PBS Parents

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Cost: free

UDL Guideline (5.1) uses multiple media for communication 
PBS Parents allows elementary students to go through the series of steps for constructing a story including Setting, Characters, Sequence, Exposition. It also allows them to express them selves with interactive these Characters.

General Critique
this app helps students to create the enviroment and the charcters which help them to express and present what they learned in many ways.

The Phrasal Verbs Machine

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Cost:  Free

UDL Guideline 2.4:  Embed visual, non-linguistic supports for vocabulary clarifications (pictures, videos, etc.).  Students can select a verb phrase on this app and it will show them an illustration demonstrating the meaning of the  phrase and a written explanation to further clarify meaning.  This app has been used in English as a Second Language classrooms and for older struggling readers.


General Critique
The concept behind this app is engaging and it appears to fulfill the function of illustrating confusing verb phrases (generally those with multiple meanings). I would be interested to see if the use of this app would make a change in actual performance.  For example, do students who use this app score higher on vocabulary assessments?

Essential Word Sorts

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Cost: $1.99

UDL Guideline - 2.3 Support decoding text, mathematical notation, and symbols.  Word Sorts is based on the Words Their Way method of teaching and provides support for resources.  Students sort words based on select criteria and then complete additional activities to help with the transfer of this knowledge.



General Critique
This activity can result in several hours of creating and using the cards for word sorts.  In this case, there are numerous versions of this program (including an ultimate $19.99 app which includes all) and can be used easily by students in practicing word sounds and graphical connections.  The use of this app in classrooms eliminates the large amount of paper and energy used to make the word decks by using technology.

  

123D Sculpt

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Cost:  Free

UDL Guideline 7.1 Provide options for recruiting interest offers learners a choice in how the object can be met, but not in the objective itself.  This app seems to appeal to the "need to tinker" that helps to engage learners.  There are a variety of objects that can be manipulated in numerous ways.


General Critique
This app will allow students to have an authentic experience if this app is used in connection with other media.  The book, The Skull Man and Other People with Cool Jobs, is about a person who "makes" faces out of skulls based on a set of scientific facts.  In this case, student learning will be enhanced by the opportunity to "tinker" with the idea of changing features on the face.   

Speaktoit Assistants

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Cost: free.



UDL Guideline (4.2 ) Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies.
Speaktoit Assistant can answer the learners' questions by writing text or using their voice. This app helps all learners, specifically those who have physical disabilities, to find information, which can connect the learners with many web services (Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, and Gmail). It allows them to send messages, schedule meetings, translate speech or text, call numbers and contacts, read news, organize their calendar, or do basic math.

General critique:
This app is a virtual personal assistant that provides alternative keyboard command for mouse action. It is easy to navigate because it offers an alternative for physical interaction with material by hand or voice, thus making it more accessible.

firefly K3000

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Cost: Free



UDL Guideline 2.3 Support decoding text, mathematical notation, and symbols.
This app allows the users to have the built in texts read to them. The learners can choose from several voices and adjust the speed of the text being read. The terms are highlighted while each word is read to the user.

General Critique
This app supports the necessity to have multiple means of engagement. Since the program has a reader and the users can follow the highlighted text, it enables the learner to increase his or her ability to achieve in the classroom. It is critical for the learner to receive many forms of instruction to succeed in school.

K-2 Mobile School Reading

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Cost: $7.99

UDL Guideline 2.3 - Support decoding text, mathematical notation, and symbols
K-2 Mobile Reading app features a library with 100 Reading Recovery leveled books linked to CCSS for kindergarten through second grade. Each book has optional narration, recording, as well as text to graphics. With this app, the student can revisit pages by going backward or forward and the narration will repeat automatically allowing for ease of navigation and increase in fluency as the student reads and listens to books read. The student may also read and record voice to play back and listen for fluency.

General Critique
This app provides the ability to monitor from 1-30 students' reading statistics of books opened, books completed, not completed, pages completed, and minutes spent reading as well as quiz statistics. This app is an excellent choice to help students reach automaticity in fluency.

Reading Rainbow

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Cost:  Free

UDL Guideline 3.2 - Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationship:  Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas.  This app allows students to "check out" informational text and have the options of having it read aloud while the text is highlighted, important facts are emphasized and big ideas are discussed. 


General Critique
Overall, Reading Rainbow has been a leader in literacy for over twenty-years and now users can experience that same quality through an app.  The pictures are great and the narrator pauses at important points to allow the student to digest the information.