Tips and Tools

• Engage with online content with FlexText^®

  Click FlexText^® page icons to navigate back and forth from FlexText^® content to authentic resource links, activities, and assessments in Explorer^®.

  • The educator's FlexText^® experience (14 min)
  • The learner's FlexText^® experience (8 min)

• Support communicative language learning in context

  Activities in Explorer^® support learners in acquiring or reinforcing vocabulary and grammar in context. Explorer^® offers tasks in all modes of communication, including additional interpersonal tasks via online writing and recorded speaking opportunities. Expansion activities can be assigned to your entire class or to specific learners, and the Instructional Strategy Toolkit offers 200+ ideas you can filter by learner styles, proficiency level, and more.

  • Instructional Strategies Toolkit (1 min)
  • Language in context examples: EntreCulturas & EntreCultures (5 min)

• Promote community and inspire interpersonal communication

  Classroom Forum is a flexible feature that educators can use to pose lesson openers, polls, links to external resources, and more. Learners and teachers can use Classroom Forum anytime as their community "bulletin board." Teachers love posting lesson openers and more, and students can comment, exchange GIFS, upload audio/video/photos, etc.

  • Classroom Forum and remote teaching webinar (1hr+)

• Enhance cultural classroom connections

  Discussion Forum tasks are included in Explorer^® tasks themselves, providing educators an easy way to assign, monitor, and grade task-specific communications.

  • Task Discussion Forums: How-To (12 min)

• Explore countries of focus

  Authentic resources always relate directly to unit themes and inspire communicative activities. In Explorer^®, these resources include video, audio, links to podcasts and news stations from around the world, and more.

  • Reasons for Authentic Resources (9 min)
  • Examples in EntreCulturas and EntreCultures (10 min)
  • Webinar (1 hr+)

• Flip the classroom and continue teaching

  Learning Site® supports educators in implementing a basic discovery approach to grammar. Assign instructional strategy videos to enhance student growth across skills!

  • Teaching Grammar in Context with EntreCulturas (12 min)
  • Teaching Grammar in Context with EntreCultures (10 min)

• Have learners assess their own progress

  Online student portfolios follow learners from unit to unit, level to level. Students can upload evidence of what they can do in the language, reflect on their progress related to Can-Do Statements, and set goals.

  • Portfolio guide (pdf)
  • Portfolio overview (2 min)
  • Supporting Self-assessment (6 min)
  • Why Use Portfolios? (8 min)

• Assign tasks and remind students of what's ahead

  Use the online calendar to remind students of upcoming assignments and deadlines, assign tasks to specific learners or an entire class, and more.

  • Gradebook overview (1min)
  • Assigning activities (3min)
  • Filtering activities (5min)
  • Assignments for students (12min)

• Provide continuous feedback

  Deliver feedback with the option to record or write comments. Assess progress through a variety of formative assessments, and evaluate language and intercultural proficiency growth through IPA summative assessments - all with a goal of informing learners of how far they've come, and what they should focus on next.

  • Why deliver oral feedback? (7 min)
  • Performance-based Assessments and Rubrics: EntreCulturas and EntreCultures
  • Assessment and Feedback webinar (1 hr+)

  Download or print the above tips as a tip sheet pdf