This could be a good source for online news, book and movie reviews for late elementary and middle school students, but it does raise some concerns. News articles are searched by grade or topic and cover a range of current events from “Pokemon Aficionados Help Scientists Prove Practice Makes Perfect” to “Donald Trump Elected 45th President of the United States” to “Chicago Cubs End 108 Year Championship Drought with World Series Win.” Unfortunately, there are no lexile levels provided and the texts are not appropriately adjusted by age. Each article does have accompanying audio, but the audio is robotic and there are many technical issues. In addition, articles and reviews cover limited violence and pop culture (movie reviews include “Suicide Squad,” “Captain America Civil War,” and Taylor Swift). The site does use beautiful photos and videos which will appeal to students, but the overall design is visually very busy with a lot of distracting information on the sidebar. News articles are printable, align to core standards, can be shared, and highlight vocabulary words that link to dictionary definitions. Adults, however, will need to make a purchase to create and view assignments on the in-site classroom as well as access comprehension, critical thinking and vocabulary in context exercises. Movie and book reviews are searched by title or topic, are current and age appropriate and written by student users. Overall, this could be a good resource for older elementary and middle school students, as featured articles, movies and books are current and relevant, challenging vocabulary words are highlighted and defined, and adults can pay for supporting resources, but it is not as reliable as other online news sites for students.

• 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)

• 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

• 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)
• Requires registration before using the first time
• 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

• Attention
• Shows advertisements
• Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Visual Discrimination
• Shows advertisements
• Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
• Words used during activity can be too small or difficult to read
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Working Memory
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Audio is not clear or voice is robotic