Lingo4Kids On the Go

Mix 30 years of FSL-FI curriculum experience with 20 years of computer IT expertise; then add a few hundred meetings, research and brainstorming sessions; followed by a year's worth of story writing, curriculum development, computer programming, graphic design, music and video recording. Last but not least, gather student and teacher feedback --- et VOILÀ ---

A curriculum-based, online application supporting classroom education of grades 1 through 8. Lingo4Kids offers a variety of French Language resources, online templates and creative tools, all customizable by educators and students.

It's been quite a busy year! We've worked almost as hard as the teachers. Notice we said almost! We know that educators are some of the hardest working people out there. It's our goal at Lingo4Kids to make your jobs easier, while making FSL more accessible, adaptable and fun for all!

The holidays are just around the corner. The elves (programmers and graphic designers) at MLD Solutions have been working hard to complete our Christmas Adventure in time for the holidays.

This week, watch for Le Sapin de Noël, an interactive Christmas adventure! Travel through the North Pole and help Sant'’s staff mail letters, cook festive treats and decorate the Great Christmas Tree! Help Santa get ready for his trip around the world — En français! It's a great activity for students to keep up their french over the holidays!

Special thanks to Emilie and Serge for their hard work.

Online Student Journal: Teachers can assign journal entries by date allowing the student to login and respond. Teachers can provide feedback online.

New Music & Chants, featuring Jaquot: All Lingo Lessons have a song by Juno-Award nominated, children's French songwriter, Jacquot. Instrumental versions are included so students can write their own versions and perform their work.

A variety of new chants are also available to assist with phrasing, toe-tapping, repetition activities.

We listen to you....

In the upcoming month we will be creating teacher administrative reports.

Journal Entry Report will show who has written a journal entry and on which date(s).

Student Usage Report will show which students have been logging in and how much time has been spent on the site.

Lingo4Kids webinars are 30-minute, live, online sessions that will walk you through the process—from logging in, to viewing ready-made Lingo Lessons, to uploading your own resources for your students, and much more.

How do I enlarge the font for presentation use?
(when hooking up Lingo4Kids to a projector/whiteboard in the classroom)
When you log in, there is a drop list at the top right-hand corner in the with navigation bar. There is a font feature called Classroom Font Size 3 drop-down items to choose from (small, medium and large). Choose large font to use in the classroom. Small font is for computer screen use.

How do I change the look of my virtual classroom?
There are different components of a Lingo Lesson that can be edited to suit you. Adding a pre-made Lingo lesson to My Lessons gives you full editing capabilities.

A few components of the lessons are the classroom designs and avatar teachers. You are able to choose from a variety of classroom designs and avatar teachers when you edit a lesson.

Best Browsers
The best browser for viewing Lingo4Kids is Internet Explorer version 7 or higher.

We test and adjust for a variety of browsers but have not yet resolved every issue with other browsers. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work on this.

It would take a whole newsletter to acknowledge everyone we'd like to thank! These are but a few...

We would like to thank all of the students and teachers who helped us test-pilot the Lingo4Kids website, while we were in development mode. Your feedback was invaluable!

Special thanks to the students, teachers and administrators at Southwold School in St. Thomas, ON.

This past October, we enjoyed a visit to School District 2 in New Brunswick. Thanks to the students at Frank L. Bowser for sharing their day with us. Also thanks to all the teachers in the School District 2 for their feedback as we implement in your Board.

In November, we had a wonderful visit to Ottawa. Thanks to teachers at the Ottawa Catholic School Board for taking time to view our site. Also, special thanks to the National Capital Commission and the War Museum for their time. We are working on lessons about our National Capital and our military.

Last but definitely not least, a big thank you to Sheryl Ellis-Porter and the students at St. Joseph’s School in Tillsonburg, ON. They have been so helpful, while we work through our growing pains and it has been great fun sharing in their excitement as we introduce new Lingo4Kids’ features.

Some of us may be familiar with the book by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey (2008) called Better Learning: Through Structured Teaching. If not, it is a must read. In the next few issues of Lingo4Kids On the Go, I will briefly discuss how Lingo4Kids can assist you in helping students move from modeling and guided practice, to collaborative learning and independent tasks.

Fisher and Frey emphasize the importance of establishing the lesson's purpose by modeling your own thinking, rather than following a teacher's script. For example, when asking students, "Qu'est-ce que tu penses?" The teacher can provide their own answer, "Je pense que..." – and facilitate student participation through modeling.

In our Lingo Lessons, we have listed the overall provincial expectations, provided pre-activities, listed targeted vocabulary and provided resources that complement each other. In our teacher notes and resources, we suggest vocabulary for explanation, demonstration tips or questions you may choose to ask students while modeling your own thinking. I often get blank stares at the beginning, but fear not, through modeling, gesturing and using high-frequency words and structures, students get onboard quickly.

In the Lingo Lesson L'Enfant Zolan, for example there are ample opportunities for problem-solving, read-alouds, think-alouds, shared-readings, and write-alouds. Remember to look closely at the teacher notes we have provided.

This is only a precursor to our next issue where I will refer specifically to Lingo4Kids use of prompts, cues, and questions, to facilitate students' increased responsibility for task completion. Fisher and Frey call this "Guided Instruction".

Bibliography
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better Learning: Through Structured Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.