Magnet Game Lesson Setup

Magnet Game lessons are setup using the data panel on the right side of the ACORNS window frames. On the top of the panel, there is a secondary toolbar used to customize the lesson. Click here for a detailed description.

Step 1: Enter a group of category sentences

The first step is to enter a series of category sentences. An example might be to enter, "A friendly greeting." You do this by typing into the text field at the bottom of the setup panel. When the sentence is entered, then click on the add button to the left (). You will then see the sentence appear as an entry on the list in the middle of the setup panel. Use this same procedure to continue adding category sentences until you are finished.

ACORNS allows you to create magnets using sub-word units (morphemes). These use the dash character at the start or end of an entry. For example: a- h- -arahskw- -a? represents the word aharahskwa?. ACORNS can also recognize circumfixes, using three dots as separators. For example: entry of a… b …c will form a magnet having a…c for its text. When the magnet with the ‘b’ character is joined, the text becomes abc. Use ( and ) to enclose characters to remove when magnets are joined and [ and ] to enclose characters to add when magnets are joined. A few examples follow:

Lesson Setup Entry Play Mode Magnet Display Joined Magnet Display
e- ye- -ndraw- -a? e- ye- -ndraw- -a? eyendrawa?
hu- -(a)rahskw- -e?h hu- -arahskw- -e? hurahskwe?
a- ha[e?]- -(i)hao?- -? a- ha- -ihao?- -? ahe?hao??
y(a)[e?]- -(i)tara- -ha? ya- -itara- -ha? ye?taraha?
P?… kor …ke 1st magnet: P?…ke 2nd magnet: kor P?korke

If you make a mistake, it is easy to correct your errors. First select the category sentence that you want to correct by clicking on it. You will see the sentence become highlighted and the content of the sentence will automatically display at the bottom of the setup panel. If you want to change the spelling, simply edit the text field and click the edit icon button (). The category sentence shown in the list of sentences will reflect the change. To remove a category sentence, click the garbage can icon (). The sentence will be removed from the list. If you make a change and then want to undo it, simply click the undo icon on the main ACORNS toolbar.

Selecting and deselecting list items

You can select one of the category sentences by clicking on it. You know it is selected because the line will appear highlighted. Occasionally, you might want to deselect a sentence. To do this, with the CTRL key depressed, click again on the highlighted list item and ACORNS will then removes the highlight.

Step 2: Insert pictures

The second step is to decide which categories have pictures associated with them. Click on the appropriate list item to select it. Then insert your picture using the procedure that we will now describe.

One way to execute the insert image command is to click on the edit menu and then select the image option from the insert submenu. An easier way is to simply click on the ACORNS application toolbar. A third way is to drag and drop; when you have an operating system folder open, select a picture; next drag to the ACORNS application frame and release the mouse. The picture will insert into the lesson. If you choose to insert using the first two of these approaches, a file chooser dialog will appear, which is similar to chooser menus that other application programs use. Browse to the folder containing the pictures, and then click on the desired picture. Note that if the folder contains lots of pictures; it sometimes takes a while for the list of files to display.

If you incorrectly added a picture, first select the list item in question, then click on the edit menu, then click on remove, and then on image. The picture will be deleted from the lesson. There is also an easier way. Simply click on the picture of a selected item and drag it off the ACORNS frame. Of course, if you want to change the picture, you can just repeat the insert procedure. (there is no need to first remove the old one.)

Magnet game lessons can also have an overall background picture. To insert a background picture, follow the insert picture procedure just described without having any of the list items selected. To remove a background picture, click edit, then remove, and then on image.

Step 3: Attach audio to a category sentence

First select the category sentence in question and then click again. A dialog will appear which will enable you to record or to retrieve a prerecorded audio file. For more information, there is a help web-page called Recording and Maintaining Audio that describes this procedure in more detail. After you complete this process, you will have one or more sentences attached that relate to the category in question. For example, under the category "A friendly greeting" you might add sentences like "Hi, how are you doing" or "It is good to see you today" along with the appropriate audio recordings.

Step 4: Execute the lesson

Once you have inserted your categories, attached pictures and some audio recordings, your lesson is ready to execute. To execute, click on the icon that looks like a lightning bolt ().

Note: Recovering from errors

If you make a mistake, ACORNS can help you recover. For example if you inadvertantly make a mistake, click on the undo icon on the ACORNS toolbar at the top of the frame. The last setup operation will be undone. The undo operation can also recover from changes made when you record sounds. After undoing, the redo button becomes active. You can redo an operation if you change your mind.

Secondary toolbar options

At the top of the setup panel, there is a secondary toolbar as shown in the picture below. This toolbar contains a series of grapic components and we will describe the purpose of each.
When you click the help button, this page displays. The title you gave to this lesson when it was created appears to the right of the help button
All ACORNS lessons can have multiple layers; each layer has an entirely separate list of categories, pictures and audio. This feature can be useful to create lessons with multiple dialects. By switching between layers, the student can learn each dialects using the same lesson. This option can also be used to assign more difficult lessons to the higher layers. The slider on the control bar enables you to set up a lesson with multiple layers. Simply click on the slider to move to the desired layer. The layer numbers are numbered as shown on the picture to the left.
These controls allow you to control background and text colors that are used to display the magnets when the lesson executes. If you click either of the two left buttons, you will see a color palette display; simply click the color you want and then click OK. The button with the capital A is for the text color and the one with the three boxes and hand is for the background color.
The font size drop down menu enables you to choose how big the text is in the magnets that displays while the lesson executes. Either pick a size from the selection or enter your own.
The link button allows you to connect this lesson with another lesson in the file. Clicking on this button causes a dialog window to appear. Enter the name of the lesson you want to link to. The name field is one of the header fields that you fill in when you create a lesson. (You can modify it later if you didn't.) It shows in the lesson display area on the left of the ACORNS application frame. After you click OK to the link dialog, the name of the linked lesson will show in blue on the secondary toolbar.