Common Sense Media Review
By Liz Panarelli
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
A slam dunk for helping teens' vocabulary to ... burgeon.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
SAT Word Slam
What's It About?
From the navigation bar, teens can choose from Teach Me, Test Me, Playlist, Index, and Test Results. The index includes an alphabetical list of words with parts of speech, pronunciations, definitions, and mnemonic devices. Teens can mark words as easy, medium, or difficult. The playlist lets kids create a custom set of words from the full list. The Teach Me section includes the poems and mnemonics. In both the Teach Me and Test Me sections, teens can review or test all words, words they've marked as difficult, or a custom playlist.
Is It Any Good?
SAT Word Slam is very down-to-earth, and the author's voice comes through pretty clearly, opinions and all. The testing section is well-designed, and the teaching and index sections give teens various ways to learn the words with clever poems and mnemonics, as well as the ability to categorize and study words by difficulty. While the sassy references to Paris Hilton and O.J. Simpson make for memorable associations, they don't always provide the most precise idea of the meaning and correct use of the words. However, in terms of learning design, it would be hard to find an app that's better than SAT Word Slam for helping kids learn and remember challenging vocabulary.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Encourage your teen to use the SAT words in everyday conversation. Choose one word a week to focus on as a family, and make a point of using it.
Suggest to teens that they start a vocabulary journal. Along with the words and definitions, they can include original sentences and hand-drawn images to help them remember the meanings.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects : Language & Reading : vocabulary
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , Self-Direction : academic development , identifying strengths and weaknesses
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : June 18, 2013
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : Slammin Productions
- Version : 2.1.0
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 4.3 or later
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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