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Teacher Review for Ponder Mobile

An application that leverages social learning, but doesn't provide a platform for the deep reading habits students need to gain higher level reading skills.

Tom Y.
 Classroom teacher
Sharon Springs Central School (Sharon Springs, NY)
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My Grades 7, 9, 11, 12
My Subjects English Language Arts
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My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It Yes
My Students Learned Yes
I Would Recommend It Yes
Setup Time 5-15 minutes
Great for Homework
Small group
Student-driven work
How I Use It
I have used this tool as part of a "literature circle" assignment, which was based upon student-lead independent reading groups. Although it did cause student to interact with each other about their reading, it did not reinforce the habits of reading critically (which are essential to true engagement and meeting the Common Core Learning Standards). There are better tools out there that allow for the same things as this app, but also allow for deeper interactions.
My Take
This application is like a readers-only Twitter account. A good tool to get students into the habit of reading within small groups, but lacks the capabilities to allow students to engage deeply into what they are reading.