Community reviews for World's Worst Pet - Vocabulary

I think it is an awesome teaching tool that i am gladly adding to my arsenal. It kept students engaged in learning and the words that are on the APP are everyday words. I like how it had audio and visual aspects to it to draw in the students. it can help my teaching because students will always have something to do besides silent reading when they finish an assignment early and it is something different for them to do besides SSR.

WWP works with a great list of Tier 2 words that struggling readers and ELL can benefit from learning in context. I think the storyline about the pet was a bit tacky, but I can tell the animation and graphics were an approach to appeal to an older student audience (Grades 4-8). I liked that the program presented the words to the students so they could listen and learn, and then multiple activities to work on synonym, antonym and matching word meanings in context.

For ELL students, this is a great interactive way to get them using their new vocabulary words in a way that doesn't seem like "work". I like the different voices and the variety of levels and vocab words. I really liked that these vocab words are words that they will actually use outside of the classroom.

I think this app is wonderful! Teaching the nuances of vocabulary can be a struggle at the elementary level, and this app provides a multitude of ways to interact with terms listed. My only critique would be for updated versions to include a speaker icon to read each word's definition. I like how the app self-corrects a students when they answer a word incorrectly (by popping up the word and its definition), and I love the activity that requires students to apply the vocabulary word to answer a question (great critical thinking practice!) Overall, I would highly recommend this app for classroom or home use.

Apps that teach vocabulary in a meaningful way are hard to find as vocabulary is best learned in context. I was thus really thrilled to find an app that teaches vocabulary in a cloze format. Also, I have found many of the apps designed for vocabulary are specifically meant for beginner ELLS, so the pedagogical focus tends to be on acquisition of basic words rather than usage. For the children I work with, many of whom are not ELLS, vocabulary needs stem from specific language impairments or avoidance of reading practice (due to a reading disability of some sort). These children understand basic word meanings but often do not have a reading or writing vocabulary that is as advanced as others their age. I just wish the free version had more content as my kids are so engaged that they quickly progress through the levels provided. Also as a reading specialist, I find the reading levels of the focus words (level 3-8) matched to game level are not as specific as I am used to working with (Fountas-Pinnell, DRA, lexile etc.) and I am not sure if the reading levels of the words used are supposed to represent grade levels. As such I cannot specifically match a child's reading level to a specific game level in WWP - I have instead had to become familiar with the app and guesstimate an entry level. Future updates need to correlate games with reading levels that more accurately represent the student's instructional reading level to provide better ability for the teacher to differentiate.

World's Worst Pet is a GREAT find for the ELA Teacher! In this app, students work through levels on identify the meanings of critical vocabulary words within context. The vocabulary is DEFINITELY relevant for grades 5 - 7 and increases in complexity and is great for enriching student's vocabulary knowledge in preparation for Common Core Assessments.. The interface is dynamic and entertaining for the students and captures their attention. As students progress through levels, the vocabulary complexity increases and students obtain 'pupcakes' as they progress.