In a district with more than 20,000 students set right on the banks of the Microsoft campus in Bellevue, Washington, a natural goal seems to be getting everyone to speak the same language when it comes to school direction and cohesion.

Ironically though, this district is home to students literally speaking more than 117 languages.

“Just at Ardmore, we have students speaking 37 or 38 languages, which gives you a picture of how diverse our school is,” says Yusra Obaid, Principal of Ardmore Elementary School, who was recently recognized for her leadership with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award.

Bellevue School District not only celebrates that reality, but builds on their beautiful blend of cultures and backgrounds with a global competency initiative. One element of this is the Multilingualism for All language programs that include both Spanish and Mandarin programs, with unique language opportunities in Arabic, Korean, and Hindi. BSD middle and highschoolers can take Arabic, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.

“Students learn the majority of their day in English, with an hour and 20 minutes of daily Arabic instruction in language arts with additional translanguaging throughout the day,” says Obaid. “If you walk into our Arabic classroom, you can't tell the difference between it and a general ed classroom. Half of our classes are multi-language learners. The vision of Ardmore is to affirm and identify this idea that our kids come to us speaking either one or multiple languages. We provide opportunity for those kids and make sure that any students who don't speak another language at home can learn in some way or form here.”

That vision is creating results.

“There is a science where students learning a new language at an early age tend to do better in math, science and overall academics,” says Obaid. “This is an accelerated program because kids are actually learning two languages at the same time, which places extra cognitive demands on students. It helps shape their brain in a different way.”

Using Tech Translates to Success

While many of the students come from backgrounds in which they learned languages naturally in the home, it never hurts to use the latest tech to aid acquisition.

“There's a range of tools that make learning more accessible to kids, even language learning,” says Obaid, noting BDS is a Microsoft district. “We know a lot about language acquisition and students learn by repetition and visuals. Our teachers use our whiteboard touch screens in an interactive way to have kids repeat the language. They press on it and can hear the word pronounced. They do image and word matching, they annotate specific words, drag and blend certain letters together — it’s created an accessibility for language learning in general.”

Obaid says these platforms bring together the four different domains of language acquisition (listening, reading, writing and speaking) more effectively than simple worksheets.

The program creates language learners, but also has a bigger picture of enhancing global citizenship.

“When kids come to us, we want to create global citizens who are thinking not just about their local community, but the larger world and their impact on it,” says Obaid. “We want to create that sense of community that our actions affect others not only here in Bellevue, but in the world.”

Obaid has integrated the Global Goals of UN Sustainability framework across grade levels to support this effort on a daily basis.

For example, for first grade, it offers a literacy unit about animals focused on building vocabulary about endangered animals. “They learned about all the animals and then focused on elephants. ‘How do we protect elephants? They're being endangered,’” says Obaid. “Students learned about dangers involved in their habitat, and then raised money and adopted elephants which they continue to nurture and care about. The organization sent a certificate and they have a website with a live camera feed.”

Using technology to connect a lesson to the real world still continues to be effective.

“It's really cool to just see kids thinking, ‘Wow, we learned about this, and now we actually did something that helped this animal survive those dangers in a place on the other side of the world,’" says Obaid.

3 Tips on Creating Global Initiatives in the Classroom

Obaid offers this advice to other educators:

1. Don't wait to make change. “We can get stuck in a place of ‘It has to be perfect, do I have the funding?’” she says, emphasizing the importance of partnering with students and families to learn their aspirations and goals. “Languages and global citizenship were important for our families, so we didn’t wait for things to happen, we just acted by starting with simple things and letting it grow.”

2. Community partnership is huge. “Look within the community for expertise, rather than thinking about outside resources,” Obaid says. “Shifting that idea to where is capacity and expertise within our whole community — our families, our teachers, everybody who walks through our building are potential partners.”

3. Engage all stakeholders right from the start. Assess, adjust, and collect feedback with everything that you do to demonstrate the success for stakeholders. “When something is innovative and new, partnering with the people who you're serving the most helps,” she says. “We have listening sessions. We collect numerical data. We listen to stories from kids. We do empathy interviews. This is how we continue to refine and adjust anything that we bring into our school.”

Finding Local Funding for Global Awareness

The thought of tapping already-stretched budgets for bonus initiatives can be intimidating, but the adage of “use your resources” certainly applies.

