It’s no question that teaching is hard, and great teachers are irreplaceable. That’s why every feature and update that we launch at Duolingo for Schools is meant to make educators’ lives easier, and students’ learning more fun and effective. Here are some easy ways to get started with using Duolingo in the classroom. Teachers: make sure to add your students to a classroom at schools.duolingo.com so that you can create assignments and follow along with their progress!
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Assign a game as homework: Instead of printing out worksheets and exercises, assign specific Skills that align with your curriculum for students to practice on Duolingo (we’ll handle the grading!). For an added challenge, and to personalize student learning, set an XP goal for them to meet by practicing with any activity they choose. Our research shows that Duolingo is an effective way to gain proficiency in a new language, and we have a wealth of teaching and learning experts dedicated to creating and improving our courses!
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Turn XP into extra credit: Our experience points, or XP, make it fun to set up class-wide competitions or challenge individual students. Use XP assignments as extra credit to reward students for practicing language learning on their own time, or give extra points to individuals or teams that win time-based XP challenges.
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Warm up cool down with bellringers: Those first five minutes of class can always feel a bit chaotic—and those last five can carry an angsty “watching the clock” energy. Use Duolingo at the beginning or end of class by setting a specific goal for students to complete during these times. This will help everyone settle in, or out, with some fun learning activities!
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Gather the groups: Does your class thrive on collaborative exercises, or on competition? Students can race against the clock to see who can get the most XP, or divide into teams for some friendly competition. Get ideas for activities from our Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers pages, or by joining our Educator Community on Facebook.
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Call for reinforcement: Don’t have time to go back and review everything you’ve taught, or even just the material that you know your students need to revisit? We’ve been there. Use Duolingo to assign specific Skills that students need to practice that aren’t part of your regularly scheduled program.
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Reward with learning: Duolingo’s gamefied interface makes learning exciting and fun. It can actually function as a reward to allow students who have completed their in-class assignments or other work to “play” Duolingo! Offer “Duolingo time” as a reward when you have students who have earned it!
Create your classroom(s), join our community, and get the very most out of Duolingo’s free, fun, effective tools for teachers today!