Roadmap to Proficiency-Oriented Instruction | Teaching with Comprehensible Input (Without Going Nuts)

Have you ever wondered….if teaching with comprehensible input through proficiency-oriented instruction is best practice, then why does it feel SO DANG HARD?! This post on how to transition gracefully to proficiency through a practical, *finally* sustainable path is here to help. 

This crazy paradox in world language teaching still frustrates me to no end, but I’ve turned my fire into purpose with a mission to help those new to teaching with comprehensible input discover the source of their frustration and end the overwhelm behind your journey. Teachers are better together, and that’s where the work in the Practical Proficiency Network comes into play, as well as the annual free conference Practical & Comprehensible. 

ACTFL Guiding Principles and Proficiency-Oriented Instruction

My mission is to make best practice – as defined by ACTFL’s guiding principles to be a proficiency-oriented, target language rich classroom through meaningful access to comprehensible input and opportunities for output – universal, practical, and teacher-friendly by centering the teacher’s needs in the conversation. 

We all know that comprehensible input is the most equitable lens for students and leads to amazing outcomes for them, but we’ll never be able to make it commonplace until teachers get the support and resources, and training they need to make it work where they are at right now in their woefully unequipped curriculums and classes, not the ideals that many trainings pressure you to create. YOURSELF. *cough – no thanks, I don’t even get time to eat lunch * 

Teacher’s Roadmap to Proficiency

This guide on how to gracefully transition to proficiency or start using more comprehensible input in your class, curriculum, and lesson plans are tailored to where you are currently at in your teaching journey, in a way that makes sense for you. 

Instead of working like crazy towards proficiency, let’s make proficiency-oriented instruction work for you! 

Need more info on why comprehension based teaching (teaching with comprehensible input) is the way to go? Check out these posts:

• The Research Behind Comprehensible Input
• What is Comprehensible Input?
• Why I Switched to Comprehensible Input
• What is Universal Grammar? Linguistics for Teachers Series #2
• Why Proficiency Can’t Wait – World Language Teaching in 2020
• Why 90% Target Language is 100% Possible in Your World Language Classroom
• High School Spanish Curriculum Map for Level 1 | How to Map out a Year of CI
• How to Map out a French 1 Curriculum for High School
• The Role of French Grammar in Second Language Acquisition

So you’ve gotten a ton of information about what it means to create deep and meaningful rooted routines and foundations for your proficiency practice. 

Get the Free Guide

Now, head to the link to get the guide called “Teacher’s Roadmap to Proficiency”. It will show you exactly what steps to take based on your current situation and goals. It finally clarifies which piece of proficiency-oriented instruction will make the most sense and have the most impact on your students right now. 

Something that often happens in the world of proficiency is confusion. It feels like so much work just to even get the basics of comprehensible input up and running in class! Where should you even start?  

If you’ve ever felt lost or overwhelmed when trying to switch to proficiency-oriented instruction, this is for you. 

How to Transition to Comprehensible Input

Let’s get started with your roadmap to proficiency: what steps to take – and when – to transition to a more proficiency-oriented practice. This is a journey. People used to say that to me all the time. Now that I’m an instructional coach for teachers who use comprehensible input, I want to help make it clear exactly what that means. So that you can focus on what matters at the right time in your classroom. 

Okay, so the first thing that we need to talk about is this. 

“Teaching with comprehensible input feels like I’m starting over”

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt this way.

And you know, there are plenty of terms that get used around this philosophy of teaching with comprehensible input. But the whole idea when the acronym CI arrives is that we care about making meaning and communication in our classroom. That is the focus. See more on this post about The Truth About Teaching with Comprehensible Input.

There are many ways to do that. But whenever you switch your mindset to focus on that, rather than the traditional or legacy teaching methods, it often feels like you’re starting over no matter how many years of experience you have. So let’s get this under wraps. 

