10 Tools to Take Writing and Grammar Lessons to the Next Level

Writing is a skillful art that does not come naturally to many people. It takes time to perfect writing skills, learn all of the nuances of a language and to find or develop your unique “voice”. There are also the technical factors of grammar and punctuation that can sometimes be confusing. With the help of these 10 resources, you can supplement the grammar and writing lessons you're teaching and make it a much more enjoyable process for you and your students.

All of these tools can easily be incorporated into lesson plans and are perfect for summer reading activities. Furthermore, they are versatile for all grade levels. August House provides dozens of free lesson plans to accompany our picture books, and we’ve provided suggested pairings with a few of the tools listed below.

1. Quill

Get your students more involved in their writing with easy-to-use interactive lessons that are aimed at improving the quality of their sentence structure and grammar. Diagnostic tools allow teachers to see which areas each student is excelling in and where some improvement is needed. Throw this in with any writing activity from our lesson plans, like The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday. These lesson plans (K-2) offer activities such as writing with a partner, writing letters to the author, and character interviews.

The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday

By Donald Davis

Illustrated by Jennifer Mazzucco

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978-0-87483-571-7 (Hardcover) 978-0-874838-51-0 (Paperback)

2. Grammar Wonderland

Bring an element of fun back into your grammar lessons with this app from McGraw-Hill School Education Group. This app leads students on an adventure through a virtual world, all while learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives and other elements of writing. Customer reviews praise the app as a great resource for ESL students and fun for all emerging readers. The app is geared towards parts of speech and grammar. Pair this with a simpler book like Spicy Hot Colors. These lesson plans (K-2) introduce the Spanish language to young readers and offer opportunities for easy spelling activities.

Spicy Hot Colors: Colores Picantes

By Sherry Shahan

Illustrated by Paula Barragan

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978-0-874837-41-4 (Hardcover) 978-0-874838-15-2 (Paperback)

3. EssayRoo

Grammar can definitely be a tricky subject in any lesson and at any age, but EssayRoo has put together a library of resources and services with the goal of answering your most puzzling grammatical questions. The compilation of resources comes from a variety of credible sources and outlines everything from punctuation to grammar and writing style. Although this resource is geared more towards teachers or older students, it could be very helpful in creating or expanding a grammar lesson plan. Use the lesson plans for The Ghost Catcher as a jumping off point. These lesson plans (K-2) provide activities for sentence composition and phonetic spelling.

The Ghost Catcher

By Mitch Weiss & Martha Hamilton

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978-0-874838-35-0 (Hardcover)

4. Grammar Fun

Transform screen-time into learning time for young readers with Grammar Fun. Turn your IPhone into a learning tool for kids with fun, child-friendly games, like this one. This app is easy for kids to use on their own, colorful, and educational. Grammar Fun helps students identify the different parts of a sentence through matching games. Combine this tool with similar matching and parts-of-speech activities from Cool Cats Counting.

Cool Cats Counting

By Sherry Shahan

Illustrated by Paula Barragan

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978-0-874837-57-5 (Hardcover) 978-1-941460-42-9 (Paperback)

5. Grammar Pop

For less than $2, you can join the fun world of Grammar Pop and work on improving your skills through this fun, new word game. Twenty-eight levels of sentence difficulty challenges users as their knowledge grows. For a small price, young readers can learn simple nouns and verbs, and gradually transition into more advanced subjects like gerunds and participles. This is a great tool to pair with lesson plans like Go to Sleep, Gecko! These lesson plans (K-2) offer a range of activities for sentence building, organization and phonetic spelling.

Go to Sleep, Gecko!

By Margaret Read MacDonald

Illustrated by Geraldo Valério

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978-0-874837-80-3 (Hardcover) 978-1-939160-92-8 (Paperback)

6. MobiLibs

Play along with over 20 comical stories in this Mad Lib-style game for mobile devices. Put together your humorous creations, while getting a lesson in writing and structuring a story at the same time. When you're done, there's even an option to share what you've written with friends. This is a very engaging way to teach kids parts of speech as they insert random nouns, verbs, and adjectives to create a silly story. You can also incorporate the same Mad-Libs style with activities from The Great, Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog (K-2), which highlight similes and letter writing. Have kids create their own letters to character in the story, including similes and other metaphors, leaving blanks for a partner to randomly complete.

The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog

By Margaret Read MacDonald

Illustrated by Julie Paschkis

View the lesson plans

978-0-874838-08-4 (Hardcover)

7. Comparative Adjectives

Fun and easy to use, this interactive app helps kids understand different comparative adjectives through the use of beautifully engaging images. There’s even a custom option for parents to add their own voices, which allows kids to receive words of encouragement from a familiar voice, as opposed to a computerized voice. Use the same activity for The Little Red Hen. These lesson plans (K-1) utilize the idea of animal analogies as well as compare and contrast.

The Little Red Hen: An Old Fable

By Heather Forest

Illustrated by Susan Gaber

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978-0-874837-95-7 (Hardcover) 978-1-939160-97-3 (Paperback)

8. Cite It In

Creating perfect citations can always be a little bit tricky, especially when kids are just learning how to properly conduct research. With Cite It In, all you've got to do is plug in the necessary information, then choose the style you want your citations created in. This tool is a great way to introduce kids to proper citation etiquette and the problems associated with plagiarism. Incorporate this tool into lesson plans from The First Music and Priceless Gifts, which offer group research activities. In addition, kids also learn about the culture behind each story as they research the setting of The First Music or research various spices in Priceless Gifts.

The First Music

By Dylan Pritchett

Illustrated by Erin Bennett Banks

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978-0-874837-76-6 (Hardcover)

Priceless Gifts: A Tale from Italy

By Mitch Weiss & Martha Hamilton

Illustrated by John Kanzler

View the lesson plans

978-0-874837-88-9 (Hardcover)

9. Daily Grammar

Made up of 440 lessons and 88 quizzes, Daily Grammar is a comprehensive learning experience, covering all parts of speech, sentence structure and the mechanics of grammar. Lessons are posted to a blog each weekday, then a quiz for the week is available each Saturday. Use this app as a template to create your own lessons and quizzes, perfect for any of our LittleFolk or Story Cove lesson plans.

10. Grammar Book

If you're looking for an extensive reference guide that you can take everywhere with you, look no further than Grammar Book. The rules of grammar and punctuation are clearly outlined in this book, making it easy to find the answers you're looking for. Tailor the rules to any August House lesson plans in order to introduce a new grammar subject.

Technology is ever-present and ever-changing in today’s world. Both parents and teachers inevitably struggle to incorporate educational value into a child’s screen-time, especially over the summer months. These resources make it easier to add some learning value to those activities. With summer break, these tools will help kids stay ahead of the summer slide and not lose the skills they worked hard to gain during the previous school year.

Combining these tools with engaging lesson plans and books can help you create a more interactive learning environment for students. And when students enjoy what they're doing, they are more likely to comprehend, remember and apply the information so learning becomes less of a chore. With all of these benefits, why not take advantage of these affordable and easy to use apps to make learning more fun for everyone?

View all of August House's lesson plans

About the Guest Blogger:

Gloria Kopp is a digital marketer and an elearning consultant from Manville City. She graduated from University of Wyoming and started a career as a business writer and an educator, now she works as a tutor at Write My Essay Company. Besides, she is a regular contributor to such websites as Engadget, Academized, Huffingtonpost etc. Read her latest post at Studydemic.