Review of Shake-A-Phrase by Kathy Burdick

Name of App: Shake-A-Phrase

Free or Fee: $1.99 when reviewed

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Why I like it: Shake-A-Phrase turns silly sentences into an educational platform. This app can be used in three ways: to build a student’s vocabulary, to give students a starting point for creative writing, or to practice parts of speech. The Shake It! option gives a vocabulary packed sentence and students can tab on the words to find out the part of speech and definition. An addition that would be helpful for students would be to add the pronunciation of a word or to have a voice say the word when it is tabbed on. Words like Minotaur, charybdis, vermin and bamboozled will surely make students curious to find their meaning! Story Starter gives silly sentences beginning with “What if” and “Imagine” to help coax the creativity out of students. Quiz Me! uses the silly sentences to help students practice their parts of speech. You can turn on or off verbs, nouns and adjectives. Perfect if a student is having difficulty with one particular part of speech.

Shake-A-Phrase is a great app to get those creative juices flowing while learning some sentence basics. The themes (animals, fairytale, monsters and sports) are sure to appeal to all students. Maybe add additional humor by having students use the theme least like them, such as the sports oriented student using the fairytale theme, and writing a story. As usual I love the email option. What a great way for students to send the teacher or parent the story starter they plan to use or a sentence they are struggling with. There is even a favorites button so students can save their favorite sentences to go back to later. Shake-A-Phrase is too fun! I couldn’t stop pressing the next button to see what silly sentence was in store for me next! This app is sure to cause laughs and learning!

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