Common Teaching with Comprehensible Input Mistake

Here’s a common mistake that I wish that somebody would have told me about earlier. Trying advanced strategies when you are a beginner or even an intermediate. And because you feel like well, oh, my proficiency is so different from what I’m doing in my classroom. You start to recall all of your good materials, you just pull out the filing cabinet or the proverbial filing cabinet if you’re a digital person like I am, and you start throwing things away and saying, “Well, it’s not CI, now I can’t use any of it.” But that’s not really sustainable, right? 

I mean, if it were sustainable, then everybody would do it. 

And everybody would be teaching with comprehensible input for proficiency. 

Proficiency-Oriented Instruction is Best Practice

Because this is the real truth of the state of world language today is that proficiency-oriented instruction is research-based, best practice. So why isn’t everybody doing it? There are a lot of complicated answers to that question. Check out my YouTube channel and this blog post if you want to talk a little bit more about the history of language teaching and why we’re in this current situation of switching back to best practice:  proficiency. A huge part of it? It’s the reality of the task load. It takes work to move away from a grammar heavy syllabus to a communicative classroom. Not even just switching materials, but the mental load of switching your mindset. 

Avoid these Common Comprehensible Input Mistakes:

Here are the common mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t try advanced strategies and replace all of your old lesson plans with skills you haven’t mastered yet (it’s ok that they take time – it means they work!)
2. Don’t focus and hone in on one specific skill – are you sure it’s going to work well for your current situation? Even if it’s amazing, many things like TPRS take two-plus years to learn, practice, and get running on a day-to-day basis.  
3. When you haven’t mastered basics yet
4. When you try and throw away all of your materials, even though they’re traditionally based. For example, it’s a bit of a stereotype, but maybe they have conjugation and verb charts all over them. 

You are a teacher and you have other priorities besides switching to proficiency-oriented instruction. 

Just maintaining a safe environment for learning in your room every day is a huge task. 

So don’t make these mistakes! Instead, focus on the right things at the right time. 

Make a Practical Switch to Comprehensible Input

To make this journey practical, and sustainable, use more comprehensible focused strategies in class that make sense for your current stage. 

Not every comprehensible input strategy is going to work for you depending on what stage you’re in. 

Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

First off, let’s look at our roadmap and figure out what stage you’re in. Let’s put this in World Language terms for those of us who teach using ACTFL standards. I know we have teachers with us who go more by CEFR. But if you are teaching with comprehensible input with ACTFL standards, this is what we’re currently doing right now in the proficiency-oriented instruction and CI world. Please do not hold yourself to intermediate high standards of this type of practice. 

Proficiency-Oriented Instruction Has Stages

When you’re novice mid, this is your first experience with this, or you are just even making it through a tough year and you’ve got so much on your plate. You might be at intermediate high in a lot of areas of your teaching practice, but this whole proficiency thing might still be pretty new to you. And resources are not as available as they should be. So don’t hold yourself to an unrealistic standard. Instead, focus on the right things at the right time. 

Why Is Sustainable Teaching with Comprehensible Input Important?

Why is this so important? Because you’re so much more than a teacher, you’re so much more than a teacher, you’re a person who’s trying to be good at your job and impact a lot of people. But also, this is my vision and dream for you. My son is home with me as I write this. And I remember a time in the classroom when I was transitioning to proficiency-oriented instruction.

I feel like I missed so many moments with him because I was trying to research proficiency, go to conferences, read blogs, and do all the things. Going down YouTube rabbit holes until like 9 pm trying to figure all of this out because I didn’t feel like I was reaching my students the way that I wanted to. And that thirst makes me good at my job. But at the same time, I wasn’t focusing on the right things at the right time. And guess what? 

It cost me time with my family. I don’t want that for you.

The Stages of Switching to Proficiency-Oriented Instruction through CI

We’re going to look today at the teachers’ roadmap to proficiency. This is something that I give my Practical Proficiency Network members. And I’m giving it to you today because I think it’s going to help you. Like being a proficiency-oriented teacher, there are stages to this journey. 

