This article is about an old friend – Eugene Williams. He is pictured at the bottom of this article. Eugene was one of my assistant track coaches at Myrtle Beach (SC) High School. He mainly

A new Ultimate CI Book 1 class begins on March 20. There are currently 15 spots available in this class. When you sign up, here’s what you get: Twelve hours of Ultimate CI training over

Some of us have been following the process of being observed that Danielle has been going through lately. Here’s an update: Last week, she had the pre-observation with her principal. It was probably not unlike

It is my opinion that the word “planning” is just embarrassingly overused in our profession. Why, if we all gained fluency in our first language without a shred of planning, have we bought into the

Here’s a possible start in finding some common turf between ELA and CI instruction. Way overdue: There are many terms used to describe ESL/ELL and EFL instruction. For now let’s just use the acronym ELA

Q. When you write in the board do you do write the English first? A. Yes and the Spanish below it. Then you draw a thick line under the Spanish to separate the new expressions from

This is a reminder for Group 4, Class 3. Prepare this from the Book 1 Syllabus: Class 3 – Saturday – 2.20.21 (12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time) – Demo and Coaching.  Review pp. 17-66

Over the years there certainly have been hundreds of posts here on the PLC about how CI interfaces with the reading piece. However, after studying the problem (reading is a problem in the CI community

For those using the Ultimate CI Book 1, the following eight steps can be used for when you get observed. So if you have a formal observation coming up this spring, I recommend watching these

My books are available as PDFs, which will open and can be read on a Kindle. You can use a registered Kindle’s “Send-to-Kindle” email address to send your PDF to your Kindle via email, or you

I was asked what materials are needed to do the Star. This is the list:

If you’ve ever tried to update or overhaul a website, you know how much time it takes. The “free stuff” from my former site will for that reason be delayed for some months, as I

If you scroll down to the bottom of the categories list, you will see both the “When Attacked” and the “When Observed” categories. These two were created to help teachers who are (a) undergoing any

A great hypocrisy when an admin asks you during a pre-observation meeting “What will the students be able to do after the lesson?” is to answer it. The real answer to that question is “It

What about rigor? Some language teachers say that teaching using comprehensible input is too “easy” for the students and so they succeed too much, earning “too many” A’s. The answer to that question is that

The Chef Everything rests upon the main research idea that language acquisition is an unconscious process. Here’s an image to drive the point home: The unconscious mind is like a chef whose kitchen is located

The Chef Everything rests upon the main research idea that language acquisition is an unconscious process. Here’s an image to drive the point home: The unconscious mind is like a chef whose kitchen is located

Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky said, back in the 1960s: “Grammar [is] acquired by virtually everyone, effortlessly, rapidly, in a uniform manner, merely by living in a community under minimal conditions of interaction, exposure, and care.”

A Big Pill The idea that we have no control over how languages are acquired and cannot think our way to acquisition is a big pill to swallow for many language teachers. After all, many

When we get observed, we often realize how truly out of touch our evaluators are. They don’t get the research. It makes for a very nervous few days of pre-observation and then the observation itself.

Personalized discussion provides the glue for the process. During the class we don’t go out of bounds – we keep things simple for our students by only introducing new vocabulary in the form of reading.

You are welcome to share this with anyone who wants to more about your work with CI: Despite huge expenditures of public funds, most language students in American schools are failures in their study of

Q. What does one do without the support of one’s colleagues when trying to make the change to comprehensible input based instruction? How does one react to a colleague who does not wish to implement

According to the US Department of State, an academic program is rigorous when there is: depth and integrity of inquiry: Many teachers have expressed concern that there is too much curricular material to “cover” and

If I’m teaching kids who are new to comprehensible input, I typically make four posters out of the facts below to help them understand how they should feel in a CI class. They deserve as

Yesterday I got some specific questions from a colleague and want to share my responses to him with the group. Sorry for the long rant. I do that sometimes, more for my own mental health

Of the many questions Robert asks of the textbook companies in this series of articles, this is my favorite: How does the textbook align with the current emphasis by Advanced Placement (College Board), ACTFL and

Robert continues with his questions for textbook companies. It would be nice if they would answer. But they won’t. Their involvement in education is not spurred by the same interests that prompt these questions from

Robert continues to adress Sarah’s original questions with some questions of his own: How do the textbook’s scope and sequence align with the Natural Order of Acquisition? Since language acquisition researchers (e.g. Noam Chomsky, Daniel

The Zoom training on Book 1 of the Ultimate CI series begins this coming Monday, for those interested. Go to benslavic.com and click on “training courses”. If you want to really access what is in

In this third article in this series, Robert begins a series of responses to Sarah’s questions. Sarah had said: …the Department Chair has told us we are going to use Realidades. I used that book