“When we think about innovation and change with a financial aspect, sometimes we forget about the open resources, the free availability, the opportunities in our local community that exist where we can make connections,” Obaid says.

The first grade project which made such an impact on the students was born of a simple wildlife trust website and adoption program. Local fundraising helped with the rest.

“Tapping areas of expertise and opportunities within our local community might not necessarily include a direct financial aspect, but are still very valuable,” she says. “It's about relevance. It's about connection. It's about kids thinking, ‘Wow, what I'm learning matters, and I can do something.’ It's not always about money.”

Creative problem solving goes a long way, but the district also benefits from the Bellevue Schools Foundation, filled with local stakeholders.

“One of the really great things we're really proud of is our amazing educators,” Obaid says. “They really go all out looking through different organizations and partnerships. They would reach out to the Pacific Science Center, ‘Hey, the budget is really tight. Would you be willing to host us?’ Our educators do a really good job in advocating and finding opportunities for community partnership.”

Another way of generating funding is spreading word about the innovative programs at the school. Ardmore got a big boost of publicity when Trevor Noah decided to join the school’s “Hour of Coding.” As Microsoft’s Chief Question Officer, the comedian and actor sat in on a fifth-grade class and discussed tech with Ardmore teachers.

“It was such a great connection,” Obaid says. “We have a whole ‘Wall of Wow’ at Ardmore where we post photos and news articles—every time our school gets recognized or we have a special visitor. It's a great inspiration for us to continue to reach for the stars.”

Tools They Use

• Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
• Microsoft Tools for Education 365
• i-Ready Assessment and Personalized Instruction (My Path) K-8 for English and Spanish dual language immersion, literacy, and math
• Code.org Hour of AI/Code

Duolingo gamifies language learning in a way that is so powerful many apps have copied it since its launch. It is now the name synonymous with digital language learning.

As such, this can be a powerful tool to employ as a supplement to a traditional language lesson. Use it in class as a reward that keeps them learning, or supplement homework with this as a way to continue development.

Many language options are currently available, with more added regularly, from Spanish and French to Korean and Japanese – and it's all free. You can sign up for premium features, but it's not required to get access to the learning resources.

Expect this to work on varying skills areas, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

This guides aims to show you all you need to know about Duolingo, including how it can best be used for teaching.

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a game-style language learning tool that's based online. It offers a digital way to learn a whole host of new languages for students of varying ages and abilities. Thanks to smart algorithms, this can even adapt to help specific students in areas they need, but more on that later.

Duolingo comes in app form as well as being available on the Dualingo site itself. This makes it super accessible, and it can be downloaded by students onto their own devices. This kind of access, along with the ability to create game avatar characters, adds up to a great sense of ownership for students. All that helps make this more immersive and a tool that students choose to come back to.

That all said, there are teacher-level controls that allow for specific learning goals which can focus on words, grammar, or skills. More features are available in the Duolingo for schools version but more on that below. Needless to say, when paying for it the ads are removed, but there are also offline courses and more.

What's new in Duolingo?

The Duolingo home screen has had a major redesign to help make learning more effective, says the company. Now students should be shown the perfect lesson at exactly the right time to help make step-by-step progress more efficient. 

This works by mixing older lessons with new materials so as to create a more intuitive outcome, specifically to help learning stick with students to cement lessons.

How does Duolingo work?

Duolingo is free to access and can be signed up to get started working with immediately by students. Download the app, go to the website, or use the Chrome app to get going. Or assign student accounts if you're a teacher using the schools version of the platform.

Duolingo starts by giving you a choice of languages to pick from with more than 36 options. For pure beginners, there are basic lessons to get started with right away. For those who already have a level of understanding, a placement test can be taken to determine the right starting point.

Students create their own cartoon avatar character and then navigate the learning games to earn rewards. A streak count for the most days in a row spent learning with the tool is available. XP points can be earned for time when using the app. Badges can be displayed on the avatar profile, while flag icons show the languages they're learning. Finally, there are gems that can be earned that are spent to change avatars and buy cosmetic upgrades. An overall mastery level shows the number of words they've learned.

This sample Duolingo lesson plan is designed to implement the tool into instruction.

