No Red INk - Analyst Report

In my work as a middle school classroom teacher, one of the most challenging aspects of Language Arts instruction has been providing students with ways to practice specific grammar, spelling and writing concepts, based on the feedback I give them on their assignments. Differentiated instruction is key when teaching writing skills, especially with the inclusive model of education being used in BC schools, where you have an incredibly broad range of writing skills in a single classroom. I started using No Red Ink because it allowed students to practice writing skills geared for their individual level and provided a fun and engaging learning experience by adapting the sample sentences to student interests. Additionally, it provided high quality excepts from books for students to read and novel paragraph writing activities. I was impressed with what a practical resource No Red Ink was from a teacher standpoint, as it allowed me to track student mastery of topics and assign different content to each student depending on what they needed to improve on.

Overview:

No Red Ink, a software made for students to improve their writing skills, was launched in 2017 by a San Francisco based company. They strive to build students writing skills through targeted practice in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Content is tailored to match student interests and helps to boost engagement as they improve the mechanics of their writing. Instructional support is offered for every concept presented and allows students to refer to the lesson for the concept being strengthened as they progress through targeted practice questions. Questions are adjusted based on student responses and the program responds by providing more opportunities for practice if a student is struggling with a concept. No Red Ink is an elegant solution for increasing the frequency of the feedback loop between students and teachers in writing instruction. It provides information about student progress to teachers for data gathering purposes and provides more detailed data for use by school districts with a paid premium subscription. It has been intentionally created to provide schools with what they need to teach specific writing skills, rather than as a consumer app like Grammarly to correct writing across various platforms.