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Tell About This Lite

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing ELA: ^Other ^Music, Art and Makerspaces Study Skills & Tools Elementary School iOS App

Skills

Expressive Language Social Awareness

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Easy to access prompts and record answers for the targeted young audience.
  • Can be an effective way to encourage reluctant speakers.

Considerations

  • Very limited prompts without the paid upgrade.
  • Targets a very limited age range, but it is simple to use for that early elementary audience.

Mindprint Expert Review

Tell About This can be a great app to encourage emerging readers, writers and speakers. There are 13 categories with one free prompt each and the option to upgrade for 100 prompts. Adults can add a single prompt of their own with picture and question and the upgrade allows unlimited custom prompts. Students simply click on a category of interest, and then choose a prompt represented by a vivid photo. They are asked a question and are expected to record their answer. The voice over is read aloud while the words are highlighted, providing good reading reinforcement for young readers but effectively limiting usability for older students. Students record and save their responses which they can save to the camera roll or share via email. Students can pause and continue their recording as needed, but they cannot easily re-record (they must delete the recording and then create a new one). While this app does not having any special features, the first step of effective communication is comfortably speaking one's ideas and this app provides young students a very inviting and comfortable place to begin generating and communicating ideas.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
  • Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Has a free or trial version
  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
  • Multiple users can save a profile
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can play without sound and not distract others
  • Students can save work between sessions
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Manufacturer Description

Tell About This is an easy platform to inspire and capture children's thoughts and stories! Respond to interesting photo prompts using voice, craft custom prompts and add profiles to personalize the experience!

Try all features and enjoy a sample prompt in each category in the free version.

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WHAT PARENTS SAY:

“They are telling about wild things from their imagination and also love when I add in their own pictures!” -Michelle L., Mom

WHAT EDUCATORS SAY:

"The teachers loved it and so did the kids.. it's so easy for the little ones to use! It prompted them to use complete sentences and dig deeper into their retelling skills."
-Dusty Roden, Instructional Technology Specialist

"Lots of cool options for this app! Creating stories, retelling stories.. even fluency recordings." - Jenna Dixon, 1st Grade Teacher

"Not only do I love this for the purpose of differentiating for my 1st grade students, but it is appealing to use with my 4 year old as well."
- Amanda Cavin, Talented and Gifted Teacher

"Awesome graphics, easy to use, easy to share what you create, accessible for many types of learners. I have a five-year-old who loves this app! He has a lot to say but is not quite at the writing stage yet."
- Erin Sorenson, Mom and 1st Grade Teacher

"Tell About This is very easy to manipulate. Our 4 and 5 year olds loved recording their stories."
- Paul Wagner, Instructional Technology Specialist

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**CELEBRATE CHILDREN’S THOUGHTS AND VOICE
Capture and share Tell Abouts in just a few taps

**GETS KIDS THINKING, REMEMBERING AND DESCRIBING
Original open-ended questions are developmentally appropriate

**REAL-WORLD IMAGERY THAT IS CURIOUS AND FUN
Carefully selected by educators, photos in all 13 categories are interesting and appropriate!

**SIMPLE DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Save to the Camera Roll and share kid-created videos by email!

**CREATE YOUR OWN
Use your photos, ideas and voice to spark unique Tell Abouts!

**FLEXIBILITY TO FIT EVERY LEARNER
Turn on or off Voice Prompts, Text Highlighting, and several other features

**WORKS WITH ANY NUMBER OF DEVICES
Author profiles allow schools and families to support shared iPads

**EASY AND ACCESSIBLE
No distractions and parental gating allows kids to focus on the process of Telling


A child’s curiosity and imagination should be easy to capture! What will your kids Tell About?

Visit us at www.TellAboutApp.com

Connect on Twitter: @TellAboutApp