Roxie's Reading Fish

Introduction

Roxie's Hints

Getting Started

A Note About the Words

New Words

Modify Existing User Words

Delete a Word List

Playing the Game

Changing Level

Help

Sound

Support

Disclaimer-Agreement


Introduction

Roxie's Reading Fish is a very intuitive, and easy-to-use program.  Children can, with no help or supervision, learn to play the game just by clicking on various areas on the screen.


Roxie's Hints

The mouse cursor will change depending on the action that can be taken at that position.  When the cursor is over the HELP button, or over Roxie, it changes to a large question mark.  Clicking on Roxie will cause Roxie to explain the current game status.  Clicking on the HELP button, allows access to the on-line help screen.  When the cursor is over the draw deck in the center of the screen, or over one of the player's cards on the bottom of the screen, it changes to a hand holding a card.  And, when the cursor is over the STOP button on the bottom right of the screen, the cursor changes to a STOP sign, showing how to exit the program.

Clicking on a word card with the RIGHT mouse button will cause Roxie to say the name of the word on that card.


Getting Started

The program will display a dialog box asking for the childs name, the reading level, and the level of difficulty.  The reading levels are:

o  Pre-First Grade

o  Early First Grade

o  Late First Grade

o  Early Second Grade

o  Late Second Grade

o  New Words

The three levels of difficulty are:

o  Easy

o  Medium

o  Hard

Roxie plays an increasingly better game in the Medium and Hard levels.  Choose a level and click on Ok.


A Note About the Words

There are over two hundred high frequency words available in Roxie's Reading Fish. These words were chosen with the aid of  reading specialists in early elementary education.

When a Reading level is chosen ONE of a set of twenty-one words is randomly chosen from that Reading level, and those voice files are all read into memory.  For each game, seven of those words are randomly chosen for the cards.  When subsequent games are played under the same reading level, seven new randomly selected words are chosen from that same list of words.  Some may be the same as the ones in the previous games, and some will be different.  However, seven words will be chosen from that same list of twenty-one words until either 1) the game is exited, and re-started or 2) a different reading level is chosen from the Help screen.  Eventually, over time, all of the words will be used in the game, and learned by the child playing Roxie's Reading Fish.


Enter New User Words

In the ordered version of Roxie's Reading Fish, there is the option

to create your own words for Roxie and your child to play "Go

Fish" with, greatly extending the program's word list.  Select

words your child is having difficulty with, or the next set of words

he or she would like to learn to read, and enter them in Roxie's

database.

The words may be a maximum of 8 characters in order to fit inside

the playing cards.

First, using Window's Accessory "Sound Recorder" or another similar

program, record a set of twenty-one words to be used as a word list.

Save these words under the VOICES directory in your program

directory.  If you used the default when installing Roxie's Reading

Fish, the correct directory is: C:\READFISH\VOICES.    The sound file

names must be the same as those entered in the Enter New Words dialog

box, and must have a file extension of "wav"  For example, if one of

your new words is "fireman" then the sound file must be called

"fireman.wav" and the complete pathname for the file will be:

C:\READFISH\VOICES\FIREMAN.WAV

Then, in the program, click on the Help button at the bottom left of

the screen, and select the "Enter New Words" option.  Enter a

descriptive label and a set of twenty-one words to add to the list.

A partial list of fewer than twenty-one words may be entered into

the database, but these words may not be used in play until there

is a complete list of 21.


Modify Existing User Words

Once the words are entered, they may be modified, and even changed

to a completely new set of words.  To modify a word list, click on

the Help button at the lower left part of the screen, and select

"Modify existing user words."  Click on the description of the word

list that you wish to modify.  When a list is selected, the words in

that list will appear on the screen.  Edit the words you wish to change.

Then, either click "OK" or click on another list to be modified.  Click

"OK" when you are finished.


Delete a Word List

Select the word list you would like to delete from the database.  When

the list is selected, the words from that word list will be displayed

on the screen.  Click "OK" to delete that list of words, or click

"Cancel" to cancel the delete.


Playing the Game

 The goal is to get the largest number of books consisting of four of the same cards.  (Actually the goal is to learn to read the words, but don't tell your child that!)  Your child's and Roxie's cards are on the screen, with a draw deck in between them.  Roxie will tell your child what the next move is.  For example, at the beginning of the game, Roxie says "Your turn."

A good reminder to your child will be to tell them that if  they are stuck, click on Roxie's face, and Roxie will tell them what's going on.  For most children, this is not necessary, because they will be trying different things, clicking on different areas of the screen and discovering what works and what doesn't.  That will make the game more fascinating for them since THEY are the ones who are in charge and are running things.  A more unusual activity that the child is not likely to just "happen" on is clicking on a word card with the RIGHT mouse button.  This will cause Roxie to say the name of that card. Telling them about this can be helpful.

At the beginning of every game, the child is first.  They will click on a card to ask Roxie if she has any of those words.  If so, the cards will be given to the child; otherwise, Roxie will say a variation of "Go Fish!"  In this case, the child should click on the draw deck, and a card is placed in their hand.  If they drew what they asked for, it is still their turn.  If they did not draw what they asked for, it is Roxie's turn, and Roxie will ask for a card.  If your child has that card, he or she should click on it.  Don't worry, they cannot make a mistake. If the child clicks on the wrong card, or on the draw deck, when they have the card that Roxie wants, Roxie will gently correct them.

Play continues until all of the cards in the draw deck are played, and Roxie announces a winner.  The child is then asked if she or he wishes to play again.

If the child or Roxie completes a book of four cards with the same word, that book is placed onto their respective discard piles on the table.  If this causes either player to run out of cards, one is automatically chosen for them and play passes to the other player.


Change Level

Click on the HELP button, and choose "Change Level" if you wish to change either the reading level or the playing skill level.  If you select New Words, a dialog box will be displayed for you to select up to three lists of words.  As you click on the description of each list, the words are displayed in the dialog box.  Only the first three highlighted lists of words are selected for play.


Help

Click on the "HELP" button for the on-line help, or to change reading levels of the Roxie's Reading Fish game.


Sound

NOTE: If you have a microphone hooked up to your computer, you can make the game more exciting by having your children record their own messages.  Use the Sound Recorder (a Windows 3.1 Accessory).  (See your Windows 3.1 documentation).

Open one of the files with a .WAV extension using the Sound Recorder.  Play it, and then record your own message, saving it to that same file.  WARNING: The file names must remain the same.  Be sure to delete any blank space before or after the actual voice message using the Edit commands.  Otherwise the program will spend time playing back files containing blank spaces, which may be large.  Eliminating blank spaces will also decrease the file size.


Support

The following support of Roxie's Reading Fish is provided.  LatticeWork Software will answer questions and fix serious bugs during a one-year period after ordering.  For problems involving specific hardware or software environment, or feature, LatticeWork Software may choose not to modify the program.  In that case, if a problem is reported within three months after ordering, then LatticeWork Software will refund the user's order price.  You may contact LatticeWork Software at the following addresses:

1)  LatticeWork Software

    P.O. Box 362

    Lafayette Hill, PA 19444

2)  By way of America Online mail to LatticeWrk

3)  By way of CompuServe Mail 74453,2112


DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT

LIMITED WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE PROVIDED FOR EVALUATION ONLY, ON AN "AS IS" BASIS.  LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED  OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH SOFTWARE, EVEN IF LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS.  THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE.