Summer Spanish

Primary School

List of 6 items.

Middle School

How Does Duolingo Work?
Duolingo is broken into “units” that look like medallions on the home screen. Within each unit is a range of 3 to 10 lessons that a student can complete. There is also a function called “Strengthen Skills,” which encourages users to repeat for retention and mastery. When a student has mastered a unit, it becomes gold in color. If a student stops using Duolingo for a while, those gold units change back to their original colors, encouraging users to practice again.

Over the summer, students should work on maintaining units they have covered and work ahead into new units once all their previous units are gold. Here is a video that explains more.
 
Why Duolingo?
We have used Duolingo in the classroom for almost three years. There are many advantages to using Duolingo for summer practice, including:
  • immediate assessment and feedback based on student responses
  • explanations and instructions are included in the website feedback
  • algorithms track student use of the site and adjust review material accordingly to create better retention
  • practice includes not just reading and writing but listening and speaking as well
  • practice can easily be broken into many small sessions that can better fit within busy summer schedules
  • practice anywhere: when downloaded on a mobile device, students can practice when in the car or on the Metro 

List of 3 items.

  • Rising 6th Grade

    We encourage middle school students to practice Spanish over the summer. The frequency of practice is more important than the length of practice. In other words, a few minutes of practice most days is better than hours of practice in just a handful of days.

    Required Work

    New to Lowell students who have not previously taken Spanish must work on Duolingo throughout the summer to prepare for Middle School Spanish. 

    Resources

    We encourage students to use Duolingo to practice. The Duolingo web application can be used for minutes or hours at a time. They can download the Duolingo app on a mobile device or access it via a computer.

    If you want other ideas for summer practice, please feel free to reach out via email to Sara Hodges.

  • Rising 7th Grade

    We encourage middle school students to practice Spanish over the summer. The frequency of practice is more important than the length of practice. In other words, a few minutes of practice most days is better than hours of practice in just a handful of days.

    Required Work

    New to Lowell students who have not previously taken Spanish must work on Duolingo throughout the summer to prepare for Middle School Spanish. 

    Resources

    We encourage students to use Duolingo to practice. The Duolingo web application can be used for minutes or hours at a time. They can download the Duolingo app on a mobile device or access it via a computer.

    If you want other ideas for summer practice, please feel free to reach out via email to Sara Hodges.

  • Rising 8th Grade

    We encourage middle school students to practice Spanish over the summer. The frequency of practice is more important than the length of practice. In other words, a few minutes of practice most days is better than hours of practice in just a handful of days.

    Required Work

    New to Lowell students who have not previously taken Spanish must work on Duolingo throughout the summer to prepare for Middle School Spanish. 

    Resources

    We encourage students to use Duolingo to practice. The Duolingo web application can be used for minutes or hours at a time. They can download the Duolingo app on a mobile device or access it via a computer.

    If you want other ideas for summer practice, please feel free to reach out via email to Sara Hodges.
1640 Kalmia Road NW
Washington, DC 20012
202-577-2000