Duolingo Information

Duolingo Weekly Lessons

Duolingo is a weekly work habits grade. The week starts on Monday and ends the following Sunday night. You have all week to finish the lessons and can control when you do it. You can do one lesson a day, a few lessons on Monday and Tuesday, or wait until last minute Sunday night. You have to manage your time in order to do well.

On average, one lesson can take five minutes, though you can often finish one faster than that. At most,  I'm asking for about 30 minutes of work per week that you can spread out as you wish.

Duolingo Weekly Assignments

Students were assigned specific skills such as Basics 2, Greetings, or People that they need to level up at least once before the end of the quarter. Each week, a new skill is assigned, but students can still complete lessons at their own pace.  It is not a problem if a student finishes a skill late, but they must be completed by the end of the quarter.

How Grading Works

If a student earns over 150 points, their grade is a 4.
If a student earns between 100 -149 points, their grade is a 3.
If a student earns between 50-99 points, their grade is a 2.
If a student earns less than 49 points, their grade is a 1.
If a student does no work, they earn a 0 for the week.


Fixing Low Grades and the Last Week of the Quarter

During the last week of the quarter, students will have a limited amount of days to make up some missing or late assignments or lessons.


Duolingo Tips 

  • Set a schedule. Get a routine. Students who consistently do their homework at the same time every day or week are more consistent at getting good grades.
  • Do Duolingo on a computer. In every skill, it has a description of some of the grammar before you see it. This can help a lot.
  • Early on, write EVERYTHING down.  Keep a list of any new vocab as it comes up. Most of the time, the hardest part is the listening section where you must listen to a short sentence or phrase and transcribe it in French and this can be very hard because the sentences are out of context.  If you are unsure of what is spoken, you can make some educated guesses by using your vocab list.
  • All nouns (places, things, objects, people) are masculine or feminine. This means that a table (une table) and a chair (une chaise) are feminine words while a pencil (un crayon) or a notebook (un cahier) are masculine.
  • You can tell that a word is feminine because of the word before it.  Une or La mean it is feminine. Un or Le are masculine.  The adjectives will change.
Verb conjugation!  This means the last few letters of a verb (an action) change depending on WHO is doing the action.  In English we often add an "s" at the end of words. Example :  I eat.  She eats.

Same thing happens in French, but there are more options.     Again, make a list of which endings go with which words.
Example :
Je Mange
Tu Manges
Il Mange
Nous Mangeons
Vous Mangez
Ils Mangent


Last but not least!
  • Mistakes are a good thing. It is natural to make from mistakes when learning a language.  Learn from them. Don't just move on to the next question. Look at your mistake.  Know how to fix it so you can do it right the next time.