by clicking on them;
• a facility to enable children to write their own versions of the stories, hear them read aloud by the computer, and (subject to the teacher's permission) print them;
• extensive teacher options, including the ability to create different user-groups, each with their own settings;
• comprehensive tracking options, allow the teacher to monitor the progress of a whole group or of each individual;
• questions and activities for every book.

It provides a clearly spoken reading of each story, and related activities.

READING
As with the original PM Story Books software, the main feature of new packages is the “Read” facility. The computer reads each page of the stories aloud, in a pre-recorded Australian voice, and a moving underline (optionally) highlights each word as it is spoken. This allows children to associate the sound of each word with its printed appearance and its meaning – which is what reading is all about! Students can also click on any word to hear it.

WRITING
Children can write their own version of each story, can save it and (if the teacher permits) can print it and hear it spoken (using the computer's text-to-speech engine). This facility is aimed more at slightly older children.

NEW - QUESTIONS
A series of questions accompanies each story. These test and reinforce students' comprehension of the content of each story and their familiarity with its vocabulary and key words.

NEW - ACTIVITIES
There is also a number of activities to go with each story. These are very varied, including spelling and phonic exercises, missing-word puzzles, and other activities related to the plot of the story, such as climbing trees, catching fish, popping balloons and solving jigsaw puzzles. These provide a very popular and involving way of reinforcing the vocabulary and content of each story.

ENHANCED TEACHER FACILITIES
Teachers can arrange students in different user-groups, each with its own settings, and can easily inspect the progress of either an entire group or of an individual student. These reports show which questions and activities each student has completed, thus giving a good measure of their progress and understanding.