ADI Core 9

A Skill-Building Program in the Foundations of Acquisition-Driven Instruction

Good language teaching consists of identifiable, learnable skills. ADI Core 9 breaks Acquisition-Driven Instruction down into nine of the most important skills and gives you a full month to focus on each one.

Each month, you'll learn specific techniques, see them demonstrated, put them into practice with your own students, and reflect on what works for you.

Whether you're new to ADI or an experienced teacher ready to refine your practice, Core 9 gives you the structure, support, and sustained practice to keep growing all school year long.

Regardless of the curriculum you use, these are the skills that make it work.

	Practice	Connect	Soar
Curated demo videos in course portal
Monthly challenges, pro tips, and reflections
Monthly classroom resource recommendations with exclusive participant pricing
Monthly discussion meetups
Expert feedback on monthly challenges
Non-expiring Early Bird rate on CI Summit
Personalized feedback on all coursework
Three 1-on-1 sessions with an expert coach (45 minutes each)
	$119	$219	$349

Monthly meetups happen on the second Wednesday of each month, right after that month’s Teacher Talk webinar. Meetup attendance is limited to ADI Core 9 Connect and Soar participants, for whom the meetings are also recorded for later viewing.

Because of the personalized support involved, space in Connect and Soar is limited. Join these founding cohorts now! For all cohorts, registration for the 2026-2027 program will remain open through October 14, 2026 (the day of the second meetup) or until full, whichever comes first.

Nine Skills. Nine Months. A Lifetime of Joyful Teaching.

September — Make Meaning Clear
Help students understand and acquire language in context.

October — Ask Good Questions
Create interactions that prompt real language use.

November — Use Your Students
Make learning personal, relevant, and engaging.

December — Nail the Stakes
Create the right conditions for eager participation.

January — Own Students' Attention
Hook and sustain attention in an increasingly distracting world.

February — Make Reading Worth It
Choose suitable texts and get more acquisition from reading.

March — Follow the Flow
Build coherent lessons—and confidently adjust on the fly.

April — Celebrate Growth
Assess and recognize learning in meaningful ways.

May — Learn From Yourself
Use reflection to keep getting better year after year.

How ADI Core 9 Works

Ideas are a solid start. Practice changes teaching.

You can learn a lot at a conference or by reading blogs. But becoming a skilled language teacher takes more than learning new ideas; it takes focused practice over time. ADI Core 9 supplies what is often missing for long-term growth: one clear focus at a time, concrete goals, regular reflection, and sustained momentum.

Each Month:

LEARN IT

Watch bite-sized explanations of the month's target skill.

SEE IT

Watch curated demonstrations of the techniques in action.

TRY IT

Choose classroom challenges that fit your experience, students, and situation.

REFLECT

Identify what worked, what you'd change, and where you want to grow.

CONNECT (Connect + Soar)

Meet with an expert coach and other teachers and receive feedback.

ADI Core 9 - Soar participants also get three one-on-one in-depth coaching sessions with a veteran instructional coach, spaced throughout the year however they wish: for example, three sessions early in the year for the strongest possible start, or one session at the beginning, a mid-year check-in, and a session near the end.

When you complete the program, you’ll receive an ADI Core 9 digital badge and a certificate documenting your professional development hours:

Practice: 20 hours | Connect: 30 hours | Soar: 33 hours

Course Outline

Skill 1: Make meaning clear (September)

Without comprehension, there is no language-learning and, indeed, no communication. Learn differentiated ways to memorably introduce and recycle words and phrases, as well as how to teach grammar as meaning in context.

Skill 2: Ask good questions (October)

Savvy prompts and follow-up questions are the secret sauce of good communication and effective language lessons. Learn to design questions, interactions, and tasks that prompt real language use and make students want to keep participating.

Skill 3: Use your students (November)

Personalization takes language-learning to the next level. Learn how to draw students in with personalized questions and goals, and how to transition smoothly between discussing information about students and studying texts, images, and other cultural content.

Skill 4: Nail the stakes (December)

When an activity falls flat or students don’t want to participate, it’s easy to blame the technique (“This doesn’t work”), our students (“They don’t care,” “They’re not trying”) or ourselves (“I guess I can’t do this”). But, often, the real issue is that the stakes feel too low or too high for students, and thus participation is either too boring or too risky. Learn how to get the stakes just right for eager participation.

Skill 5: Own students’ attention (January)

Students’ attention is harder and harder to grab and even harder to maintain, and without it, there is no teaching or learning. Discover a host of research-based, classroom-tested ways to hook and sustain students’ attention so that their brains stick around for the lessons you’ve worked hard to create.

Skill 6: Make reading worth it (February)

Research establishes reading—both guided and independent—as one of the most efficient paths to acquiring a language. Those benefits are lost if students don’t want to read. Even when students do find a text worthwhile, teachers often leave many of the potential benefits of reading on the table. Learn how to choose suitable texts and how to get the most out of them before, during, and after reading.

Skill 7: Follow the flow (March)

Skilled teachers both create coherent flow in a lesson and know how to go with the flow when things inevitably change. Learn how to boost the coherence of your lessons and how to apply specific techniques for adjusting on the fly.

Skill 8: Celebrate growth (April)

Learning a language is impressive. Teachers should celebrate learning; they also need to provide ways to demonstrate students’ learning—to students themselves and to other people who may care. Learn ways to assess and laud learning that you and your students can feel good about.

Skill 9: Learn from yourself (May)

You can grow a ton by observing what things worked better than others and investigating why. Well-guided reflection can greatly multiply the value of your experience. Learn how to conduct deep reflection—on activities, assignments, resources, the year as a whole, and your own skills—that will keep you growing year in and year out.

Note: Course content is released gradually over the course of the year, to help you focus on the current month’s target skill.

About the Course Designer

Ready to Become a More Skilled, Confident Language Teacher?

Nine skills. Nine months. From one skill at a time to a lifetime of joyful teaching.

Choose the amount of support that's right for you and spend this school year deliberately building the skills that make great language teaching work.