It’s no secret to anyone who knows her that Rach is all about all things German. My husband went on a business trip a couple of years ago and it nearly killed her because she couldn’t go. She really loves the German language. We’ve used one or two foreign language programs, but never really stuck with them, so I was so glad to be given 6 months of access to the German Courses from Middlebury Interactive Languages. Since Rach is a freshman I decided to go with High School Year 1, that way she could have the potential to review what she may have already learned and move on to earn credit toward her high school diploma.
Middlebury Interactive Languages offers courses in Spanish, French, Chinese, and German for grades K-12, along with a Summer Academy for grades 8-12. As the name states, Middlebury is an interactive and self-paced language program that uses images, videos, and audio to teach students the language of their choice.
When logged in, there are several menu options. You can view the table of contents for the program, a calendar that lets you schedule assignments, a grade book that shows all of the graded assignments, like quizzes, and any notifications you may have received. Lessons are broken down into semesters and units, and each semester has 90 lessons, which is enough for 1 lesson a day for 18 weeks. Each unit is then broken into lessons, and each lesson is broken down into activities.
The lessons are peppered with teacher tips for new skills and activities such as speaking labs, where students listen to audio, then record themselves saying the same phrase; they will then compare the two to see how well they mastered their speech. There are warm-up exercises that allow students to listen to words and phrases.
Listening, reading, and writing activities allow students to listen to audio while reading conversations, and then they will choose the correct words to fill the blanks. Middlebury also provides printable vocabulary lists for each unit. These are super handy to have and Rach definitely takes advantage of this resource. The table of contents will check off each activity that’s been completed, so students can start where they left off next time.
Students will also be able to create conversations with drag and drop boxes, as well as practice grammar in the same manner.
As I said before, Rach has learned some German in the past, but it’s been at least a year since she’s done any, which is why I started her on Level 1. Since Middlebury is so interactive, students are actively working while they are learning, so it isn’t like a classroom setting where you just sit and listen. I like this aspect for Rach because she tends to dislike watching videos. All work and lessons are online and built into the curriculum, so there’s really nothing for me to do unless she just needs a little tech help or something. Even if a lesson has been completed, you can go over them as many times as you want. Rachelle worked on her German 3 days per week during the review period. She only made use of the lessons via the table of contents. I’m not really much for assigning anything specific. This program is a little more challenging than she’s used to and gets progressively more challenging as lessons are completed. I love this because she’s using more critical thinking skills. I haven’t heard any complaints from her about the program. She didn’t even flinch about having to do pop quizzes. That’s saying a lot! If you’re looking for a challenging but fun foreign language program, be sure to look at Middlebury Interactive Languages as an option.
Be sure to click through and read the reviews from my fellow Crew Mates. There were different languages reviewed during this time. Thanks for stopping by!
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