Bottom Line: A grammar and spelling app for kids ages 7-10 that gets all the grammar right, but may lose its audience with too much text and a format that’s too much like school. Covers 14 Common Core standards and may be good for classroom use.
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I’m reviewing this app because the Smart Apps staff has been known to refer to ME as the Grammar Hammer. As editor and proofreader, I regularly berate them for their grammar and spelling, and offer well-timed nose punches when they screw up. So I jumped at the chance to review the work of the fellow grammar nerds at You University Apps.
I’m happy to say they get the grammar — and the spelling — right. I’ve seen grammar apps out there that were clearly developed by people who don’t know an adjective from an airplane, and that’s not the case here. I didn’t find any errors, or even anything questionable. But as much as I love grammar, this app didn’t delight me the way I wish it had.
The app includes nine stories, which are arranged from easiest to hardest in terms of the corrections to be made in each one. Kids begin by walking through a brief tutorial, which explains what they’ll be correcting, how to navigate the app, how points are assigned, etc. Then they progress to the stories, which are several pages in length and contain multiple errors to be corrected on each page. Errors range from simple spelling and punctuation issues to irregular verbs and plural possessives. The app keeps count of how many errors are on each page, and how many the user has identified. If the kiddo gets stumped, the app offers hints as well as a “give up” button, which will help in identifying errors without awarding points.
The grammar and spelling in the stories are dead-on in terms of stuff kids ages 7-10 ought to know. My second grader, who is working on these concepts in school right now, was at home with the information in the easiest level, as well as some of what we saw in the intermediate level, and that’s exactly what I would expect for the designated age range. The information covered in the hardest level is about where my 10-year-old niece is in school. So the developer definitely gets points for targeting the proper age range and doing it well. The app would also have uses for kids older than 10 who struggle with reading, grammar and spelling.
The tutorial that opens the app works fine and is clear in its direction, but it’s VERY text-heavy. My second grader is a fluent reader, but she was immediately put off by all the reading to be done. I helped her get through the tutorial (which, incidentally, repeats every time the user revisits the first story — a bit annoying), thinking the app itself would interest her more once we got there.
The problem, though, is that the app is just as text-heavy as the tutorial. The story has to be read, of course, which is not a problem — it’s simple, age-appropriate stuff, and while it’s not great literature, it does what it’s supposed to do. But when my daughter tapped on a grammar or spelling issue to be fixed, she was faced with three wordy multiple-choice answers. She grew frustrated with this very quickly, especially when the answers were somewhat similar in nature. It took her a long time to distinguish between “change this to the” and “change this to than,” for instance, or “Put a period after the word” or “Put a comma after the word.” Her patience wore thin before we were halfway through the first story.
I think it might have helped her to see her answers at work in the story, but the app doesn’t offer that. For example, when the user corrects a capitalization issue, it would be great if the text in the story would change to reflect the correction — even if the correction is wrong. But it doesn’t. And for my little visual learner, that’s an issue.
The app also includes a cheat sheet for each story, which gives the user an idea of what to look for. Again, a great idea, but it was more text that my daughter just wasn’t interested in tackling.
Overall, the app has a classroom worksheet feel that isn’t going to be appealing to kids who have just spent the school day looking at the very same sorts of things. It almost feels like the developers forgot they were in an electronic format that offered them the freedom to get away from written text and other traditional learning methods. Considering what the iPad is capable of, and what a good app can offer in terms of innovative ways to learn, I hate to see this app stuck in same-old-same-old mode.
One additional frustration for my daughter was that the story will not save progress mid-way through. One of the stories is, for instance, 19 pages long, and there are multiple errors to find and correct on each page. She got about eight pages in and wanted to take a break. But there’s no way to do that without losing all progress. I would encourage the developer to correct this in an update soon.
Grammar Hammer gets three stars because it contains good information, and because its tracking of Common Core standards is meticulous and useful for teachers. I also appreciate that it contains no in-app purchases and no external links, making it completely safe for little users. But its dependence on text and worksheet-like visuals make it less than appealing for digital-age kids.
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Emilie has a sign on her desk that says "I am silently correcting your grammar." Sometimes she is not so silent about it. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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