iSort Words
A unique and original word families app
APP DETAILS
Developer – Dactyl Applications
Age Range – 7 to 11 years
Subject – Literacy
Skill – Language Skills
Special Need - Dyslexia
Rating – 88/100
Price – £1.49 / $1.99
App Store Link – http://geni.us/Qeu
Play Store Link – Not Available
Windows Store Link – Not Available
App Review
iSort Words is a unique and original app that helps children understand how words are formed. It is suitable for children aged 7 and up and will enable them to have fun while discovering new words. The focus is primarily on word families and children will need to have an understanding of onset and rime in order to be able to play but they will also be expanding their vocabulary at the same time.
Three Game Modes
The app features three game modes, Push Sort, Swipe Sort, Speed Sort and an Explore mode. All of these come at the task in slightly different ways. In Push Sort, children are presented with words at the top of the screen. They are then given a word in the middle of the screen and have to push it up to the word that has the same ending. Not all of the words that appear in the middle have an ending that corresponds with the words at the top and these “dummy words” need to be pushed to the trash bin.
The second game, Swipe Sort, employs a Fruit Ninja type approach with the object being to slice the words that have the same ending as the word given at the top of the screen. Points are earned for words that are sliced correctly but every time an incorrect word is sliced players lose one of their three lives. A life is also lost if a word that should have been swiped is missed.
In Speed Sort players have to drag the target word to one of four options within a 3 second time frame. If they run out of time or sort a word incorrectly they get a strike. Three strikes and it is game over. The introduction of the speed element is very important here because often children can complete a task but struggle when they need to do it at pace. In the context of reading this is where fluency comes into the equation.
Worthy of an App in its own right
The final game mode, Explore, allows children to form new words without any time pressure. It is probably worthy of being an app in its own right because there are incredibly learning opportunities available here. Users are able to pick a vowels and then one of the many word endings that begin with it. They are then presented with a screen full of floating letters which they can combine with a rime to form a new word. Explore has two distinct sections – Learn which lets users build these words and Read where they get to practice their knowledge of words.
Flexibility and Accessibility
iSort Words offers good levels of flexibility in terms of how the games are set up. To begin with each of the games has 3 difficulty levels which will enable teachers or parents to target the activities at a child’s current competency range. Then there is the option for users to choose their own words to target by selecting My Sort. This means that they could, for example, work specifically on short a words or long e words. Another great feature is the ability to toggle between sorting the words by sight and sorting them by sound. This is very useful because many children are stronger in one of these areas than they are in the other.
In addition, there are also some useful features that will make the game accessible for children who find reading difficult. For example, users can push a red button to have words read aloud when they touch them.
Feedback
iSort Words also provides very good feedback on progress. At the end of each game, users are presented with their results. This details their accuracy percentage, the time taken and their points score. The results page also highlights words that have caused the child trouble, allowing a teacher or parent to specifically target those words.
The homepage includes a Progress panel which provides even more information on how a child is doing. It is possible to view this information in a variety of ways. It can be broken down by game type and level, by letter pattern and whether the words were being sorted by sight or by sound.
Wishes
iSort Words could benefit from the introduction of a reward scheme to encourage children to keep progressing through the levels. Undoubtedly, the developers have done their best to make the activities appealing but children will still view the content of this app as work. The addition of badges to collect or an aquarium tank to populate works wonders for some other apps and I think such a feature would really help long term motivation and engagement. I say this not as a criticism of the app’s contents. Rather it is because I feel that there is such depth of learning available within this app that I would like to see children encouraged to play it as much as possible.
Overview
iSort Words is an excellent educational app for primary school children or indeed older students who struggle with literacy. The design is simple but effective and allows children to focus their attention on the content of the app, i.e. the words. iSort Words does not contain any ads, in-app purchases or external links.
Peter
Educational App Advice
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