App Review: Tense Builder (plus a giveaway!)

 

****Congratulations to Debby C. who won the giveaway!****

I use the apps from Mobile Education Store frequently because they do a wonderful job of targeting specific goals, I love the way they handle errors and, most importantly, their graphics/humor perfectly balance on “youthful” without crossing into “babyish.”  (This really increases the utility of their apps since I don’t need to worry about a student aging out of the design style before they master the target.)

Tense Builder covers future, present and past tenses of both regular (17 choices) and irregular (37 choices) verbs.

Quick Overview:  The app does so much of the work for you that, while there is a very helpful tutorial, you could easily just get started.  Once you hit “play,” you’ll see a screen with a scene and “play movie” below.  Hit that, and watch a cute and often humorous animation.  Once completed, the child will see a screen with an array of screen shots from the movie.  They’ll be asked a question, ie. “Which picture shows the bird sang?” (a written prompt also appears).  The student selects an answer.  If correct, they move on to the next animation.  If incorrect, they receive a lesson on what the picture thy chose actually represents and given the chance to try again.

Additional Features:

In “Settings” it’s easy to add students and customize the tense(s) you are working on, even the actual verbs you want to include.  You can choose long or short lesson and type of prompts.  The app retains scores and has options for sharing.

As I’ve mentioned, I have a few students working on tenses and they all love watching the animations on this app.  However their performance was initially so poor, I began to wonder if the pictures were confusing for some reason.  So I recruited a few “typical” peers (kindergarten and 1st grade) all of whom sailed through with no issue!  That encouraged me to take a step back and do additional lower level work (click here for post) before trying again.  Now we’re moving along fine.

While I was given a free copy of this app for review, all opinion expressed are strictly my own.  And I have an additional copy (a $19.99 value) to give away!  To enter, leave a comment letting us know your favorite action—for me it’s dancing.  You have until midnight on Sunday, February 2, 2014 EST to enter.  One lucky entry will be selected at random and announced on Monday, February 3, 2014.  Good luck!

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This Post Has 39 Comments

  1. Marianne Cashman

    my fav action – hugging!

  2. Joan O'Brien

    Favorite action? playing with my kittens 🙂

  3. Debby Childs

    My favorite action is crafting. It really doesn’t matter what kind of craft – there are many that I enjoy.

  4. LBJ

    I love to drive!

  5. Renee Ingram

    My favorite action is…baking!

  6. Valerie

    My favorite action is walking. Nothing like a nice, long walk to clear the stress away!

  7. zuzel brescher

    My favorite action is running!

  8. Sherrie M

    My favorite action is ice skating. It is soooo cold this winter we have had many opportunities to get our fill!

  9. alison weigand

    My favorite action is….. taking long walks with my hubby!

  10. Kim Hovey

    My favorite action is hiking!

  11. Maggie

    I like laughing! It’s the best medicine I’ve ever come across

  12. Marie M

    Eating!

  13. Susan S.

    Favorite action – running!

  14. Marcy Torres

    My favorite action is reading to my kids with marked animation. I get some strange looks from them when I get all crazy with accents :).

  15. Malory Manderfield

    My favorite action-thrifting…the action of visiting thrift stores!

  16. Alison

    Eating and running!

  17. Adele

    Singing!

  18. Lorene D

    Reading!

  19. Sheila Reiss

    Reading!

  20. Kim

    I’d have to say – SMILING! 🙂 Smiling makes me think happy thoughts and makes for a better day, because it’s contagious. Smiling also makes people wonder what you’ve been up to!! 😉

  21. Andrea

    Going for a walk on a beautiful day

  22. Sumi Wilson

    Laughing ^_^

  23. Kristen Binder

    laughing…a lot…out loud

  24. Michele

    Pinning- I’ve gotten so many great ideas for therapy activities!

  25. Katy Smith

    My favorite action is talking! with laughing as a close second 🙂

  26. Annette

    My favorite action is playing! Anything! Just have fun with it!

  27. Emily

    Definitely eating–I’m an SLP at work and a foodie otherwise 🙂

  28. Nicole

    My favorite action is cooking!

  29. Crystal Reszczynski

    Snuggling

  30. Megan

    My favorite action is teaching. 🙂

  31. Kelly

    My favorite action is reading!

  32. Wendi Laing

    iPading with my students! I have been using iPads in the classroom now for four years and they are a wonderful tool for learning and teaching. I am always trying to discover new apps that I can use in the classroom, but I am usually limited to free apps because there is no budget. I have bought a lot, but on a teachers salary, well… You know. 😉 I teach in china and a lot of my kids are English language learners. I think this app would be a wonderful addition to my classroom. So I can keep iPading with my kids. My favourite action.

  33. Kendra

    My favorite action is ……HUGGING!

  34. Tracey F

    My favorite action is laughing! 🙂

  35. Lindsay

    My favorite action is cooking/baking! I love trying new recipes and cooking for others!

  36. Cheryl

    My favourite action is baking…and then giving it away for people to enjoy 🙂

  37. Clare Parsons

    I am a speech and language therapist so I guess it has to be… talking!

  38. Jennifer

    My favorite action is helping!

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The views expressed in this blog are my own and are intended to inspire other speech-language pathologists in their own practice. If you are a parent, teacher or other educator, these ideas are not intended to take the place of treatment by a certified clinician. Read full disclaimer here.