Getting started with CI
New to Comprehended Input? Start here. The links below explain the why and the how — short enough to read in a prep period, concrete enough to act on.
- [Link: "What is Comprehended Input? A 10-minute primer"]
- [Link: "Five things to stop doing on Monday"]
- [Link: "How CI looks in week one of a beginner course"]
Downloadable tools
Story-asking template
A printable scaffold for spinning up a class story from three vocabulary items.
Download (PDF) →Reading log
Student-facing log for tracking free voluntary reading minutes and reflections.
Download (PDF) →Comprehension checks
A pack of low-stakes questioning techniques to gauge understanding without grammar quizzes.
Download (PDF) →Classroom posters
Printable posters covering high-frequency words, target structures, and "I don't understand" signals.
Download (PDF) →Demo videos
Watching is faster than reading about it. The clips below show CI techniques in real classrooms — beginner Mandarin, intermediate Spanish, and a few unscripted moments where things didn't go as planned (and how to recover).
- [Link: "Story-asking, beginner Mandarin (4 min)"]
- [Link: "Reading round-robin, year-2 Spanish (6 min)"]
- [Link: "Recovering when a class isn't tracking (3 min)"]
FAQ
Is CI just storytelling?
No. Storytelling is one technique among many. CI is the broader principle that the classroom should provide language students can understand — through stories, reading, conversation, visuals, gestures, and shared context.
Will my students still be able to pass standardized tests?
Yes — and the data tend to show that students who acquire language through comprehensible input do at least as well, often better, than students who study under traditional grammar-translation methods. The trick is consistency over time.
How do I convince my department / administration?
Show, don't tell. Bring an administrator into a 15-minute story-asking session as a participant, not an evaluator. Share the kind of student work CI produces. And lean on the growing research base; resources for that conversation are in the toolkit above.