Quill.org is a wonderful service to help students of many ages develop grammar awareness. It does this from an "editing point of view" where the student is given a passage and they need to identify the errors in the passage. The software then identifies the changes that were made correctly, incorrectly or changes to the passage where there was no error. Based on the results of the student, the site then tailors a set of exercises for the student to practise.
What I find particularly interesting with this service is that it makes the student type the complete sentence and not just the missing word. By doing this it reinforces good habits in editing, such as re-reading from the beginning of the sentence, following other previously learnt grammar conventions and also good typing practice for students that are developing in that area.
Quill.org is platform agnostic, but because of the typing requirement, it seems to work better on devices with keyboards. It also looks like it might be useful as a way for a whole class to engage with the programme as a shared writing activity. I have to play with the site a bit more, but I think it keeps drawing as many exercises as needed from a database, so having it on the projector you could model where you, the teacher, identify the problem the problem and do a think aloud as to how you would correct this sentence and finally make your correction. Feedback is instant and the site highlights what was done. Quill.org might also be a great activity to have at a station for students to work on independently or possibly for fast finishers. Let me know how you use it.
Quill.org is a free site and looks like an interesting way to develop your editing skills regardless of how old you are.
For more information about Quill.org check out their YouTube channel on how to get started,