What are the best Duolingo features?

Duolingo uses a really helpful self-correcting learning system that shows students when they've made an error and also lets them see the correct answer right away. This makes the platform a suitable way to learn independently.

Duolingo requires students to go back and forth between their native language and target language across reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In the stories section, students can practice more conversational, situation-based skills.

In the paid version there is smart adaption in which learning is targeted based on the mistakes a student has made and on areas in need of improvement. 

In the free version for schools teachers can add class sections, link student accounts, and track progress. Teachers can set stories to work on conversational skills or they can set specific grammar or vocabulary areas for improvement.

Teachers are able to see generated reports that show at a glance the XP earned, time spent, and progress toward goals of each student as well as an overall course view.

How much does Duolingo cost?

Duolingo comes in a free version that features near complete functionality but is ad supported. The free schools version for teachers and students has extra features focused on teaching, goals, and feedback.

Duolingo Plus is $6.99 per month after a 14-day free trial. This removes advertisements and adds features such as unlimited hearts, a progress tracker, streak repair, practice mistakes, mastery quizzes, and unlimited test outs.

Duolingo best tips and tricks

Get guided
Duolingo has created a free guide that helps teachers get started using the service in class, offering guidance and advice. Check it out here.

Make points real
Apply points rewards in the class, giving students extra privileges as their XP level ranks up in the Duolingo world.

Run camps
Setup extra class groups for afterschool and break-time activities so students can keep progressing and maintain momentum in their learning.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Digital Tools for Teachers
• Duolingo Lesson Plan

Duolingo is the world’s most downloaded education app according to the Pittsburgh-based company. 

The free app has more than 500 million registered users who can choose from 100 courses in more than 40 languages. While many use the app on its own, it is also utilized as part of school language classes through Duolingo for Schools. 

Duolingo gamifies the learning process and uses AI to provide individualized lesson plans for users. But how well does Duolingo actually work when it comes to the notoriously difficult process of teaching a second language to an adolescent or adult? 

Dr. Cindy Blanco, a well-known language scientist who now works for Duolingo, has helped conduct research into the app that suggests using it can be as effective as traditional college language courses. 

Laura Wagner, a psychology professor at Ohio State University who studies how children acquire language, uses the app personally. Though she has not conducted research into the app, which is designed for older kids or adults, she says there are aspects of it that align with what we know about language learning and that she trusts Blanco’s research on the topic. However, she adds there are limitations to the technology. 

Does Duolingo Work?  

“Our research shows that Spanish and French learners who complete the beginning-level material in our courses – which covers levels A1 and A2 of the international proficiency standard, CEFR – have reading and listening skills comparable to students at the end of 4 semesters of university language courses,” Blanco says, via email. “Later research also shows effective learning for intermediate users and for speaking skills, and our latest work has tested the effectiveness of our English course for Spanish speakers, with similar findings.” 

How effective Duolingo is depends in part on how much time a user spends with it. “It took learners in our Spanish and French courses an average of 112 hours to have reading and listening skills comparable to four U.S. university semesters,” Blanco says. “That's half as long as it actually takes to complete four semesters.” 

What Duolingo Does Well

Wagner is not surprised by this efficacy because, at its best, Duolingo is combining aspects of how both children and adults learn languages. Kids learn through full immersion in the language and constant social interactions. Adults learn more through conscious studying.  

“Adults often are actually quite a bit faster to learn language at the very beginning, probably, because they can do things like read, and you can hand them a vocabulary list, and they can memorize it, and they actually have better memories in general,” Wagner says. 

However, adult and adolescent language learners lose this lead over time, as this type of rote memorization may not be the most effective way to learn a language. “Adults can over memorize, and it's not always clear that they're getting the implicit understanding that is actually the basis of real fluency,” she says. 

“Duolingo is fascinating because it's sort of splitting the difference,” Wagner says. “It's taking advantage of a lot of the things that adults can do well, like reading, because there are words all over these apps. But there are a few things that are actually a little bit like early child language learning. It throws you in the middle of everything, and is just like, ‘Here are a bunch of words, we're gonna start using them.’ And that's very much a child's experience.” 

