Once your class samples these games, they won't want to stop learning Italian. Eccellente! Effective for beginning and intermediate Italian learners, picking up new words and phrases through this app is an entertaining task.
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App Overview
Learn Italian - MindSnacks is composed of a set of nine games that helps users practice a variety of vocabulary lessons. When you open up the app, three games are unlocked. Level up to unlock the remainder of the games! You have to get to level 28 to unlock the final game, so prepare yourself for hours of engaging gameplay and challenges. Through the various games, you will work on grammar, categorization, recall, error recognition, spelling, image recognition, vocabulary mastery, and more. Keep an eye out for motivating side quests and achievements.
How to Get Started:
- Log in or sign up
- Choose your level of Italian
- Nonexistent
- Jumbled up words without any structure
- Halting sentences with OK grammar
- Fast & confident
- Follow along as the app leads you through a brief tutorial
- Touch the words in your first lesson to hear them read aloud by a native speaker
- Commence your first lesson by trying out Swell, the first of the three unlocked games
Access to Lessons:
- The app comes with one free lesson
- Upgrade to learn more words
- An Italian Pass costs $4.99 and is made up of 50 lessons
- You can pick up 1000+ words from the 50 lessons
- Side quests help to motivate you to practice all of these words
- If you are interested in practicing several languages with MindSnacks, you can buy 400 lessons in the MindSnacks language series for $19.99; subjects include SAT, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, and Portuguese
Viewing and Picking Lessons:
- Touch the book in the top right corner or drag the main page to the left to view your lessons
- If you want to hone in on a particular topic, open the menu on the lessons page to select any topic; otherwise, the app will go through the list in order
- If you have upgraded, you have your choice of topics ranging from simple nouns and verbs to more complex phrases and expressions
- The app categorizes lessons and words into two categories: Current and Mastered; you can tap any word to hear it read out loud
- Learn Italian - MindSnacks adjusts to your level; words you have trouble with will be repeated and words you have mastered will be retested in later levels
- Practice mastered words instead of new words by by selecting the Mastered tab and touching Play
Game Features:
- Entertaining tunes that are unique for each game
- Progress tracking for each word
- Proper pronunciation of each word by a native Italian speaker
- Appealing graphics and silly animations
- Results and scorecard for each game
- Randomize, restart, and pause options for all games
On Your Profile, Check Out:
- Number of days you've been active
- How many hot streaks you've had
- Number of mastered words
- Amount of lessons completed
- Percentages that indicate your skill levels with:
- Image recognition
- Spelling
- Rapid recall
- Error recognition
Instructional Ideas
Created with a single user in mind, Learn Italian - MindSnacks is a great resource to encourage independent practice. Pupils will want to do their classwork and homework! For some control over the content, assign specific lessons. Class members can practice independently and discuss together later.
Even if you only have access to a few tablets, the app can still be useful. Several users can sign up for MindSnacks on the same device. Organize stations and ask students to sign up the first time. They can choose their profile from the list the following times they use the app. Track progress by checking out the stats and percentages available through the profile page.
Classroom Considerations
Learn Italian - MindSnacks is supplementary material for your classroom. While users will enjoy playing the games, and certainly pick up a good amount of vocabulary, the exercises cannot entirely take the place of classroom instruction. The app could benefit from more depth in conjugation, grammar, and sentence structure instruction. In addition, speaking and writing will need to addressed elsewhere, since users are not asked to do either of these.
Before assigning a specific lesson, preview the accompanying images. While all of the earlier lessons come with charming drawings, some of the later words are paired with photographs of questionable quality.
If you are considering a bulk license, take a look at the developers website. They offer licenses to schools at 50 percent discount.
Pros
- Scaffolding and progress tracking are part of the program
- Practicing is encouraged and some reteaching is included
- Content and games are entertaining and educational
Cons
- Created with a single user in mind
- Pupils are not required to speak or write complete sentences