Grammar 1 By: EMH

App Title: Grammar 1
Initials: EMH
Date: March 21, 2011
Grade: 1st-5th
Cost: $0.99
Platform:  iphone 3G and 4G, all itouch versions, ipad

What is it? Grammar 1 is a great app that can teach kids parts of speech. Kids can learn how to identify nouns, pronouns, verbs, and other parts of speech. The app teaches grammar by using different sentences that gradually become more complex.

Step 1:
Upon opening the app, you see a simple sentence near the top of the screen with an  instruction below it in blue.  The instructions tell the participant to tap on one of the parts of speech, such as the subject noun, in the sentence.

Step 2:
By tapping on the correct word that word will turn blue and an abbreviation of the part of speech appears below the word.  Next, the instructions say to tap on another part of the sentence, such as the verb, adjective, or adverb.

Step 3:
If you tap on the incorrect word the instructions will turn red. Helpful advice can be viewed by touching the word help in the lower left corner of the screen. The advice explains what is being asked and gives the definition of the particular part of speech.

Step 4: When all of the words have been correctly identified a green check mark appears on the screen. Tapping the “next” button, or swiping a finger across the screen brings up a new sentence.

Step 5: The sentences will gradually get harder and become more complex. The help button is becomes especially useful if the student does not know the definition of a certain part of speech.


Settings:
The settings of this application can be adjusted by tapping the lowercase “i” in the lower right hand corner. These settings are very helpful and can easily be turned on or off.

The price of Grammar 1 is $0.99 I think that this is a fair price for the app because it is very useful and teaches important grammar concepts. However, students may be unwilling to spend money on an educational app.

I think that Grammar 1 is a great app that many students can benefit from. However, I think that a quiz section could be added. This section would give students a number of sentences. The student would have to label each word by its part of speech. Depending on how many mistakes they made, the student would learn what they still needed help on. I think that adding this to Grammar 1 would make it an even better app.