Where Duolingo Has Room for Improvement  

Despite its strengths, Duolingo is not perfect. Pronunciation practice is an area in which Wagner suggests the app leaves something to be desired as it can be extremely forgiving of mispronounced words. “I don’t know what it is trying to pick up on, but it doesn’t care,” Wagner says. “When I go to Mexico, and I say something the way I said it to Duolingo, they look at me, and they just laugh.” 

However, Wagner says even that imperfect vocabulary practice is helpful because it makes the learning on the app more active and gets users at least saying some approximation of the word. 

Blanco also acknowledges that pronunciation is a challenge for Duolingo. Another area the app is working to improve on is around helping students to master everyday speech. 

“One of the hardest parts of language for all students, no matter how they're learning, is having open-ended conversations where they have to create new sentences from scratch,” Blanco says. “In a café, you have a pretty good idea of what you might hear or need to say, but to have a true, unscripted conversation, like with a friend or coworker, is much harder. You need to have sharp listening skills and be able to form a response in real time.”

Blanco and the Duolingo team are optimistic this will improve with time. “We've had some big breakthroughs recently in developing technology to help with this, especially from our machine learning team, and I'm really excited to see where we can take these new tools,” Blanco says. “ We're testing this tool for open-ended writing at the moment, and I think there's a lot of potential to build on it.” 

How Teachers Can Use Duolingo

Duolingo for Schools is a free platform that allows teachers to enroll their students in a virtual classroom so they can track their progress and assign lessons or points to students. “Some teachers use Duolingo and the Schools platform for bonus or extra credit work, or to fill extra class time,” Blanco says. “Others use the Duolingo curriculum directly in support of their own curriculum, since our schools initiative provides access to all the vocabulary and grammar taught in the courses.” 

Teachers working with more advanced students can also use the podcasts offered in the app that feature real speakers from around the world. 

For students or any person looking to learn a language, consistency is important. “No matter your motivation, we recommend building a daily habit that you can stick with and incorporate into your routine,” she says. “Study most days of the week, and help yourself make time for your lessons by doing them at the same time every day, maybe with your morning coffee or on your commute.” 

• What Is Duolingo And How Does It Work? Tips & Tricks
• What is Duolingo Math and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks

Learning a new language is an important part of any young person’s education. And, whether starting in kindergarten or 12th grade, every student needs an abundance of practice in all aspects of language learning—from vocabulary and grammar to listening and speaking.  

With audio, video, and gamified lessons, the online environment can be an ideal place to learn and practice a second or third language. The following free sites and apps offer a wide variety of language learning resources for students of all ages. 

