Daily Wonder

Good for quotes and inspiration but not much else

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 1 review

Privacy rating

Not yet rated
Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

4–12

Subjects & Skills

Character & SEL, Social Studies

Great for

Instructional Design, SEL

Price: Free
Platforms: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Pros: Provides a clean and concise daily quote or weekly kindness tip.

Cons: Limited content doesn't offer an engaging or interactive experience.

Bottom Line: Expect a daily dose of meaningful messages, but little support for kids to act on them.

Teachers could use Daily Wonder as a way to begin their morning meeting with students, or with staff. Consider using the quotes in conjunction with a quiet reflection or mindful moment. Use it as a "turn and talk" prompt and ask students to discuss what it means to them. Or use it as a daily journaling prompt for English class. Some teachers may use it as an incentive: A student could read the quote aloud during an afternoon brain break or at the end of the day for a closing reflection. Additionally, reading the #choosekind weekly tip and completing the activity could assist in building classroom community and cohesion. And if you're planning on reading the book Wonder in class, use the educator guide for discussion questions and extension activities.  

Daily Wonder is a free daily affirmation app that provides a quote for each day of the year to celebrate goodness and strength. The content and layout are based on the book 365 Days of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. The quotes are drawn from popular songs or words of wisdom from noteworthy historical figures or everyday kids and heroes. The app lets you click on the quote and read a short biography of the author.

The Daily Wonder app makes it easy to share your favorite quotes with friends and family on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr since it has an embedded social share feature. There's also a curated community behind the hashtag #choosekind, which provides weekly tips and tricks on completing kind tasks in your community. The app boasts a calendar view that shows the days you've accessed the app and obtained a quote. In addition to this calendar, it includes several educational resources related to a book study of the novel Wonder.

While Daily Wonder provides decent inspirational content, that's really where the learning stops; there's little application beyond the daily quote. Students may quickly listen to the quote and forget about it minutes later if there aren't supplemental activities tied into the message. While tracking daily use of the app might be a fun activity, the novelty of the calendar function wears off quickly. Since the app offers additional content and learning for educators who wish to plan lessons around the book, it could be useful for a unit or book study. That said, the main design of the app is to offer a brief quip of inspiration. While it succeeds in offering the content, there are missed opportunities for kids to learn and apply it in a classroom setting. 

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

The sleek design makes it easy to navigate visually, but the built-in functions and overall responsiveness limit user interaction.

Pedagogy

The app provides one snapshot of a quote with little ability for students to transfer knowledge or engage with the content on a deeper level.

Support

The quick tutorial feature is helpful and the extended community beyond the app is impressive, but the overall support for learning is lacking.

Community Rating

Great App For Quotes

So glad to look at this app everyday just to remind me of the good in the world. When it seems that everything around us is so negative, this is a beacon of light.

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