As a company founded and run by teachers, we select our educational resources with great care. Over the past few years, we have developed our own online resources, including audio-visual flashcards, interactive posters, communicative activities and more. By designing our own instructional materials, our aim is to promote effective, meaningful teaching and learning in the classroom.
Our web-based platform features a selection of activities, quizzes and exercises inspired by years of classroom experience. Not only do they add strong educational value to our programs but they also help make our Zoom sessions lively and interactive while providing tailored homework materials leading to successful self-study.
Every activity is carefully designed by the teacher for each class in collaboration with our coding team. Our applications are developed in Javascript/PHP using quality vector images and audio recordings. Activity formats are flexible and customizable to a group's specific needs and level.
During the Zoom session, the instructor may use videos, pictures, pdf or Word documents as well as web-based applications. More particularly, our methodology relies on visual cues - pictures, illustrations, icons, etc. - to introduce and practice language material: not only are visuals appealing to children but they also play a significant role in helping to memorize words and provide a helpful alternative to English for conveying or clarifying meaning. We use them with consistency throughout our courses, not only for illustrative purposes but also as integral parts of our activities and games.
We allow students to interact tactilely with the elements of an activity through screen share during the Zoom class by moving labels, typing text, or selecting answers during a quiz.
Online homework activities are always presented during the class and thoroughly explained beforehand so children can familiarize themselves with the functionalities and options available to them.
Asynchronous learning is an important aspect of our program and regular practice of class material regularly is critical to your child's continuous progress. Our online resources are designed to allow students to continue to develop their reading, writing, and listening skills outside of class. For every unit, our platform features a set of structured activities that they can do independently, by reviewing and learning the material covered during the Zoom session, or by testing their knowledge using the quizzes.
One of the great benefits of our online platform lies in the presence of audio throughout our resources. We record most our materials using a standard French accent and link audio files to images, text, buttons, labels, depending on each activity. These recordings help expose students to spoken French at home: this will go a long way towards developing your child's listening and pronunciation skills.
As experienced instructors, we know that fun is very subjective: often times we have observed students experiencing 'great fun' working on grammar or translation-based activities whereas bingo games could quickly lose their appeal for others. To vary things up a little, we have brought additional features such as timers and scores for most quizzes. We have also added animation, sounds and even background music to some of our applications to mimic video games.
Ma Classe Learning hosts a dedicated platform for its own online educational resources. After the first class, students are granted access to their own page featuring the lesson in progress, homework for the week, a place to upload assignments when applicable, and other useful links. The page will be updated on a weekly basis and the resources used over the course of the program will remain accessible at all times from a customized menu.
Similar to imaged flashcards, audio-visual sliders are an effective tool to memorize or just review the vocabulary or phrases practiced during class. Slides can be shuffled and the text or image hidden to test the knowledge of the student. Your child has access to pronunciation any time via the repeat-audio button.
Multiple-choice quizzes are used to test and assess various skills. By default, pronunciation is triggered automatically upon slide change and when selecting an option: this provides an immersive experience with a virtual teacher constantly interacting with the student. Multiple-choice quizzes vary in difficulty (with sometimes more than one correct answer) and questions can be based either on images, audio recordings or an English sentence, depending on the skills addressed.
A great way to develop listening skills and consolidate student knowledge of vocabulary and phrases is through spelling tests. We do encourage the memorization of spellings of basic words from an early stage. Automated 'dictées' on our online platform can feature visual cues for clues and students can be tested on a range of words or more elaborated sentences.
Like the popular bingo games, students have to identify and locate on the board the image or text of the word called out by the virtual teacher. Written words can be clarified by flipping the card over. This is a fun way to practice listening, or just review basic vocabulary.
This typical audio-visual activity will help young students absorb basic vocabulary and practice reading by matching each word with the right image, while familiarizing themselves with its pronunciation.
This typical second language exercise instructs students to form proper sentences by rearranging the words (on labels) in the right order. The length of sentences can vary depending on age and level: shorter sentences allow for practice of syntax while longer sentences typically come along with an English translation. Rather than a translation, an audio recording can turn the whole activity into a listening exercise, encouraging students to sharpen their auditory discrimination skills.