Stages to Your Proficiency Journey:

1. Wanderer
2. Explorer
3. Navigator
4. Globetrotter
5. Local

These are the stages according to me, La Libre Language Learning. After years of working with teachers and my own journey with comprehensible input, I knew this was the missing piece to ease the chronic confusion in our field.

I find that giving stages to the learner journey for teachers learning how to teach with comprehensible input allows us to ditch the overwhelm. It makes our goals step-by-step and achievable in the unsupportive environment of education.

Devon Gunning, La Libre language learning

We’re gonna learn about being a wanderer, an explorer, and navigator, a globetrotter, and then a local. And yeah, they’re travel-themed! Of course, they are. What is the Practical Proficiency Network? It’s a community-based membership for world language teachers who believe in proficiency-oriented instruction. And our goal is that we don’t sacrifice our health or well-being outside of school to achieve the results that we want in our classrooms. That’s the focus here. 

So I’m hoping to impart some of that to you – always choose your well-being over your proficiency-oriented instruction, because your well-being will lead to better results in your classroom. 

Teachers New to Comprehensible Input Mindset

Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

Switch to Teaching with Comprehensible Input Stage 1 – Wanderer

Stage one, this is the wanderer, this is when you’re first arriving in a new place. And you’re just so excited to be there that you just want to explore, you just want to get around and just talk to some people and dip your toes in the water. This is survival mode, you might be very, very new to this idea. Or you also might be in a really difficult teaching season, maybe even with some experience with proficiency.

So if you are in stage one, this is what it looks like for you. You’re surviving, maybe you’ll do some CI when you have space, you’re establishing foundational aspects of a functional classroom. And your focus is on having lesson plans and assessments ready every day. How your management looking? What are relationships like in my classroom? Then maybe some CI when you have some space, in order to build better relationships and gain trust and buy-in with students.  Luckily, this is a short journey. 

Switch to Teaching with Comprehensible Input Stage 2 – Explorer

Next, you’ll get to two, this is stage two when you’re an explorer. So after you’re done wandering in a new city for a little bit, you’re ready to explore. You feel safe, you’re ready to start doing things that maybe you wouldn’t normally do. And on your home turf, you’re ready to see what proficiency-oriented instruction is all about. To see if this methodology is for you.

You’re open-minded about what this whole mindset shift looks like and how it’s going to affect you. You’re trying new strategies to see what sticks, but you’re also you’re ready to fail. You must be ready to fail because not everything’s going to work. And honestly, when you fail in front of your students, it’s one of the most valuable lessons that they can learn. So don’t rob them of that opportunity. Be brave. 

Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

Absorb Everything About Second Language Acquisition

You’re soaking in SLA every single chance that you can. SLA is second language acquisition. This is the whole research field that proficiency-oriented instruction is based on. This is where we get all the information about why all this stuff is so important. 

We’re also in the feedback phase and the learning phase. You’re getting feedback about what works with your students. You’re learning about them and how they’re reacting to this whole new idea of, hey, this is a communication class, we’re going to use language to communicate, we’re not going to learn about language, we’re going to use it in class. That’s a huge shift for them, you’re going from looking like every other class that they have to now be this very, very unique experience for them. World language feels a lot more like woodshop than history. Because language is a skill, not a subject. You’re in a lot of mindset shifts in this one. 

This is also a short phrase. You’ll get a lot of feedback. It’s a hard phase, though we’ll explore it as a heart phase, a lot of people get stuck here. Because what they try to do is they try to jump and go to globetrotter. While they’re still an explorer, what does that mean? It means that you try a lot of advanced strategies specific to the proficiency-oriented instruction world. You’re trying to master novels, you’re trying to do all of these things that involve people that have lots of training on this to do it properly. And you’re trying that in your classroom.

