I got this nice message and drawing – click on link below – from a teacher who took the Ultimate CI Book I training this summer: Hello Ben. I hope you are well. I just

How could all of us so badly miss the point about why we teach languages? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCmdhQLtwag

I got a question: Q. I have a third year student who is a great student.  She reads on an upper intermediate level.  Listening comprehension is a mid-intermediate level.  She is an EXCELLENT reader in

I am compiling a set of documents that, when finished, will become a book entitled In Defense of CI. Taken almost exclusively from posts from my blog over the past 15 years, it will be

As language programs in American schools continue to crumble, more and more private language schools – actual businesses – will appear in American society. These language schools will exist for one reason – they will

I always felt that something was wrong with me because I didn’t plan. They told me to plan but I didn’t. They made me feel like I was doing something wrong and so I must

My favorite online quiz tool for those doing UCI is from Kat Sharnoff, who made a nice and simple document that allows you to make a copy of the quiz into your own Google Docs:

Students who come from privilege – in language classrooms and in all American classrooms – continue to be trained in schools for their roles as leaders.  Via our instruction, via our assessment, via almost every

With stories, teaching a language successfully is very difficult, but it reaches most students. Without stories, success is virtually impossible, and reaches only a few bright kids. You have to pick one of these. If

When children come to us to learn the languages that we teach them, they come to us in trust. But we do not always honor that trust. We do that unintentionally of course – but

Due to poor management from my web developer, I’ve decided to shut down this entire website and move it to Patreon. This won’t affect most people who have a monthly PLC membership because they can

This is from Cynthia in our Group 8 UCI Saturday classes: Good morning, I was thinking about the use of technology in the classroom.  Last year was unprecedented in the use of technology in the classroom. 

  It takes approximately 400 repetitions for our brains to make a new connection, unless it’s done through play, in which case it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions. Not only do children love play,

This post is for those working in UCI Book 2 making Individually Created Images: In the link below, Madi Cabral offers a way to add some digital interaction to the slides that you create with

(The teacher is invited to take what they want from each one. As the number of suggested lesson plans grows in this Learning Community category, so will the teachers’ options grow when it comes to

In this video taken from our Ultimate CI Book 2 training course, Tanya creates a basic (QL1-QL4) one word image. I recommend this video to anyone who wants to see some of the finer points

Assessment instruments like common assessments and formative tests that require memorization destroy our students’ sense of self-confidence in the language. Who says that they have to learn it by a certain date, all at the

Not too many teachers have tried to use the Ultimate CI™ approach (UCI™) with very small children. I guess the assumption is that it’s a middle and high school thing. But a member of my

What concerns me about those little chapter books put out by Ray and Gaab et al is that they are being used too early in a child’s language career. Huge amounts of auditory input should

Of the three books attached here in a post a few days ago – free only to patrons – the Ultimate CI Books (1 and 2, with Book 3 due out sometime in 2022) actually

This post is for people doing UCI: Stop getting freaked out by thinking how hard it is to create stories using comprehensible input. Just do this: As you make the tableau (QL2 – 4), DRAW

This is a post from 2017 that I happened across this morning. The words are even more true than they were then: Reflections on a Career I was sitting at my desk at the end

This post is for people using the StarChart™: To make a story “pop” in the minds’ eyes of the students, you need only three things: a character that your students can identify with (and nothing

When we teach according to the standard of Communication and the research that says that Comprehensible Input is the way human beings acquire languages, we open up for ourselves in the act of teaching each

When children come to us to learn the languages that we teach them, they come to us in trust. But we do not always honor that trust. We do that unintentionally of course – but

Here are the beginning paragraphs of the new book:  

Very often we have kids who only speak the language plopped down into our classrooms and we don’t know what to do with them and it’s a pain for us to deal with. I have

Sublingual Output is a term I made up because I don’t know the proper research term. It’s when the kids seem to be repeating stuff you say to themselves but you can barely see their

I’m writing a book to offer questions and answers about my new UCI books. Here are some examples: Q. In the videos, you used a different poster than what I thought was supposed to be

I got this important question: Hi Ben, I was wondering what you do if a student or parent wants a syllabus for the year. Thanks! Tanya My response: I recommend teaching the traditional curriculum for 1/3rd

I’m writing a new book about the state of our profession after Covid-19, which is not very attractive right now. The name of the book is The Ultimate CI Book 3 on Classroom Management. That

My new book which will be out next summer is Book 4 of the Ultimate CI series. It will include lots of questions I typically get about Books 1 and 2. This morning I got

Many of us never think much about the high number of kids that we end up confusing more than helping. The result of that confusion in our students’ once optimistic minds is defeat. We defeat

Sean reports: Mike Peto is a great source on teaching heritage students. He helped create a Facebook page called Teacher of Spanish Heritage Speakers. It’s a good page. I used to be much more involved

Human beings are different in that we can create anything we want to create. So think of what we can do in our language classes if we just remember that.  Combined with active and aggressive

I love the deep thinking that Laura expresses below: Hi Ben, Yes, the forces of darkness (lying, cheating, bullying, etc.) are dominating our times in this swing of the pendulum. Not everyone has the determination

One of our group members here on the PLC has had a very bad year. No one in her school wants to see anything good in CI as a way to teach a language. Instead

Every once in a while I catch up with one of the great Spanish teachers in this world – Laura Avila. She teaches in Maine, not far from Anne Matava. Old timers here know that

Q. We have to submit a syllabus for each class. What do you suggest as a possible syllabus using your approach? A. One answer and perhaps the best one is to hand in the same syllabus

There is conflict in our buildings about what language pedagogy even is. The conflict is there between language department members, but it is always either (a) swept under the rug, or (b) the traditional textbook

Below is a series of practical steps that allow you to move from tableaux into stories. Remember that tableaux are merely stepping stones to stories. Tableaux exist for that reason. Build a tableau as usual

Here are some recent reviews of the Ultimate CI training course starting next weekend: Rated 5 out of 5 Marko MAY 18, 2021 “Ben Slavic’s STAR Is The Modern Foreign Language Teacher’s Dream Come True And It

Embrace the good news that you don’t have to be a TPRS desperado anymore. You no longer have to skate around on the thin ice of the internet to build your proficiency program, looking for

Q. We have to submit a syllabus for each class, with supplies needed, district tardy and behavior policies, grading policy and classroom behavioral policy, what do you suggest as a possible syllabus using your approach?

Julia reports on a student reaction to Claymation: “One of the students working with Invisibles and claymation is giddy because she gets to be crafty for the first time in a really long time. She’s

Julia’s students have extended the idea of making clay figures out of their individually created characters to do claymation. Below is their first project. When thinking about the end-of-year celebration, I can just imagine the

Ben, I can hardly believe how well the Ultimate CI program works. Here are a few highlights I want to share with the group: I walked into class yesterday morning without doing any prep for

More from Julia: I am going to buy clay for the kids today. One of my favorite things about this CI experience has been seeing kids blossom…those I never knew before. Ironically, my formerly least

Q. Hey Ben! I am presenting a PD to teachers of my school on Monday about literacy strategies. I am going to model and have them practice some strategies that I feel are high leverage

Here is another review of the two new Ultimate CI books, this one by Marko Sanden of Fluency Fox: The StarChart™ Is The Modern Foreign Language Teacher’s Dream Come True And It Is Nothing Less