Week 6   Mobile apps are becoming more popular and more available daily.  Teachers are embracing them as a useful tool both in school and at home. Even though I teach a self-contained fourth grade class, I have several students who have mild learning disabilities associated with problems recognizing and reading words, one student has physical limitations, another is visually impaired and  yet another has emotional problems. There are several apps that are appropriate for some if not all of the students:

Spanish Flashcards is designed for use with the iPad and iPhone. The program written by Declan Software contains a list of over 3,800 Spanish words spoken by a native Spanish speaker. It also has a learning list testing technique to ensure that students retain new words. Every child benefits from knowing a second language.

World Book designed This Day in History for iPad. It allows students to recall any date in history. They can pull up photos, music, speeches, and data. This benefits all children in a typical social studies lesson.

Also designed for iPad and iPhone is Fishdog.  The 60 second games use strategies like the number line for subtracting, which is recommended by Common Core Standards. Students can also practice facts with math drills. Anyone who can use a mouse can play. Students receive immediate feedback and can track their scores.  This is beneficial to students struggling with basic skills.

Interactive Storybook also uses iPhone. Students are introduced to fairy tales with dragons and Vikings.  Students can listen as the story is read aloud and while  the app highlights each word to help build word recognition. Reading a story several times has been shown to improve reading skills. This program will be helpful to students with reading problems and entertaining to students who are fluent readers.