 Best Free Language Learning Websites and Apps 

• Anki
  Anki is not just a flashcard language learning tool -- it’s a flashcard memory tool. Anki requires a free software download and has a steeper learning curve than the simpler language learning sites. But it’s one of the best flashcard-based systems available as it uses the research-proven spaced repetition flashcard method. Extensive text and video user support is provided as well.
• BBC Languages  
  A collection of free language-learning resources, including courses and online video tutorials for French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek and dozens of others. BBC’s Guide to Languages  offers introductory facts, words, phrases, and videos about many of the world’s languages. 
• Clozemaster   Web/Android/iOs
  Clozemaster’s charmingly retro font belies its modern, gamified approach to learning languages. Taking cloze testing to the next level, it provides multiple choice or text input games for common words, grammar challenges, listening skills, and more. It’s easy to set up a free account and start playing/learning languages, and the site keeps track of users’ progress. 
• Duolingo    Web/Android/iOs
  Duolingo’s short gamified language lessons are fun and rewarding, with instant validation of correct answers and a scaffolded approach to learning. The site uses images to help users arrive at answers, as well as sound effects, which add to the entertaining aspect. Integrated with Google Classroom and Remind, Duolingo for Schools is free for teachers and students. 
• Imendi
  Super easy-to-use free site for practicing vocabulary. Choose one of eight languages -- Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, French, Italian, Arabic, or Czech -- and start solving the digital flashcards. Switch languages or flashcards easily. Twelve lesson categories range from basic conversation to sports and hobbies. 
• Lingq   Web/Android/iOs
  Lingq invites users to choose their own learning sources, from YouTube videos to bestselling books to popular music. Browse the extensive lesson library and check out videos with intriguing titles, such as “8 French Idioms to Complain like a French Person,” or simply follow the beginner, intermediate, and advanced guided courses. Free account includes thousands of hours of audio with transcript, access to all lessons on web and mobile, 20 Vocabulary LingQs, five imported lessons, and other features. Premium upgrades available
• Lyrics Gap
  Lots of people struggle to learn a new language, so why not pair language learning with music? Lyrics Gap does just that by letting users fill in the missing words of popular songs in 14 languages. Provides thousands of free song exercises for users. Teachers, create a free account to start inventing your own missing-lyrics lesson!
• Memrise   Web/Android/iOs
  Memrise offers not only a full panel of foreign languages to learn, but also topics in the arts, literature, STEM, and many more subjects. Learn basic vocabulary in your selected language through short video flash cards, which give users a chance to gain confidence by demonstrating learning right away. Freemium model. 
• Open Culture
  On this site devoted to free educational and cultural learning resources, explore the extensive list of 48 foreign language courses, from American Sign Language to Japanese to Yiddish. The list links to free academic websites, podcasts, audio, video, and text resources for learning foreign languages. 
• Polyglot Club
  Learn new languages, cultures, and customs by connecting with native speakers from around the world.  Advanced students and teachers can sell their language lessons or translation skills on the exchange.   
• Talk Sauk
  Wonderful free digital resources for learning to understand, speak, and write the Native American Sauk language. A dictionary of selected words and phrases is accompanied by games, audio storybooks, and videos.
• RhinoSpike
  Taking a different slant on language learning, RhinoSpike emphasizes listening and speaking above all else. The system is simple and innovative: Share a text file to be read aloud by a native speaker, then download the audio as a template for practice. Bonus -- help others to learn by recording audio in your native language, while boosting your own place in the text file queue.
• Surface Languages
  An easy-to-navigate site providing free text and audio basics for learning 82 languages, including common phrases, numbers, days and seasons, foods, and more.

►Best English Language Learners Lessons and Activities
►What is YouGlish and How Does YouGlish Work?
►Best Google Docs Add-ons for Teachers

VHS Learning (VHS Inc.) has announced enhancements to its course catalog for the 2020-21 school year that will expand Advanced Placement®, core, and elective offerings. New and enhanced courses are in the world language, language arts, business, and science disciplines. All courses are offered within VHS Learning’s global online classroom environment. Registration for the 2020-2021 academic year will open in May.

Starting in the fall 2020 semester, students will be able to select American Sign Language 3, Physics, and an enhanced AP® English Literature and Composition course. Marketing and the Internet has also been revised for 2020-2021. Additionally, VHS Learning will introduce a new Advanced Placement® course, AP® Latin, for students who have already successfully completed Latin 1, 2 and 3.

As the newest AP® course in the VHS Learning catalog, AP® Latin is the equivalent of a first semester college Latin course. The AP® Latin curriculum is designed to provide students with the skills needed to read, understand, translate, analyze, and appreciate Latin poetry and prose. 

Additionally, VHS Learning will be offering a new full-year standard-level STEM course starting in fall 2020. Physics, paired with its comprehensive lab program, gives students an introductory look into modern physics concepts. Students will use hands-on and virtual labs to investigate key topics such as mechanics, electricity, magnetism, waves, and more.

The expanded 2020-2021 catalog will also offer opportunities for deeper exploration of current VHS Learning offerings. New course American Sign Language (ASL) 3, builds upon skills developed in ASL 2, giving students opportunities to increase their vocabulary and speed while expanding their ability to understand and express themselves in ASL. VHS Learning has also enhanced its AP® English Literature and Composition curriculum to better suit the needs of online learners while maintaining the pace of a typical university English course.

VHS Learning offers more than 220 online courses, including 24 AP® courses and a selection of dual-credit courses that help students earn college credit while still in high school.

TalkingPoints

Multilingual texting tool enhances school-to-home communication

Pros: Automatic translation and excellent user support allow teachers to communicate with families easily.

Cons: Some delays in message delivery; grammatical and spelling errors might affect translation.

Bottom Line: Easy-to-use tool for supporting communication and engagement with families in 100+ languages.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Duolingo

Stellar language-learning tool levels up skills in bite-sized bursts

Pros: Comprehensive, clear lessons guide students through questions and let them set the pace, personalizing the experience.