 And it’s so exhausting, and it’s flopping. 

So don’t make that mistake of thinking that Globetrotter strategies are for you when you’re still in the Explorer phase. You’re still learning how to be a conversational partner with your kids. 

Next Phase – Making Proficiency-Oriented Instruction through CI a Daily Practice

Switch to Teaching with Comprehensible Input Stage 3 – Navigator

Now, this is the navigator stage three, this is what I think is the most common stage for teachers. And this is when you’re ready to get serious. You’ve picked a few strategies that you like. You tried picture talk, you tried clip chats, you tried a couple of these things and you love them, but you also hate some of them.

You figured that out because you did the feedback phase. Now you’re ready to create a sustainable system so that you can replicate this and do comprehensible input-rich lessons almost every day, making it last all year. And not just when you have the energy and space to catch your breath and do more with proficiency-oriented instruction. 

Backward Design

This is the time when you’re diving into the back end of your practice. You’re creating a sustainable classroom system rooted in proficiency assessments, curriculum routines, and tons of target language. And you’re also trying some more intermediate strategies because you’re ready for it now. But this is where a lot of people hang out for a while because you should! It is a long journey from the navigator to the globetrotter. It’s a long journey. Because guess what? 

It takes a long time to create the back-end systems of your classroom. It takes three to five years to implement, tweak and refine a curriculum that’s proficiency-oriented and works for your kids. It’s not going to happen in a year. 

Transition to Teaching with Comprehensible Input Stage 4: Globetrotter

Okay, stage four: globetrotter. Globetrotters are comfortable with the big picture, and comprehensible input techniques. These are often presenters that you see at conferences, and people that you see on social or who have blogs, who are sharing about their classroom experience.

Globetrotter doesn’t mean that you are a perfect teacher or that you know everything that there is to know about proficiency-oriented instruction or any of that jazz. It means that you are comfortable with the world of proficiency, you can navigate it with ease, and you’re ready to take on an adventure with an open mindset, anytime that it’s in front of you.

It also means you know that you’re at this stage, when you’re ready to master the day-to-day, you’re ready to commit to that day-to-day consistent experience of proficiency in class. This is also you if your school is starting a proficiency curriculum, but didn’t give you lessons to implement it. So you might be maybe at the local level, but you don’t have any resources to work with. So that needs to be a focus.

Last Phase: Mastering Comprehensible Input & Teaching Others

Transition to Teaching with Comprehensible Input Stage 5: Local 

Okay, and then this is the last stage. We won’t spend much time on this because not a lot of people are there. But I want you to know about this because this is a lot of what you are probably seeing in the world. And it’s amazing. But when you’re a local, you’re probably presenting at conferences, you’re sharing online, and you’re not a perfect teacher by any means. But you’re freaking amazing because you got this far!

You have a proud proficiency flow, and that’s why you feel ready to share it. 

Target Language Rich Environment

You’ve got mostly target language days, and you’re currently working to master specific techniques. I don’t know a single person in this field feels like they’ve attained the level that they want to be in teaching practice. However,  when working with a more proficiency-oriented mindset, everybody who is in this game wants to be specific, and some want to master something really specific. And that is so cool. That’s what makes us lifelong learners as teachers.

Specific Comprehensible Input Techniques

So know that when you are at when you are a local, please start sharing about what you’re doing. It’s amazing. And especially what you like to lean more towards, there will be some things that you figure out are best for you. And they’re probably completely different from what you see other people doing in the whole community:  conferences, blogs, social, webinars, your district, you name it. But what you bring to the table is special. 

Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

Share in the CI & Proficiency-Oriented Instruction Community!

One of my philosophies is that the more of us that share about what we’re doing in our classroom, the more this is going to become the norm for teachers instead of the outlier. 

The less that we’re going to have to fight tooth and nail for the things that we know our kids need. The less we have to work with colleagues to get on the same page about simply research-based practice. So, share! 

