One of the questions I see the most in my online professional networks is “I want to provide more comprehensible input to my students. How do I get started?”. Here are some ideas for you:

1. Find a workshop. What I love about CI workshops and conferences is that they are really hands-on. You will leave with concrete next steps to implement in your classroom. Click here to find a CI workshop near you. Also consider online training at Comprehended.

2. Find a PLC. Click here to find a Proficiency/CI Professional Learning Community online or near you. Collaborating with my peers has been a great source of growth for me.

3. Find your CI peers. Click here to find a CI practitioner near you. Then go and observe them or start your own PLC. Nothing beats observing a CI teacher with their students and see students engaged with input.

4. Watch Classroom demos. If you are unable to attend a workshop, a PLC, or have no CI peers nearby, click here for a playlist of comprehension-based teaching videos.

5. Listen to a podcast. Click here for Liam’s Printer super helpful and practical podcast: The Motivated Classroom.

6. My favorite CI strategies. Sometimes the easiest way to start is to learn one strategy and try it out in your class. These are a few of my favorites:

Movie Talk: Use a video to tell an interesting story in comprehensible language.

Story Listening: Use the whiteboard to tell an interesting story.

Personalized Questions & Answers. Ask interesting and comprehensible questions to your students.

Special Person. Build community by interviewing your students.

Listen and Draw. Describe something and students draw it.

7. Curriculum. Here is a free French comprehension-based and intercultural competency-based curriculum for level 1 (regularly updated) and level 3 (not updated since 2018).

Good luck on this wonderful adventure!