Seven weeks in, and something remarkable has happened—everything just clicked. The class that once felt like shifting a heavy gear is now cruising effortlessly. The routines are ingrained, the flow of Spanish is natural, and I can see the spark of confidence in my students’ eyes. We’ve moved beyond the clunky starts and stops—now, we’re accelerating, shifting straight into third gear.
How to behave in a CI class is now baked into the DNA of the class. Several students still seem disgruntled that they cannot talk to their friends in class, and I am okay with that outcome. There is no magic pill for effective classroom management; it requires daily reminders, coaching, and constant vigilance.
The students are quickly understanding all of the high-frequency verbs without having to glance at the posters. I am now taking the posters down to make space for new posters. Before doing so, I verify that students can process the language quickly by telling a few Matava scripts. These scripts are repetitive and focused, just like I speak in class, but now, instead of having to say a word, point, pause, and write the next word on the board, I can carefully choose my words and write one or two on the board beforehand. This allows me to speak at a much more natural pace without losing anyone.
That’s big! The speed at which we incrementally expand our language has increased dramatically. We can talk about almost anything while remaining in Spanish. To ensure smooth communication, I sometimes plan ahead for how to introduce a topic so that the language flows easily. Sometimes I make the mistake of delving into a detail, and I need an aside in English to clarify. But for the most part, I now can manage to express anything that comes up in class while staying in the target language (with occasional key words written in English on the board). We are speeding along in third gear.
I am deeply committed to the approach that listening and reading comprehension must come in large quantities before writing and speaking. Input before output.
My lesson plans are predictable. We start with reading. They read on their own in the first ten minutes of class (they are still reading highly scaffolded, whole-class texts that have every word defined in the margins). Then I lead a teacher-heavy discussion in Spanish about the class text for another five to ten minutes. I ask questions, reread sections with emotion, and write on the board to emphasize certain points. I then give them a blank notecard to provide a short summary of the reading, in English, for an easy classwork grade.
This reading routine lays the foundation for next week, when we begin reading texts without every word defined in the margins. I suspect that we will be doing whole-class texts for the rest of the semester. Next semester, we will start the FVR program, where they choose their own reading according to their interests and abilities.
After reading, we have been doing group student interviews. I project five questions against a wall. Sometimes the questions are translated underneath; sometimes just a few key words are provided. I often have a sentence starter for their response. For example:
¿De qué tienes miedo? Tengo miedo de…
What are you afraid of? I am afraid of…
I am loving the student interviews. I focus on one student at a time, asking all of the questions projected on the wall and pausing to ask follow-up questions whenever I get an unexpected response. This week, for example, I discovered that one of my students has a form of synesthesia: she tastes buttons when she touches them. I had simply asked, “¿Qué no te gusta?” (What do you not like?) and she used the sentence starter to say, “No me gusta buttons.”
“¿No te gustan los botones?” I asked.
“My brain is wired so that I taste them when I touch buttons, and they don’t taste good. They have kind of like a sulfur, eggy flavor. I never wear clothing with buttons.”
“Interesante. A Ceci no le gustan los botones,” I write on the board as I summarize the interview. “Ceci tiene una hermana que no tiene un problema con botones. A la hermana le gustan los botones. ¡Ceci nunca lleva la ropa de su hermana!”
(Interesting. Ceci doesn’t like buttons. Ceci has a sister who does not have a problem with buttons. The sister likes buttons. Ceci never wears her sister’s clothing!)
As I write, I underline the word “lleva” and write “wears” underneath in red ink—the only explicit translation needed.
I try to finish the student interviews while the energy in class is still strong. Some classes get one or two students interviewed; some get five or six. Regardless of the number, we complete just one Write & Discuss text summarizing the interviews, focusing on the highlights rather than covering every detail.
The new posters will be about the characters in the movies that we are starting to watch. Right now, I have printed letter-sized portraits of the characters with their names. As we learn more about each character, we collaboratively create Write & Discuss texts, which I then post next to the portraits for easy reference. The descriptions are actively updated whenever we continue watching the film.
I like to watch a single scene—usually no more than two minutes. Before watching, I explain what they are about to see in a single sentence. Then we watch, but even the short scenes are frequently paused so that I can make comments about the characters. If available, I turn on the subtitles in Spanish, but I assume they don’t understand.
All of the language acquisition comes through me, which means I talk and write a lot. When the scene is done, I switch to a Google Doc and write about the scene in language that is very comprehensible to them. Later, I review this text to decide whether I should add any details to the character descriptions. Finally, the next day, I point out any changes. This process not only provides a richly repetitive language experience but also ensures absent students can stay caught up.
Sometimes I display a screenshot for students to pair retell what happened in the scene. In that case, they speak for 30 to 60 seconds in pairs. This brief speaking activity gives them a sense of their progress while keeping the focus on the comprehensible input that fuels their growth.
Back in California, I taught 55-minute classes that I ran with the strict rhythm of a drill sergeant. The reading session was a short 10 minutes. We then completed two activities and ended with a Write & Discuss and exit quiz—every day for the whole school year.
Here in North Carolina, my classes are luxuriously long: we meet for 95 minutes every day but only for a semester. I am spending more time on reading, but I am concerned about getting the core language deep enough in their minds so that they retain it even if they miss a semester—or two.
Whenever I start questioning whether my students are developing enduring language skills, I remind myself of the ultimate goal: automaticity.
Automaticity in language acquisition refers to the ability to use a language effortlessly and without conscious thought. It means that a learner can produce and understand words, phrases, and structures automatically, much like a native speaker, without needing to pause and consciously process grammar rules or vocabulary.
We are moving closer to this goal every day. The best thing I can do for my students is to continue having natural, engaging conversations in the target language—every single day.
From here on, we keep the momentum going—more conversations, more stories, and more joy in the process.
Best wishes,
Mike
Would you like to delve deeper into the CI Master Class approach to teaching a second language? The online course is currently on sale & includes many video demos of the techniques, class-ready materials including our online library, and detailed descriptions of how to make a CI class work.
Recent posts in this series about my return to the classroom: The Heritage Learner in my Level 1 Class (March 8th), Students, front & Center (March 2nd), Child Psychology (Feb 23rd), Reading & Writing (Feb 15th), Imagination Work (Feb 8th), 120 hours (Feb 1st).