recommended texts and curricula

Grammar

Beestar. A great site that delivers weekly exercises in language arts each semester.

Khan Academy. Although grammar is not its strength (I find occasional errors), Khan Academy covers a lot of ground and has a ton of practice. It also has the official SAT material, which involves advanced grammar concepts.

Painless Grammar by Rebecca Elliott. A basic introduction I use for late elementary through high school. Although it's not very thorough in some areas, such as verb tenses, I have not found a comparable book for younger audiences. The exercises are limited, just a few questions at the end of each section. For early elementary, you can use Painless Junior: Grammar by Marciann McClarnon and Tracy Hohn.

reading

Barron's AP English Literature and Composition by George Ehrenhaft. Though designed specifically for the AP test, it offers a great introduction to analyzing prose and poetry.

Beestar. A great site that delivers weekly exercises in language arts each semester.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster. An advanced text on literature analysis.

Painless Reading Comprehension by Darolyn Jones. A good overall introduction with some exercises.

Read Theory. A website with tons of free reading comprehension exercises. It adjusts the difficulty level based on performance, tracks progress, gives feedback on missed answers, and allows for connections to teachers so that teachers can see progress.

test prep

Barron's AP English Literature and Composition by George Ehrenhaft.

Barron's AP United States History by Eugene Resnick.

College Panda series. Nielson Phu has good books on the SAT and ACT. When choosing books from the series, note that the SAT "writing" section is not the essay.

How to Write a New Killer ACT Essay by Tom Clements. Good ideas and a lot of prompts. Be sure to get the one with "new" in the title.

Khan Academy. This site has the official SAT material.

Writing

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White. Strunk's update of White's classic is a great brief introduction.

Escape Essay Hell! by Janine Robinson. A wonderful book on narrative essays for college applications.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Nonfiction writing. Probably better for older students.

Painless Writing by Jeffrey Strausser. An introduction to style.

Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter. A fantastic introduction to creative narrative writing.

Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan. A solid introduction to descriptive writing.

A Writer's Coach by Jack Hart. My favorite book on style. Though written for journalists, it has chapters on style that apply to all writing. It is more advanced, so Strunk and White or Strausser would be better for beginners.