|
Lingo4Kids On the Go
Volume 1, December 2010
A Brand New Recipe for FSL an FI Success! |
|
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 ---
|
Welcome to Lingo4Kids.com! |
|
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!
|
 |
Happy Holidays from Lingo4Kids! |
|
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.
|
Latest Updates/Features! |
Webinars! |
|
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.
|
Tips & Tricks |
L4K Gros Merci! |
|
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.
|
From the Teacher's Desk: |
To Model or Not to Model French?
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.
|
|
|