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DuoLingo for high school Spanish?


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My dd loves duolingo and has completed her trees in several languages. She has done well on her language exams in a large part thanks to Duo. Spainish is not one of her languages so no personal experience. She participates in the immersion groups if they exist. She has different extra things for different languages because of her unique opportunities .....friend's mother is Dutch for instance, trips to France.....

 

Maintaining a gold tree is work and can be time consuming. If your child can complete and maintain a tree for a short period they are in good shape. Imo My dd doesn't bother to always keep her trees gold because of time.

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We're planning to use it with Breaking the Barrier (ipad version is only $15) as a git 'ER done, check the box subject.

 

(Kiddo has zero interest in learning a language other than computer code & wants to devote his time to other pursuits & I'm ok with that, but he needs " some" language on his transcripts)

 

I also have Galore Parks French in case we decide we need that too or he doesn't like BtB.

 

We did a whopping ONE day of French this fall before moving on to other things. But plan to do it in the spring when some of his other commitments are over (coding class & robotics group taking a lot of time right now).

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DD & I both use Duolingo. Both of us learn best with a grammar-first approach, so we do Duo 'behind' whatever program she uses. (Actually, I'm stuck right now partway through the tree because I cannot figure out "past tense" in Spanish without it being explained to me explicitly. So, I just keep the tree gold.) I also do Duo in French & am slowly moving through the skills & keeping the tree gold as I go.

 

If she learns well with Duo's style, go for it.

 

If she doesn't, have you thought about having her do Spanish for an hour a day using Easy Peasy High School's Spanish courses? She could do the Easy Peasy course for 45 minutes & then add Duo for 15 minutes making an hour a day. She should be able to do whip through the Spanish I content in less than a school year if she puts the time (vs. do-one-lesson-a-day since it is pretty quick at the beginning). I'd have her move onto Spanish II at that point. It is pretty get-er-done.

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I don't have a high schooler, just saw the title and opened because I like DuoLingo...

 

I would pair DuoLingo with something that explicitly teaches grammar. There are lots of accessible and cheap/free options. Some that I know of are the Practice Makes Perfect workbooks, studyspanish.com, and Breaking the Barrier's iBook curric.

Edited by Jackie
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We are currently pairing DuoLingo Spanish with Getting Started With Spanish (the Kindle version is only $10). DD, eighth grade, and I are both doing both programs, although she is further along on DuoLingo than I am. But since I have studied French and Italian, and we have both studied Latin, we have been flying through GSWS. I do think it's been good for the explicit grammar teaching, and it makes a good complement to DuoLingo.

 

DD is pretty good at understanding basic spoken conversations in Spanish by now, kind of surprisingly. She spends a fair amount of time on DuoLingo not just doing the tree skills but also practicing her translation skills on the immersion part.

 

I am looking at getting Advanced Spanish Step By Step for her to work through next. Since she knows most of what's being taught in GSWS from DuoLingo, I think she's beyond the Easy Spanish SBS book or will be soon.

 

I also thought this at some point: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804126240/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-6&pf_rd_r=1KF37SFVB3409MXNA5CC&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2090149182&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

I'm having her aim for 45-60 minutes a day on Spanish next year for ninth grade, and that should include some review of vocabulary most, if not all, days. Plus some viewing and listening to and reading whatever Spanish videos, audio materials, and books we can find, from picture books on up.

Edited by happypamama
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We're using it as a heavy part of our Spanish course, but it doesn't explicitly teach the grammar. You'd really need to add something. Another option not listed is Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish.

 

My teens actually find comfort in their younger siblings Spanish for Children chants. It's super simple to memorize them, and life-saving when you're stuck on Duolingo. LOL

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