My Reading Tutor
© 2010 Mentor Interactive
Put a reading teacher in your Nintendo DS, in this single cartridge title that can track up to three children. In the "Learning Track" mode, children work through 10 lessons, each taking about five minutes. The lessons first introduce the concept and later activities provide practice by way of multiple-choice games, a reading comprehension game, or a spelling drill where you drag and drop letters into place to spell words. The lessons are presented in sequence, not unlike the way they would be presented in a typical first grade classroom. The narration is clear, and the clean design makes it possible to get through all the units as quickly as possible. In addition, you can record your own narration in the stories, or jump back to a previous lesson if you like. Parent options let you customize the presentation for left or right handed children, adjust the sound, or check a child's progress. If you're limited to a Nintendo DS, this is one of the best reading tutorials we've seen, although the overall experience reminds you of a dry reading lesson. Children might be tempted to replace the cartridge with a real game. Potentially of use to home schoolers or good for sending home with a kindergartner or first grader for some additional reading, this is a follow up to last year's My Virtual Tutor Reading. Content includes 14 stories. Content comes from the Foundations to Literacy program developed at the Center for Computational Language and Education Research at the University of Colorado. Created by 1st Playable Production with Engine Software.
$20, Nintendo DS
Teaches: reading, phonics, reading comprehension
CTR Rating: 90%