Comprehensive, proficiency-oriented comprehension-based communicative curriculum
Most, if not all, of the strategies presented on this website can be used in tandem with each other. Many teachers use any combination of these strategies as their core curriculum. Some use these strategies for part of their curriculum and a traditional textbook for the other part. However, there are many talented teachers have worked to create whole curriculum that are comprehension based and proficiency oriented.
Some teachers have done this informally and offer an outline as a public document that you can use and adapt to your needs. Others have worked to create a professional curriculum, sometimes published, sometimes only self published, that they are offering other teachers for sale. If you are looking for a whole curriculum for your language teaching practices, I encourage you to explore the options listed on this page.
CI Liftoff - Stepping Stones curricular framework, created by Tina Hargaden. Foundations is the Stepping Stones curriculum pared-down to it's highest-leverage components. Or, choose the bundle of FOUNDATIONS + Stepping Stones Curriculum - "a structured, standards-aligned framework for daily lessons, unit planning, and sequencing the year and program that gives you the train tracks and map to your destination, while allowing for an almost-infinite degree of flexibility."
Designed by Martina Bex (The Comprehensible Classroom), the Somos Curriculum is a comprehensive multi-year curriculum in Spanish, French, or Latin. "Through the course of each unit, students use all four communicative skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Its student-centered lessons bring together language and culture in each lesson sequence, preparing students for the real world."
The Look! I Can Talk! series is a multi-level curricula by TPRS Books, created by Blaine Ray, available in 5 languages - Spanish, French, German, English, and Chinese. The materials can be adapted to any language. The company behind TPRS Books runs many conferences and trainings, including their TPRS University - a four-part intensive training in TPRS and supportive strategies. It is even possible to get University credit.
Immediate Immersion was developed by Scott Benedict and contains
24 lessons based on Terry Waltz’s Super Verbs and Mike Peto’s Sweet 16
Verbs along with high-frequency vocabulary to maximize efficiency in
providing comprehensible input to students. It's available in Spanish and French.
Zhongwen Bu Mafan, developed by Terry Waltz, gives you everything you need to teach total beginners Mandarin Chinese using Comprehensible Input.
These classroom-tested activities coordinate with engaging, fully
illustrated storybooks (included in convenient digital flipbook form for
you to project or screenshare) to build confident, joyful readers. There are also resources in Spanish, French, German, English, & Indonesian on Terry's website.
Sabine und Michael is a curriculum of TPRS Materials for German teachers made by a German teacher, Michael Miller. The Wunderkindlanguages website that hosts these materials also has great resources and articles to explore.
EL MUNDO EN TUS MANOS is a bi-weekly news publication that has been providing comprehensible news summaries from Spanish speaking countries to students since 2016. It is a collaboration between The Comprehensible Classroom, Maris Hawkins and Nelly Andrade-Hughes. With multiple versions of each article, Spanish language learners in Levels 1 - AP Spanish and Spanish Language Arts/Spanish for Spanish Speakers courses will find articles that they can read and understand in every issue.
Le Petit Journal Francophone by Cécile Lainé, is a regular publication that provides comprehensible news summaries from the Francophone world to learners of French for both Novice and Intermediate readers. Previous years' worth are free, while there is a small fee for the current year subscription.
Martina Bex from The Comprehensible Classroom has several databases to help teachers connect and share their resources and ideas. Check it out here.
Jalen Waltman offers her Complete Spanish Course from level 1 - AP on their website.
Lance Piantaggini created the Universal Language Curriculum as a free google doc. This curriculum can be applied universally to any world language program. It’s based on learner-centered personalization of content leading to acquisition of the target language.
Huellas - Created by Carrie Toth with inspiration from the AP themes, the Sustainable Development Goals, and ACTFL's Proficiency Levels, this curriculum can meet the needs of your upper level Spanish students.
Voces is a collection of World Language titles in French, Spanish, Italian, German, & ESL housed in an easily accessible, web-based platform. Each title in the Voces library contains vast online resources
meant to help both teachers and students get inspired and get ahead. Their YouTube series Weekly Wednesday Webinar also has great videos.
Cécile Lainé created (and provides free of charge) the Comprehension-Based Classroom - Year 1 document to help outline her plans with helpful links. She also provided the Year 3 (next proficiency level target) outline, though it has not been updated since 2018.
Había una vez - Year 1 is a Spanish curriculum for elementary FLES
students. It will work best with students from preschool through second
grade.
Do you use a proficiency-oriented comprehension-based communicative curriculum in your classroom? Is it missing from the list above? Drop me a line!
