Thursday, January 1, 2015

Appy New Year Part 1! {InTense Pro}

Happy New Year!  It's "Appy" New Year on the blog today.  I've got a brand new app to tell you about and a giveaway too!  It's called InTense Pro, and it's designed by speech-language professionals as well as video game developers.  What makes it fun for the kiddos is that it combines learning verb tenses with a cute carnival game.


This app starts off by letting you create a profile for students.  Just tap + new profile to get started.


A cool option that you get is the ability to put the parent's email into the student's profile.  This is great if you frequently want to keep parents updated on progress.  You could also add your own email in place of it and send the results to yourself.


On each student profile, you can select the question types, tenses to practice, progress charts, and total stats.




Select up to 5 players in a group to get started and tap the let's play button.


There are several types of questions that are presented.  Tap the speaker button to have the question read aloud.  Some questions even have speakers for the question and answers with no text.


Follow the directions to complete the different types of questions.  After the student answers correctly, they earn tickets.  Keep track of how many tickets have been earned by looking at the righthand side of the screen.  There are 3 different types and each represents a different game that can be played for reinforcement.  More on that in a second.


After one student answers several questions, they are prompted to pass it to the next person in the group.


They take their turn answering questions and earning tickets.  They have to answer correctly on the first attempt for it to be counted as correct.


Whenever you want to reinforce, simply tap on one of the tickets to begin your game.  Depending on the ticket pressed, you'll enter a certain game board scene.  Tapping on a pod will allow you to complete a fun activity.


For this activity, you have to launch a cannonball to hit some top hats...kind of like angry birds.  :)



Tap the back button in the corner to return to grammar questions.  After playing tap on the settings icon next to the student's name to access their profile.  From their you can view their scores and email the results.  The dropdown menu at the top of the screen lets you decide exactly what scores you'd like to view.


Grab this app in the iTunes store for $18.99 HERE.

Things I loved about this app:

  • The graphics are super cute and kid-friendly.
  • The game aspect of it is very motivating for kids.  The games are fun and engaging and challenging enough for my older students.
  • It's easily adaptable to fit your specific needs.  You can tailor it to target exactly what the student is working on in therapy.
  • You can even choose the types of questions that work best for your student.  If you want all multiple choice with visual text, then you have the option to choose that.
  • I like that you can have several students playing at a time, and that they answer a few questions before passing.  This works great in group.  You could have them all working on something while waiting their turn, since it's not going to be right away.  (I'm a multi-tasker ;))
Things that could make it better:
  • The main thing that I didn't love about this app is that some of the questions are confusing.  The visuals they give are a little tough.  See below.  The correct answer is the one on the left.

  • Sometimes the answers are tricky as well.  The one below asks for a 2-word past tense which threw me off a little.

At least you do have the option of viewing the correct answer if you are unsure.  And it will let you keep guessing at the multiple choice items until you get it right.

Overall, I think this is a great app and my students love it.  My friends at Algoma even gave me a code to give one away for free!!  Just enter via the Rafflecopter below!! Good luck and Happy New Year!!


5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the chance to win and the great review!

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  2. I love how you can use this app with groups! Seems like a lot of apps tend to be designed for just one player.

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  3. Tailor to each student and able to use in groups!

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  4. This looks like a fun but productive way to target a skill area many of my students struggle to master. Hope I win!! Thanks for the opportunity

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  5. Sounds like fun (and useful!!) Thanks for introducing me to this cool app!

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