Blended Learning at its best
Tracks is a blended learning course for secondary and tertiary education.
The course is divided into two separate parts, online study and books for practicing the acquired language.
Learning independently
Every teacher knows the challenge of having a mixed ability class. To solve this, Tracks has multiple ways of providing differentiation within one group. Online students are assigned a personal profile and track according to their general ability. Once students begin learning, the course automatically adds remedial exercises or allows students to skip exercises based on their results. Similarly the built-in vocabulary trainer adapts to individual strengths and weaknesses.
The whole course is designed so that students absorb the language into their long term memory as rapidly as possible. By intertwining vocabulary, text and video with sufficient and long term repetition, the words and structures move from the short term to long term memory which is essential for successful language learning.
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Collaborate in class
In class, students work together on activating assignments and interesting projects. Attractive student books invite creativity and offer support where necessary. Students are encouraged to actively use the language they have learned online.
The classroom lessons are fun for the student and for you as a teacher. Of course a clear teacher’s book offers guidance and saves time in lesson preparation.
Keeping Track
Different tracks, personalize learning? It sounds like a nightmare having to keep track of students’ results. Fortunately Tracks makes it easy and gives you options.
Set goals. Within Tracks it is easy to set goals for students. After setting a goal both you and the student can see how much time is required to achieve the target.
Progress report. In one simple overview you can see where all the students in your class are. If you require more detail, you can zoom in on a single student’s results and their answers.
Certificates. At the end of each unit a certificate is created giving the average scores for each skill.
The Didactic Concept
Tracks is based on two pillars:
- Learning by doing: exposure and training
- Blended Learning: A combination of personalized learning, activating assignments and interesting projects during the classroom lesson
For the classroom lessons, Holmwood’s has opted for the communicative method of language acquisition. The assignments in the student’s books are aimed at working together and communicating effectively in English.
Structure and features Tracks
Levels: A1 – B2
The Pre-A1 levels are available online for students who have not yet reached the A1 level. Each level consists of 12 units and one unit takes 3 weeks, based on 3 lessons per week.
Example structure per week:
- 1 hour independent study online
- 1 lesson with practical exercises from the student’s books
- 1 lesson, the students work on the project from the student’s books.
Depending on your educational situation it is possible to opt for an alternative scheme.