Okay, now that you’ve got your steps, think first about which one you think you are. Are you a wanderer, an explorer, a navigator, a globetrotter, or a local? Alright, now it’s time for the good part. Let’s get to the action steps. 

CI Teacher Action Steps – Wanderer 

All of the action steps are outlined in the guide. Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

If you are a wanderer, here’s where you need to move next. 

• Slowly collect and adapt resources. That is your number one, goal, resources, resources, resources, activities, activities. 
• Create that emergency sub folder! 
• Focus on CI basics
• Focus on relationships in your classroom, systems, and organization.
• Learn how to be a conversation partner with your kids. This is your focus, more target language, more responses, more output. And, of course, more input. That’s why we’re here right? 

CI Teacher Action Steps – Explorer

Number two, when you’re an explorer, you’re ready to go to the next stage. 

• Create your curriculum map. It doesn’t mean that your curriculum is fully fleshed out, it means that you have a map you know where you’re going. 
• Make one proficiency-based assessment. 
• Work towards consistent five-minute target language interactions, every class period. So how many days in a row? Can you hold an entire five-minute conversation with your students? You’re probably doing most of the talking. But how long can you sustain that language? Go for five minutes at this stage. 
• Seek out all of the SLA training that exists in the world. The more that you understand SLA, the better your practice will be. SLA is second language acquisition. 
• Get lots of proficiency-oriented instruction training, but remember to only choose things that work well with your season. Like if you’re ready to dive in, pick 3 strategies. But if you know that, maybe not then choose one strategy that you love and practice it. 
  • Maybe an authentic song routine. 
  • Maybe you’re going to start weekend chats.

Pick something that you know works for your season, your energy level, and your personality. Be authentic to who you are, and provide students input that way. 

CI Teacher Action Steps Stage 3 – Navigator

If you are in stage three and navigator, your next move is deep curriculum work. You’re ready to move into unit design.

•  Design individual units for proficiency and interculturality. 
• Move towards all proficiency-based assessments 
• 10-minute conversations in every class 
• Measure and see if you can get to 50% target language in every class period. Some of you might already be there. Some of you might be using more some you might be using less but if you work in stages, it’s a little bit easier to attain that goal of either 90% or 100%, whichever you are working for and works for you. 
  • Remember that this is curriculum time. Curriculum is going to be one of the things that move the needle the most towards getting you out of the navigator and into the Globetrotter stage. So this is curriculum time when your navigator.
• Hone in on that one to three strategies. You’re making them a daily, weekly routine.
• Focus on your comprehensibility. That’s an important stage every single time but especially at the navigator stage, you need to focus on this before you move on. 
• Questioning strategies beyond the basics 

 A common mistake is people try and work on the curriculum when they’re in the Explorer stage. You got to focus on skills first.

Before you move onto Globetrotter, you should be able to concretely answer this: how well do students understand you? How are they giving you feedback on times when they don’t understand you? 

All of the action steps are outlined in the guide. Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

CI Teacher Action Steps Stage 4 – Globetrotter

Okay, then we have Globetrotter, ooh. You’ve made it through all the other three stages. And you’re still kicking it – good for you. This is the time when you’re ready to start using resources and your materials to create a bank of proficiency-based lesson plans and authentic texts at this stage. You’re not going to have a bank of ready-to-go proficiency style lessons until you go through the other stages, which means guess what? 

Not Every Day Will Be Proficiency-Oriented Instruction

Some of your days are going to be traditional teaching practice. So what? It’s amazing that you’re even in the classroom every day. And yes, proficiency-oriented instruction is the goal. But I will be perfectly honest with you.

 You have not been set up with a system that allows for this to happen, and you have a lot of obstacles in your way. So there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using traditional teaching methods to just have a safe, happy, functional classroom environment where kids are learning and kids are happy and safe. So don’t worry about it, please release yourself of that pressure. Give yourself grace, you’ve got enough on your plate. 