Cons: The games are great, but they'll work even better coupled with teacher-led differentiation and thoughtful classroom instruction.

Bottom Line: Duolingo's lessons provide a simple, effective, and engrossing way to learn a language.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Florida State University’s  Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) has announced a multi-year partnership with SoapBox Labs, to create language and literacy assessments for young children.  

While literacy assessment is critical to identifying challenges early on, young children are unable to perform the sort of tasks associated with traditional formative assessments.  SoapBox Labs’ speech recognition technology was built specifically for kids and their early literacy needs.  

FCRR's pilot studies of SoapBox Labs’ speech recognition technology commenced in September 2019 with assessments of 1,000 students - from kindergarten through 2nd grade - across Florida, Oregon, Atlanta and South Carolina.  

The partnership between SoapBox Labs and FCRR is part of the Reach Every Reader initiative, which was launched in early 2018 with funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). 

Do you have students and families in your school who speak more than one language? In schools and districts in different corners of the world, the answer to this question is often yes. Your students might speak another language at home. Families in your school might not speak the instructional language at your school and require a translator for meetings and school events.

Making sure that everyone in your school community feels valued is essential. It’s also important to share information and celebrations in ways that all families can participate. If you stop by my blog regularly (sign up here) or follow along on social media, you know how much I love the Adobe Spark tools. I even released a podcast episode this month with ways to use the Adobe Spark tools for creative teacher projects.

In this blog post, I’m excited to share a strategy with you that can support families, students and community members who speak more than one language. The process for making this happen is more straightforward than it might seem at first. So I hope you’ll put this step-by-step plan into action this school year!

Spark Video in Multiple Languages

Spark Video is a movie-making tool that lets you combine images, icons, text, music, and narration to create a video. The narration feature is what we will focus on in this blog post. If you’d like to explore how to have students share digital citizenship tips or create math tutorials check out these blog post links. 

Create a Spark Video

The first thing to do is to create your Spark Video. This movie could be about a special event, a student book trailer, or any movie you’ve made with Spark Video. Record your narration in English (or whatever language you want for your original video.) For the sake of this example, we will imagine that the primary language is English. The screenshots below show the steps on a Chrome web-browser, but you can follow these steps on the iOS app too. 

Duplicate Your Video

Once you have finished your movie, return to your projects screen. This spot is where you can find all of your Spark Video creations. In the upper right-hand corner, look for the button with three dots and click on it. This button will give you the option to duplicate the project. 

When you make the copy of your video make sure to put the new language you will use for the second video in the title. Changing the name during this step will make it easier to tell the videos apart later on. After you rename the project, open it up in Edit mode. 

Replace and Rerecord

The duplicated Spark Video is simply a copy of the movie you made first. To record your video in multiple languages, you will need to rerecord the narration on each slide. To replace the recordings in English, all you have to do is hold the orange button and rerecord. Instead of recording in English again, you can record yourself (or someone else) speaking the language you would like to feature.

So for this example, let’s imagine that the language you’d like to feature in this second video is Spanish. You might speak Spanish fluently. So you can listen to the English version of the recording and replace that recording with a Spanish translation of the narration. Alternatively, you might ask a native Spanish speaker to listen to your original recording or look at your notes/script, and record their voice on each slide.

Of course, you don’t have to use Spanish as the secondary language; this could be any language that you’d like to feature. You can actually make multiple copies of your video and record them in more than one additional language. All you have to do is follow the duplicate and rerecord steps listed above. 

Spark Video Tips

Although Google Translate is a powerful tool, I encourage you to have a native speaker record their voice over your project if you don’t speak the second language fluently. This way members of your school community can easily understand the narration of the video. If your video features a lot of text on the screen, you may want to edit the slides, so the text reads in this language too.

Duplicating Spark Video projects and recording in multiple languages can happen for a few different reasons. In addition to thinking about your family and community audience, students might take on roles of creators too. In a foreign language classroom, students can create two versions of the same video. One in the language they speak fluently, and a second in the new language they are learning.

Sharing Spark Videos

When it comes to sharing these videos with your school community, make sure to let everyone know that the videos are in a particular language. You might include a special message when you share the link. 

