Arming students with good grammar skills may seem like a standard building block of elementary or secondary school, but giving learners the ability to communicate may have lasting positive results for the student, such as accelerated college performance, interviewing well, securing a dream job and being understood in written communications. As you plan your grammar lessons, take advantage of the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software to help you keep track of students' progress through the modules.

Open Microsoft Excel, which automatically opens a new, blank spreadsheet. Click your cursor into the second cell of the first column, "A2," and type a student's name. Press the "Enter" key to drop into the next cell, "A3," and type another student's name. Continue until you entered all of your students' names.

Click the cursor into the second cell of the first row, "B2." Type the name of one of the grammar lessons to be covered into the cell, such as "Punctuation." Press the "Tab" key to move into the cell to the right, "C2." Type another grammar lesson topic, such as "Contractions." Add another lesson for each cell as required.

Click "1" on the very edge of the Excel screen to highlight the entire first row. Right-click the highlighted section and select "Format Cells."

Select the "Font" tab, increase the "Size" to 14 and change the "Font style" to "Bold." Click the "Fill" tab and select a colored square to color the row. Click "OK" and the changes appear on the spreadsheet.

Click the "A" column on the spreadsheet to highlight the column with your students' names. Repeat the formatting process so the column matches the first row's changes.

Click the "File" tab at the top of the screen and select "Save As." Type "GrammarLessons" as the file name and save the spreadsheet to your computer.

Reopen the spreadsheet each time you complete a lesson and type an "X" to show students' participation, or type a specific grade or percentage, such as "A" or "99" (percent) into the cells. Another option is to type the date each student completed the lesson into the cell, to ensure that your entire class finishes all the required material. Resave the spreadsheet to keep track of students' progress.