Prodigy English

The virtual village in this game-based learning platform offers kids so much to explore that some may find it more of a game than a learning tool. Parents familiar with the strengths and shortcomings or Prodigy: Kids Math Game will find much of the same in Prodigy English. In short, the gaming aspect is fairly fun and is right on for the target age range. Prodigy English focuses on creative building and accomplishing missions rather than on battling, and there's no option to play with peers. Because learning content adapts based on performance, and kids guide their own play, the experience feels personalized. At the time of review, the parent dashboard is limited to showing only the most basic data, but there are promises for more detailed reporting in the future, and with paid subscriptions.

It's disappointing however, that overall the learning content still feels like a side note. There are some limited learning supports such as definitions of new vocabulary words and grammar terms. It's nice that kids can change their response when they answer incorrectly, but because they can do so easily and still get "credit," there's little motivation for them to make an effort to pay attention and choose the right answer. Overall, these multiple-choice ELA questions are best for review and practice, and come with little feedback. And most of all, they feel like annoying interludes that kids have to get through in order to get back to playing the game. Just as with Prodigy: Kids Math Game, it's easy for kids to spend their time in their virtual village rather than engaging with the learning content in any kind of meaningful way. And, there's still an issue with paid memberships. Some may find the ever present push to purchase a subscription overwhelming, or even a source of conflict. Parents will need to be clear with their kids about their intentions to purchase or not purchase an upgrade. And if kids are using it at school, the kids with premium accounts will get perks that other kids won't, which sets up an inequity in experiences. As a whole, Prodigy English will appeal to kids and has some value for ELA review and practice. Parents may want to be ready to help their kids focus on actually paying attention to the questions and manage their expectations around paying for membership.