If families in your school aren’t used to having resources in their native language, they may assume that a video sent home in a school email will be in a language they don’t speak fluently. If you are committed to sharing videos in multiple languages this school year, make sure to get the word out, have a consistent sharing schedule, and ask for feedback from families too!

I can’t wait to see what Spark Videos you create this school year! Head over to Adobe Spark’s website, or download the Adobe Spark app for iOS to get started. 

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

The promise of educational technology is that it allows every student to experience instruction tailored to his or her learning style and specific learning needs. Equity of access and the opportunity for deep personalization are founding principles of many 1:1 programs. Most educators believe that the integration of technology into the curriculum supports the learning of all students but especially those students who face additional challenges.

This is especially true for ELL students or students with dyslexia, which is the most common language-based learning disability. Although Sora, the new reading app from OverDrive Education, was created to excite all students about reading, it has specific benefits for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges. Sora provides IEP support with audiobooks, dyslexic font, enlarged text, Read-Alongs and more.

In addition, all students can benefit from reading enhancements such as notes, highlights, and defined words that can be exported from the app. By making reading easier and more pleasurable, Sora allows students to take a journey in their imagination that broadens the necessary knowledge base to help them develop critical thinking, skill mastery, and citizenship.

Educators demo on how easy it is for students to discover their next great read.

Reimagining the Student Reading Experience

Sora was specifically designed as a K-12 digital tool to support individualized learning and to standardize the student’s reading experience across devices. Intuitive design and in-app help reduce questions for teachers and other school staff so that students can spend more time reading and learning.

Students are more engaged in their reading with interactions with achievements and avatars. With just one tap, they can borrow a book from the library and begin reading. Educators can restrict content based on grade level and group titles into class sets as well as include personalization formats like audiobooks and tools such as dyslexic font available through Sora to engage all readers, no matter their reading level, preference or pace. There are even resources for educators to help students discover their next great read.

Students will love:

• Easy onboarding—simply find your school and log in using school credentials.
• IEP support-audio books, dyslexic font, enlarged text, Read-Alongs.
• Unified experience across devices and operating systems.
• Simple, one-tap step to borrow and start reading.
• Reading enhancements including notes, highlights and defined words, all of which can be exported from the app.
• Automatic syncing of loans, holds, noted, highlights, defined words, activity and achievements across multiple devices.

Clicker here to find out more about the Sora reading app and open a world of reading to your students.

Edgenuity is implementing live lessons for its virtual World Language courses.

Beginning this summer, the new “World Language Live Lesson” add-on will allow students to access virtual Extended Learning Teachers –provided by Edgenuity– that teach live, weekly lessons alongside Edgenuity’s existing courses and virtual instruction. The Extended Learning Teachers provide an engaging learning experience in which students can interact with teachers and fellow students, practice speaking the language and receive real-time feedback from expert professionals.

[An Excellent Choice for AP English Exam Prep]

The Extended Learning Teachers draw from multiple aspects of a particular region to craft lessons that aim to both increase language knowledge and expand cultural understanding. These lessons are designed to align with current events, relevant national celebrations and the students’ broader curriculum. The World Language Live Lessons themselves are also customized to align with current events, relevant cultural activities and students’ broader curriculum.

Educators interested in adding live lessons to their World Languages curriculum can visit Edgenuity.com.

Ponddy Education Inc. announces Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to tailor learning materials for students studying Chinese.

AI technology is the foundation of the company’s flagship language learning product: Ponddy Chinese Smart Textbooks. Features include:

[New Personalized Learning Program Uses Writing Analysis, Adaptive Learning Technology]

• Affinity Knowledge Learning System (AKLS) – This patent pending AI technology curates text into levels and then creates interactive learning modules that can be assembled to create customized curriculum for every student.
• Word, Character and Radical Pond – A set of interactive language scaffolding tools that creates a network of associated words, characters and radicals.
• Real-Time Analytics & Customized Curriculum – Teachers are able to monitor students’ mastery of skills and compare progress that can inform instruction to further personalize learning.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

The Noun Project

Think in pictures with vibrant visual language everyone can understand

Pros: Most of the icons are fantastic, and it's fun just to browse the site.

Cons: Some icons are repetitive, and some schools may not have the design software needed to create them.

Bottom Line: It's a neat, well-executed concept with lots of possibilities for learning, imagining, and creating.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education