Digital worksheets with special characters for foreign language classes

(Plus tips for bringing more immersion techniques into the classroom)

What is immersion language learning?

Immersion language learning is a curriculum delivered in 50% of a foreign language. One of the most well-known examples of an immersive language experience is the Middlebury Language Schools. Students immerse themselves in the language of their choosing for a summer, and the results are remarkable. We have seen the growth of immersive language schools throughout the country.

Even if the whole immersive experience is not possible at your school, you can still employ many strategies inside your foreign language classroom to help your students grasp the language faster.

What are the benefits of immersive learning?

The obvious advantage of immersive language learning is how fast students learn the language. There are numerous cognitive benefits as well.

What are some tips for the immersion classroom?

Most schools are not set up to do an official immersion language structure, but you can still use some strategies in your classroom to get a more immersive experience.

Pick topics that are interesting to your students

Being engaged with a foreign language will lead to learning it faster. Choose topics, texts, and stories to base discussion on in class. Students will connect to the language when you bring in stories or relevant cultural topics that gain their interest. They will want to know more, and curiosity will push them to use the language more. This could be soccer, pop music, the Day of the Dead, or even food in a Spanish classroom. There’s a reason students choose to study their language, and nurturing their interests can lead to more language usage.

Throw out the drill work

We all know practice makes perfect, but too much practice can become tedious. Worksheets take out the real-world experience that an immersion classroom is trying to accomplish. But when you do assign worksheets, make sure they are relevant to classroom discussions or doing a task that emulates a real-world scenario. (Keep reading to see how you can digitize your classroom worksheets and use special characters below!)

Immersive language still requires learning standards

This isn’t brunch in a French cafe. It’s your classroom. So there still needs to be some goals that you are accomplishing. An excellent way to stay on track is to use the set of standards for your state or school district. (ACTFL works well if you don’t have a set curriculum.) This will bring structure to your language immersion activities in your foreign language classroom. It will also keep your instruction well-rounded.

Struggling is alright (to an extent)

This one is tough, and you have to trust your intuition. There is a fine line between letting your students struggle a bit because that’s where real learning happens, and ensuring they have the support they need. It’s frustrating and challenging, but it can’t feel impossible. You can’t let them struggle to the point of giving up—coach them through the challenges. Use your wisdom to know when to step in and help, but trust that they have the grit to push through an immersion activity. Remind students to take a breath and put in the effort.

Connect other subjects to foreign language

Relevancy is a motivator for students. Encourage your students to make connections from other classes, and bring these connections into a discussion in your foreign language class. Your students will begin to pick up history and culture in social studies or literature and poetry in their ELA class. They may even find math and science concepts as well. It will also emphasize the globalization of language when they realize how far-reaching their new language is.

Incorporate online resources

Online resources are your best bet for keeping your assignments up to date. You can incorporate a news story or music video directly into an online worksheet using TeacherMade’s online worksheet maker. This will lead to higher engagement in your class because you are using multimedia that is timely. Read on to see how you can use TeacherMade in the classroom.

What is TeacherMade?

TeacherMade is an intuitive online assignment app that transforms PDFs and paper assignments into digital worksheets. You can use TeacherMade inside the traditional classroom or through remote learning. TeacherMade brings flexibility to your classroom.

- It’s easy to turn a worksheet into an interactive assignment, and your worksheets will look like the paper versions.
- Our auto-grading features help you to regain your time outside the classroom. You will be better prepared to focus on what matters most– teaching.
- Your students will appreciate the immediate feedback they get from assignments. They will no longer have to wait around for graded work.

We always listen to our teachers to add features that you want out of our online assignment software. There’s a way for teachers and students to use special characters on digital assignments for foreign language teachers. Read on below to see how to do this!

How can students add special characters to my digital worksheets?

Have your students ever needed special characters like accent marks or punctuation to complete their TeacherMade Activities? Good news, now they have them!