I had recently taken up learning french after a friend offered to run classes once a week during lunchtime. I had heard about duo lingo so I signed up and soon found that I was on a five day streak- it seemed that nothing could stop me. That was until my next french lesson. There was talk about how the french you learn in duo lingo wasn’t very useful in France. I walked out of that lesson a changed person. I was no longer inspired. It was like any belief that I could learn to speak the french language was gone. Since that day I have not completed another duo lingo session. Everyday I get notifications but I have not had any inclination to make time to complete a 5 minute session. On reflection it showed me just how tenuous the idea of success can be for our students. A poor mark in an assessment task, feelings of confusion in class or even students discussing about how hard the subject is, can all lead to a student believing that they will not be able to reach their goals. It is well known that self-belief in a subject is strongly connected to achievement. So the question is, ‘How do we help students achieve when they have missed some of the foundations in the year before or they find the content material  challenging?’ This is where differentiation comes in, that is setting goals that each students can reach for and find success. I have been trying a range of strategies in my classes over the past few years; using study groups, setting up individual homework plans, identifying areas where students need extra support and then running targeted sessions during class – and it has been really satisfying to see students who have struggled in their learning find a new confidence in class. So can I be successful in learning french? Of course I can. I am just two duo lingo sessions away from getting my next two day streak.