Community reviews for Subtext

Subtext is a great way to keep the students engaged while helping them in ELA. I think this tool is extremely useful in every classroom because this tool allows you to customize to fit your lesson. As a social studies teacher we use this with our primary and secondary texts. Subtext is align to standards to ensure the students are learning what is necessary to ensure their educational success.

Subtext is a useful teaching tool and is a great way to make book club/literature circle activities a viable homework option, since students can interact and collaborate from home (as long as they have wi-fi). I have had several technical glitches with Subtext, but their tech support has been pretty responsive in fixing them. Students sometimes have had issues seeing other students' notes and questions, but as long as teachers help students set up settings and preferences at the beginning of the project, there aren't too many issues. One thing that would significantly improve Subtext would be to allow for flat PDFs to be annotated with questions and comments. Currently, teachers can only annotate using books or articles from websites; if you use a flat PDF, students can read it but cannot use many of the interactive functions. UPDATE: Over the past couple of years, I have had several glitches suing Subtext for whole-class novels. Subtext tech support has been responsive, but it is frustrating to have a book malfunction.

Subtext is a great tool to use to deepen comprehension and light a spark with student readers. With Subtext, students digitally read, cite evidence, and show what they know. They offer a host of questions and lessons and texts. Some free, some available for purchase. I can customize the lesson and/or text. The opportunities for student achievement are great; I appreciate the power to synthesize with other articles/websites/videos. Subtext's questions are CCSS aligned. Teacher's can also see student responses immediately. There is a learning curve - worth it. I have read that it will no longer be free as of 7/15, which will be a hinderance for many teachers and students - especially those already in love with the efficacy and engagement it grants.

I like everything this app has to offer and think it can one of the best tools out there for close reading, annotating, and writing about a text. Unfortunately, the free features just aren't that great. The individual license is also very expensive, so I'm not sure how many schools will be able to afford buying this app for students.

The students loved it and were extremely engaged in the material. Subtext offers access to many tools like: google books, webpages, free public domain books, ePub, etc... Students can have in-book discussions which are great for students! I loved setting up closed classroom groups. I have not tried everything but I will be tying Book blog next. This app also works with Edmodo.

I think this is an excellent teaching tool for classrooms that can not afford a paper copy of a text for every student.

Subtext is a great option for times when students are reading independently. By tracking student progress, I can see that students are actually reading. Students can ask questions and get feedback, so instruction is individualized and meets their needs. The ability for the teacher to add any web content or PDF allows for an infinite number of text possibilities. The app is well developed, however the web version is very basic.

This is an ideal resource to promote differentiation in the classroom.

This is great for 1-to-1 classrooms. Would be more difficult if you don't have 1-to-1.

My take is that this is a mainstay tool for every classroom, k-12. I believe a web-based version is in beta testing now, although I believe that will be a paid tool. Upgrading to the paid version on the iPad is relatively affordable for groups as small as 10 up to and entire school can be licensed. With the paid version, one can get text to voice feature for struggling readers, though the voice is a little mechanical.