Demo Slam - Hemingway App with Grammarly

One night rain fell from the sky. My son practiced piano while I read a blog. My daughter brought me children's books to read. I then woke up early to read student essays.

This sounds too perfect to be true, so allow me to clarify. My son's imperfect practice was perfect to me. The value of the blog did not register that night. I did not read all the books, and I had no desire to read essays.

It’s hard to be honest, but the truth is teachers risk becoming copy editors when we focus on minute mistakes. Students learn better when they struggle, but students need tools that guide them.

What if we had free tech tools that empowered students? What if students used Hemingway App with Grammarly Chrome extension?

When students are empowered to revise their own Language and Conventions, we are empowered to be more than copy editors! We can focus on conveying ideas and be true writing mentors.

The free version of Hemingway App makes students do a little bit work. They must delete the default content and copy/paste their writing. Students must fix the yellow and red sentences. Is the sentence so long that it is confusing? Use concise language and shorten the sentence.

Is the Readability Good? Okay? Poor? A higher score is not necessarily better. Readability for a journalist should be 5th Grade. Readability for middle school English should higher.

Passive voice is highlighted in green. Adverbs are highlighted in blue. The highlights help the students focus on key elements without overburdening the teacher!! No more helpless hand raisers who refuse to work without the teacher by their side!

But this is not the best part! With the free Grammarly extension installed, students click on the icon! Fixing critical issues is a little too easy. The true value is naming the Advanced Issues without fixing them for the student. Student confidence begins to grow as the numbers decrease. Students begin to write more, and just like my son’s piano practice, practice makes perfect!

Student writers are now empowered with Hemingway App and Grammarly. That rainy night was truly perfect. Family. Rain. Student writer empowerment.

Sounds like a slam to me!

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CoolCatTeacher's Blog - 4 Writing Tips that Help the Writing Process
Hemingway App
Grammarly Chrome Extension

Now I can focus on

Counterargument & Rebuttal


Counterargument & Rebuttal Reteach


Lesson for Self-Evaluation Rubric

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Lights Night Glass Rainy Large. Digital image. Pexels. N.p., 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

Pasquier, A. Stack of books. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

The Justified Sinner. Grammar Police 2. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 13 Oct. 2011. Web.