One of the reasons that I choose readers in my classes is because they really help to anchor a unit of study. By giving a story, students feel connected to this abstract topic that they might never experience for themselves. My first year of teaching...
When choosing a reader, I always have my English-teaching mind on overdrive. I originally wanted to teach English Language Arts, but through some twists and turns teaching Spanish is where my path landed! However, I never let that keep me from using some of the...
I hung up the phone and exhaled. The interview had gone really well, and it seemed as though I was set to change career fields away from teaching Spanish to using my skill set in the business world. I stared at the high school where...
In addition to continuing our mission to publish the highest quality, most engaging, and students-and-teacher-friendliest materials available to world language teachers, we have a new resolution this year! Our resolution is to be a 24-7 teacher support and professional growth system for all of you!...
Every time a new reader that I love comes out, I have to try to figure out where to place it in my curriculum. I am already doing 4 whole class reads per year and there are great readers sitting on my shelf, unused, because...
When I first started whole class readers, I would dive right into the vocabulary and start reading from the first day. I couldn’t understand why students didn’t care about these characters as much as I did! I mean, after all, their lives were so fascinating...
Training just got a whole lot easier at Fluency Matters! We have been brainstorming the best way to provide great training at affordable prices, and we have come up two very powerful options. We revealed the first option yesterday: COHORT TRAINING alongside the Fluency Matters...
Reading builds language proficiency, there's no doubt about it! Research shows that readers have stronger vocabularies, higher test scores, and deeper interest in the subject matter they are studying. We have shared numerous blog posts about how to use reading to help students gain higher...
We had an amazing time at ACTFL! New Orleans was beautiful, and we had our fill of po' boys, muffuletta, gumbo, beignets, OH MY! The conference was one of the highest-attended ACTFL conferences ever, and we were thrilled to be able to see so many...
Maybe you’re feeling blue because the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages conference starts Thursday and you just couldn’t make it happen this year. Or maybe you’ve done it… maybe you’ve signed up to attend the national conference for the first, second, or 30th...
I’ve been using comprehension-based readers in my classroom for a long time now. I’ve even written some! Each time we do a whole class novel study, I get the opportunity to dig deep into a topic I’m passionate about with my students. I love that...
In Dave Burgess' book Teach Like a Pirate, Dave recommends using "hooks" to engage students more deeply in the lessons you teach. I want to share my top ten favorite hooks and invite our readers to comment and share their own favorite hook that they have...
Have you ever read a book and laughed out loud? Has a book or other text ever made you cry, get angry or scared? If you are reading this blog post, the odds are high that your answer is “YES!” While strong readers feel a...
At Fluency Matters, we've been BUSY! Busy creating new comprehension-based readers and teacher's guides, plus lots of new surprises which we will be ready to tell you about later this fall! Stay tuned! Here's a little peek at some of the many new projects we've...
Hello dear CI Peek readers! We’ve been seeing a lot of discussion in our Facebook group lately on topic of selecting readers, and picking the "just right" fit for a given class or level, so we have decided to re-publish this blog post from last...
Hello dear CI Peek readers! We've been seeing a lot of discussion in our Facebook group lately on this very topic, so we have decided to re-publish this blog post from last spring. We hope it will answer a few questions for you! We'd love...
Of all the different kinds of things that you do with your students—games, conversation, grammar or vocabulary drills, cultural exploration, etc.—what do you do the MOST?...
Dear colleagues, One thing that I have learned over the years (this is my 22nd year of teaching Spanish) is that without reflecting on my own practice, I cannot move forward. Additionally, I have continually experienced the power of reflecting and sharing in a collaborative...
At iFLT conferences, one of the distinctive features is the language labs: classrooms where highly experienced comprehension-based language teachers teach elementary through high school-aged students. Conference attendees can observe these classrooms, gaining insights from these opportunities to see teaching in real time with young students....
Hi everyone! I have a mission for you all! The purpose of the blog is teachers sharing with teachers! If you haven’t seen our summer FOMO (fear of missing out) series from iFLT by Arianne Dowd, you need to check it out! Now that it is...
Hello everyone! It's Allison from Mis Clases Locas. This past December like many of you I participated in the 12 Days of Fluency Matters giveaways. I was lucky enough to win e-course subscriptions. I will be honest, at the time I was a little skeptical...
Thank you so much for following this iFLT18 FOMO blog series! Before turning this final blog post over to Arianne, please allow us to just express a HUGE thank you to Arianne Dowd for diligently attending as many diverse sessions as possible and taking incredibly...
Last year I observed Mark teach in the language labs and it was a pleasure to watch how he interacted with his students. I was curious to gain a better perspective about how he plans his units. He began by sharing some information his school...
Honestly, I was soooooo excited for this session because both of these presenters (Jim Wooldridge and Carrie Toth) are royalty of creating compelling and comprehensible input! Jim told us that as language teachers, our most important job is to be storytellers. This relates to something...
Gary DiBianca seems to find himself in a predicament of many teachers I meet. He has to use a traditional textbook. However he has found a magical way that seems to make it work as he blends the textbook with CI. One example of how Gary...
Linda Li shared the ACTFL statement about 90% target language (TL) use. Together we analyzed it and noticed that it states that students AND teachers are supposed to be using TL almost exclusively, beyond the classroom and in all levels! TL use is one of...
Kara Jacobs and I presented about the power of triple input in film. However as I viewed Kristy Placido and Donna Tatum-Johns' session on delivering CI with a TV series I realized there were a lot of similarities! Both are building Intercultural Communicative Competence. ACTFL...
What an enjoyable afternoon I spent with Carrie Toth. She shared a ton of ideas that I can directly apply to my classroom. I went to her session called Blooming Language: Building Proficiency with Bloom’s Taxonomy. We observed ways in which she has moved WAY...
August 6 - The Name of the Game is Comprehensible Input by Cindy Hitz, 7:00 p.m. EDT Games serve as an interactive and fun way to teach for proficiency and provide additional CI of structures and vocabulary found in novels, class stories, and MovieTalks. In this...
I was able to see pieces of two of my FAVORITE teacher authors, Kristy Placido and Carrie Toth. Each session had elements of Content Based CI that I would love to share. I find that my intermediate students truly enjoy these types of units. Kristy...