Making CI Work with a Traditional Textbook
New school, new team, same goal: help students succeed and love Spanish. I’ve found a way to blend comprehensible input with our required textbook—without falling behind or sacrificing key grammar and vocab. Storytelling, shared writing, re-reading games, and creative performance tasks have made it all click.

Flipping Vocabulary for More Input (and Less Stress)
This year, I’ve revamped how I teach vocabulary—blending storytelling, grammar, and vocabulary lists with a flipped classroom approach. Students complete Gimkit homework before taking weekly quizzes, freeing up class time for more input-rich activities. It’s worked so well, I’m now using it with my 8th graders, too.

When teaching in multiple classrooms and multiple schools it can be a challenge to stay organized. In this post I discuss how I am keeping my students’ materials organized in my different classrooms.

Assessing doesn’t have to mean hours of grading! These five quick, no-prep formative assessments—like Listen & Draw, 2 Truths & a Lie, and Read & Translate—give you instant insight into student understanding while keeping class fun and low-stress.

Not always—and that’s okay. While we aim to maximize TL use, deep cultural reflection often requires the clarity of a student’s first language. I use a hybrid approach: Spanish for products and practices, English for perspectives. The result? More meaningful connections, better empathy, and stronger intercultural skills.

“But, I don’t know French!”

I used to hear this from students ALL. THE. TIME. especially during a test. I felt so frustrated because that was what all of the flashcards and worksheets were supposed to be adding up to - actually getting to use the language. This is where Acquisition-Driven Instruction, Comprehensible Input, and aligning my assessments to my goals for students came into the picture. Today, my assessments are task-based and reflect how I teach and how I want my students to be able to use the language.

Want to Start Storytelling with CI—But Have a Required Curriculum?
Good news: you can do both! This post offers five easy strategies for weaving compelling, vocabulary-rich stories into your existing units. From anchor charts and cliffhangers to re-reading games and animated slides, these ideas keep students engaged while reinforcing key grammar and vocab naturally—no major overhaul needed.

Write and Discuss is our favorite low-prep CI strategy—it’s quick, effective, and easy to implement in Spanish or French classes. Students help create 3–5 sentences using target language structures, then read and analyze them together. Want to boost engagement? Try our Write and Discuss Bingo twist to make it fun and keep kids engaged.

I could see it in their eyes. Confusion, boredom, and a slight hint of ‘when does this class end’. My heart beat a too-fast rhythm as I struggled to ask questions my students would understand about Thanksgiving foods and activities. How would I get through this?

What sounds better for Day of the Dead than a scavenger hunt, sugar skull reading project, and a bingo game - all in comprehensible language even level 1 students can find successful!

These spooky French culture lesson about the Catacombes and famous Francophones are perfect for October!

Since I started teaching Spanish, the focus each October was the Día de los Muertos celebrations and traditions from Mexico, but often the beautiful variations in traditions from other countries take a back seat. I wanted to draw light and attention to other cultural events, and chose to begin with Guatemala’s Barriletes Gigantes. I found an incredible authentic resource to help me teach my 8th graders to create their own Barriletes Gigantes, which we then hung up in the classroom.

What happens when your students come back in the fall and say they don’t remember anything from last year? How do we handle that? Here’s a little encouragement to help you through those comments during back-to-school review days.