November 5, 1998

To Whom It May Concern,

Arthur Jacobs conceived of and designed a computer program he calls "Freeman" which he uses to help students become more comfortable with words.

Freeman is a variation of the old word guess game of Hangman, but with a more positive twist. Instead of negative consequences for wrong guesses as in the game Hangman, in Freeman there are no changes for wrong guesses, however you are set free from a virtual jail for correct ones. The player starts out in a virtual jail cell and bars disappear from the cell as each letter of the word is correctly guessed. When the player accomplishes the entire word and wins the game, he is set free. Since the students with whom we work are presently detained by the court in the Sierra Youth Center, they in particular relate well to the idea of getting free when they correctly guess the word at hand. Freeman encourages students to think about words and spelling. It provides them with an activity that develops their ability to look for missing links, think critically, make connections, and to complete the task of finding the word. Along with helping develop these skills, there is the overall theme the game cultivates that "knowledge will set you free." This is certainly an important message for these students to receive.

Arthur has encouraged students to read new and exciting stories, develop their own personalized word lists based upon their readings and to challenge one another to matches of the game to see who has the better skill with words. Students seem to love the challenge of it, as they read these new stories and add to their vocabulary and spelling ability in the process.

The potential of Freeman to help improve a student's interest in vocabulary and spelling development in a fun and challenging way is remarkable.