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EmailBack in August, I wrote a post about NoRedInk, which is a website full of exercises to assist students with their grammar and writing through semipersonalized exercises. Today, I have a similar site for you that reader Ellen Johnston brought to my attention called Quill, which focuses on writing development in addition to grammar and vocabulary practice.
To sign up for a free Quill teacher account, you can fill in a brief registration form or sign in using your Google or Clever log-in information. There is also a Premium account option that you can demo for free, but pricing does not seem to be available on the website. You would have to contact the company to request a quote. As always, I would just suggest seeing how you like it using the free option and consider an upgrade later on.
Let’s take a closer look at the site itself. From your dashboard, start by creating your class and then create student accounts or instruct students to sign up on their own using the class code to join the class you created. Use the Activity Planner to “Create a Unit” or select and organize the exercises you choose to use. Once you have made your selections, you can assign the activity to one or more of the students in the class and include a deadline. Finally, use the Scorebook to track students’ proficiency levels in various areas. With this information, which, like NoRedInk, uses colors to easily distinguish where students need more assistance, you may decide to assign additional practice tailored to individual students or small groups of students.
With Quill’s support in terms of content creation, you can focus more on differentiation to help meet every student’s needs with the added bonus of no extra grading. For more information, read Ellen’s recommendation of Quill, visit Graphite for more reviews, or just jump right in and see what you think.
Once you have taken a look at it, come back and let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Happy holidays!