Stage 4 Action Steps

So at this stage, when you want proficiency-oriented instruction to be an everyday thing, this is how we get there:

• 15-minute target language interactions 
• 60-70% target language every day (not casually). that’s why it’s so hard to do. There might be some days where you’re more on the 90% track. And then some days where it’s like, oh god, that was 20%. It’s okay. Once you get to Globetrotter, that’s the time when you should start worrying about I’m not using the language enough. And check yourself on it. 
• Create and/or modify your materials to find your flow in your style. Because you’ll be able to have a lot more fun in class when everything has your personality and your feel to it. (Doesn’t mean you have to create everything from scratch)
• Spice things up by injecting something new in your class with fun stuff, ci games, etc. We know how important fun is to learning and how much you want to try really specific activities that you hear about. And you’re like, Oh, I can’t wait to try that. This is the time to do it. 
• Fight for and adjust to a proficiency-based grammar syllabus. This is the time to start advocating for your school, for your program for your department, and whatever context of teaching that you are in, to make sure that the things that your students are the student the standards that they’re held to make sense with how people learn languages and how the brain works. Instead of the, you know, table of contents in a textbook.
• Health and self-care plan – this part is so exhausting!
• Share about your class We can’t wait to see what you’re doing and for you to inspire other people. And also when you share it’s also really for you because that makes you a more reflective practitioner. 

Avoid this Common CI Mistake:

Avoid this common mistake:  But when you feel like stuff is yours, and you got it the way just you like it, you know what I mean? Things really come together in your classroom flow. This is the time to do it. However, there is a time and place for this.

Don’t try to personalize your materials too much when you barely have enough to scrape together a week’s worth of materials, or you’re overloaded with tons of students and 4 (thousand) preps. The payoff isn’t worth it at this stage – it’s way too early! Just keep building your library of materials. You shouldn’t be focusing on that oh-so-desired personal library of tweaked lessons in stage three navigator. You’ve got too many other things on your plate.

CI Teacher Action Steps Stage 5 – Local 

Okay, here we go. Once you get to local:

• Deepen your bank of resources, your CI novels, and your clips to use. This is where you’re creating that bank of resources. 
• Start making moves towards standards-based grading from ACTFL tools. Instead of traditional grading, this is the time to do it. 
• Hone in and master some sort of recharge routine, because you have a high-energy practice right now that is probably sucking the life out of you. So as much as it’s taking from you, you need to make sure that you give back to yourself. 
• To make sustainable practice, be deeply reflective: you’re looking at how you can make this last every single day, and how to also enjoy the work that you’re doing. 
• Share about your class! Of course, your class is amazing, but never feel the pressure for you to be perfect. 

You just showing up at this level shows how much you care about what’s going on. 

So these are the stages and an overview of the action steps we just went over in this PDF here. And you’ll be able to keep these action steps for exactly where you’re at in your journey to proficiency-oriented instruction. 

All of the action steps are outlined in the guide. Get the FREE guide to along with this post – the Roadmap to Proficiency – here.

Now, I want to tell you about if you are interested in diving further into these philosophies and ideas, there are two ways that you can do this. And I highly recommend that you do both if you are interested, and really into this idea of working in a community with other teachers to move through these stages and get support from each of them. Because for each of these stages, 1234 and five, well, I would say more on the one, two, and three sides. And some stuff for there are resources and community and peer feedback and workshops for you inside the Practical Proficiency Network. Click here to learn more about the network .  

Proficiency-Oriented Instruction Final Thoughts

Finally,  I want to just reiterate to you that everybody’s felt like this, at some point. It can be really difficult to make that shift and transition. So focus on the right things at the right time, and honor your journey for where you are at because it is so important that you continue this work. We’re so excited to have you here. Thank you for joining me! I’m grateful you’re a part of the comprehensible input teaching community. 

rooting for you,