Good Grammar = Better Oral and Written Communication. Bring on the Grammar Apps to Pump up This Vital Skill Set.
Do your students think grammar is a drag? Do they find their grammar worksheets and books dull? We here at App Ed Review have similar concerns. With Todd being a former high school English teacher and Alex being a former high school social studies teacher, we know firsthand how important it is to teach grammar and writing in the classroom. Therefore, in this month’s App Ed RoundUp, we have picked two of our favorite apps and two of our top websites for teaching grammar in the tech-driven classroom. And as always, each piece of edtech reviewed by us is evaluated using our comprehensive rubric and includes 3-5 instructional ideas for using it!
- Grammar Up: Free Edition is a no-hassle quiz app that focuses on proper usage of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and tenses. Students simply touch the “Begin the Test” button for their desired topic and are given a 10-question multiple-choice grammar test. When completed, students are provided a grade report that explains what they got right and wrong. Students can review this performance report and share it via email/social media, or save it as an image file for grading. In this way, it’s a perfect self-assessment for grammar knowledge! Scoring a 9.5 in Design and a 7.3 overall, Grammar Up: Free Edition is a quick and easy way to bring technology into any grammar lesson. Check out our full review here.
- Need inspiration for diagramming sentences? Guide to Grammar & Writing is a website with over 60 different example sentence diagrams for everything from simple subject and predicate sentences to compound-complex sentences. Each type of sentence configuration is fittingly titled and an example sentence representing that type of configuration is diagramed below when clicked. In a separate section, Guide to Grammar & Writing has a whole host of different grammar quizzes for students, which are organized by part of speech. The website also has different text resources on the topics such as unbiased language, avoiding plagiarism, using evidence, coherence and transitions, and many more. With such a vast offering of information, Guide to Grammar & Writing is a treasure chest of resources for teachers. For classroom ideas and more, click here.
- Sometimes EdTech can become a little more “sizzle” than “steak,” but that isn’t the case with ZZCad Sentence Parsing Program. This no-nonsense website lets you type a sentence directly into it. Then, with the click of a button, the website will analyze the sentence and report its parts of speech, subject and predicate, punctuation, and function. Though the website scored low for its basic design on our rubric, that does not mean it is useless. Rather, the website is the perfect tool for teachers to incorporate into grammar lessons and students to use while completing writing exercises. If you want to check out more information for using ZZCad Sentence Parsing Program in the classroom, click here!
- Grow Grammar Lite is a freemium app that provides some support for diagramming sentences before having to upgrade. Though you will have to pay in order to access the majority of this app’s content, it’s value resides in that it demonstrates basic sentence diagram formatting. Starting on level one that features simple noun-verb sentences, students will learn how to diagram sentences by simply sliding different words in a sentence to areas on the screen in order to create the sentence diagram. As students learn different parts of speech, they can use the format they learned from this app to diagram more sophisticated and complex sentences. This app scored remarkably well on our rubric for its design and potential to engage students in diagramming sentences. Tap here to learn more about Grow Grammar Lite!