Whether you are homeschooling, supplementing distance learning, or trying to teach a foreign language "on the side", DuoLingo is a great resource. It is free, comes in both app and browser versions, and has dozens of languages to choose from. (Enjoy learning Klingon!) If you are a parent who wants to monitor your child's lesson progress on the site, here's a step-by-step guide. Please note that these directions are for the browser version, not the phone/tablet app.
You will need your own DuoLingo account. Again, it is a free service, so having separate accounts for you and your student(s) does not represent a financial burden. Once you have set-up your DuoLingo account, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see a horizontal menu list, one of which is "schools". Click on that!
2. That will bring up a page for you to set-up your first classroom. If you have multiple students learning the same language, I recommend putting them all in the same classroom. If, like me, your kids chose to learn wildly different languages (Gaelic vs Japanese for one year!), create a different classroom for each language.
3. Once your classroom is created, you will need to add students. There will be a button to press which will give you a link to email to your student(s). He/she/they will need to confirm the link in order to be added to the classroom.
4. Now you have a classroom, with students. Within that classroom you will see a list of students and brief over-view of their activity. To see more, click on an individual student.
5. That individual student page will have a place to add assignments and also the very useful "Activity Log".
6. Here is what my second son's activity looked like for a recent school day. As you can see, the page gives me the date and time he completed the exercise, the name of the exercise, and how much "XP" he earned.
7. Now, I choose to use DuoLingo not through individual assignments, but through requiring a certain amount of "XP" earned per day. This typically equates to 30-40 minutes of language practice per day. (Note: We also do conversational practice and grammar based lessons several times a week. Language must be used regularly!) Here is what my second son's DuoLingo page looks like. He's learning German--thankfully. Gaelic was ROUGH, mostly because I don't speak it! You can see his Daily Goal tracker, what units he's leveled all the way to 5, and which lessons he needs to spend more time on. The more lessons you do within a unit, the higher the level of that unit.
I hope this helps you use DuoLingo in your homeschool or distance learning. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me or drop a comment below this post. Happy learning!
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