CI Activities in Practice in the Classroom, Part 2

#232

Last week in episode 231 I began a two-part series on using a simple story to show what CI looks like in real classroom practice. In this episode, I continue by building on the same story and walking through how CI activities help students stay engaged, deepen comprehension, and interact with the text in meaningful ways. These 2 episodes are focused on seeing familiar CI practices.

Topics in this Episode:

• CI Activity Episodes
  • 218: Interaction and Discussion
  • 222: Reading and Writing
  • 228: Storytelling and Narrative
• Episode 231: CI Activities in Practice in the Classroom., Part 1
• CI Toolbox
• Interaction and Discussion Activities
  • Picture Talk: Picture Talk uses images to drive meaning-based discussion. The teacher asks simple questions so students describe what they see using familiar language.
  • PQA: PQA connects story language to students’ own lives through highly scaffolded, repetitive questions, helping them acquire language through personal relevance
  • Special Person Interviews: Students are interviewed using familiar structures, often taking on a role. The class listens and helps co-construct meaning.
  • Card Talk: Students draw something meaningful to them, and the class discusses it using shared, high-frequency language.
  • Weekend Chat: Weekend Chats build community and routine by talking about what students do on certain days, using simple present-tense language.
  • Calendar Talk: Calendar Talk uses the daily date and routine events to recycle language in a predictable format.
• Reading and Writing Activities
  • One Word at a Time: Students slowly build or reconstruct a sentence word by word, focusing on meaning and structure.
  • Embedded Reading: Embedded readings move from very simple to more detailed versions of the same text, increasing comprehension and confidence.
  • Volleyball Reading: Students take turns reading and clarifying meaning, often in pairs, with a strong focus on comprehension.
  • Draw the Sentence: Students draw what a sentence says, then match it back to the text, reinforcing comprehension.
  • Running Dictation: Students move, read, and reconstruct text collaboratively,
  • Dictation with a Twist: Students hear a sentence and rewrite it with a small, controlled change, encouraging creative output within a safe structure.

A Few Ways We Can Work Together:

• Ready For Tomorrow Quick Win PD for Individual Teachers
• On-Site or Virtual Workshops for Language Departments
• Self-Paced Program for For Language Departments

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