Comprehensible Input isn’t just about language—it’s about equity, access, and giving every student a fair shot at success in your classroom.

🎯 Take our free CI Proficiency Quiz and find out your Comprehensible Input teaching level at https://imim.us/ciquiz.

In this episode of Comprehend THIS! we’re diving into Equity & CI: Why This Matters with two powerhouse guests — Adriana Ramírez and Jackie Deming-Plunk. We explore how comprehension-based instruction breaks down barriers, supports all learners (especially the ones traditional methods leave behind), and helps teachers advocate for equity without burning out. You’ll walk away with practical routines, admin-friendly talking points, and a mindset shift that’ll change how you see your classroom forever.

#ComprehensibleInput, #EquityInEducation, #LanguageTeaching, #WorldLanguageTeacher, #SpanishTeachers, #TeachingStrategies, #CIClassroom, #TeacherPodcast, #ComprehendTHIS, #ImmediateImmersion

Hosts:

• Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
• Adriana Ramirez - https://www.instagram.com/@veganadri
• Jackie Deming-Plunk

Resources & Links:

• CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit
• Webinar Club: https://imim.us/club
• Adriana’s YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@learningthroughreading
• Adriana Ramirez - https://www.adrianaramirez.ca/

Join the Conversation:

Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!

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Connect with Scott:

Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion

🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com

📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com

Youtube: https://youtube.com/immediateimmersion

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Good morning and welcome this morning.

How is everybody doing this morning?

I know it's early on a Sunday morning.

Can't remember what day it is.

So, if you ever had one of those moments

where you realize, "Oh wait, this isn't

just about language teaching.

It's about giving every

single kid a real shot at success."

Yeah, that's the vibe today.

We're diving headfirst into equity and CI

and before you roll your eyes and say,

"Great, another buzzword. Hold on,

because this one actually matters."

Joining me are two absolute legends who

prove that equity isn't a slogan.

It's a daily practice. First up, Adriana

Ramirez, Colombian author, teacher and

professional heart warmer,

whose passion for her students and her

culture basically radiates

through every story she tells.

Seriously, she could probably make verb

conjugation sound like poetry.

And then there's Jackie Demingplunk

holding it down in West Tennessee,

bringing CI magic to her

students since year one.

She's a teacher who reminds us that this

stuff works, even when your Wi-Fi doesn't

and your principal still thinks input

means an email suggestion box.

We're talking about real equity here, not

the fancy PD Sly version.

How CI helps the kids who usually get

left behind, how to explain it to that

skeptical colleague, and how to keep your

sanity while doing it all.

So grab your coffee or like me, your Diet

Pepsi, or whatever keeps you

alive during grading season,

because this episode is all about

teaching with heart and keeping it real.

We'll be right back

after the short messages.

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No stress, no guilt, just monthly help

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Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the

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Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for

real language teachers.

No drills, no dry theory, just honest

stories, practical ideas, and a reminder

you're not alone in the CI trenches.

Let's dive in.

Good morning, ladies. How

are we doing this morning?

Doing great.

Good. Still like waking up.

Aren't we all? Yeah, it's early Sunday

morning, especially for us on the West

Coast, because it's just eight o'clock

here on the West Coast.

So it is early on a Sunday morning. I

welcome you both here. Jackie's been here

before. It's our first time having

Adriana, and it's a special time, because

as I was talking to her

just before we started,

one of my favorite books I love to read

with my level twos is Me Perdia in

Medellin. I got lost in Medellin, and I

was explaining how great

the culture is and how she explains the

culture through the eyes of, it's a

Canadian, not an American for once,

it's got a Canadian kid and a Colombian

native, and how they explore the city and

the culture as it comes out naturally is

just a really amazing book.

And she's written so many books. And why

I love her and other authors like her is

because she's written the books, exposing

the culture from her own perspective.

So unlike a typical and forgive my lack

of a better term, but from a white

perspective, from a North American

perspective, we're getting a actual

person who's experienced the culture,

writing about their own culture, and it

gives a whole different perspective on

the world and worldviews. I remember the

first time that I was working with

Adriana in one of her courses,

and she had a big idea about ecotourism,

which really hit home for me and made a

lot of sense with me. And we talk about

it in our classes now.

So I guess can't highly recommend. So

it's an honor to have Adriana here with

us. And Jackie, as I said, she's been

here multiple times.

We love her every time she's here. She's

got some great ideas. So

welcome to both of you.

Thank you. Thank you. And nice to meet

you, Jackie. Nice to

meet you too, finally.

So today we're talking about equity and

CI. And I know it's a big deal,

especially with the American

administration that's going on right now.

It's not exactly a nice topic. And what I

love at the school district, one of the

reasons I picked the school district that

I'm working at right now is we have

equity in our slogan.

It's something that is not just spoken

about. It's shown throughout everything

that we do from our superintendent all

the way down to our custodial

staff and our kitchen staff.

We have people of every color, every

race, every nationality, every religion

exposed. Our

superintendent is African-American.

We have so many different cultures

represented. Usually schools boast that

because the student body shows that.

But not only does our student body

reflect that, our teachers and our

custodians and our

administration all show that as well.

So I think it's a really big deal. We

have been taking the stance of equity

long before this term.

But with this term, we've taken a better

stance. We prepare what to do if, you

know, ICE comes into our

classrooms or our schools.

We have safe harbors for parents. We cut

out emails letting them know that if you

have an issue with you or question,

you've got a safe place to come.

And we have, I think we said we have 53

different languages

represented at our schools.

And we translate most of our stuff into

at least the four big common ones.

English, Spanish, Arabic,

Mandarin. I guess there's five.

And Russian. So everything that we get

sent out, every email to parent,

everything. And we have a system in our

school that if we don't speak that

language, we can

submit our work beforehand.

Our lesson plans, our worksheets and

someone will translate them for them into

the language the kid needs.

So it's a really big deal for us. And

that's one of the reasons I like the

district that I'm in, because we are.

So it's not just a word saying equity and

that we treat all kids equally. We

actually put our

actions behind our words.

So I really appreciate that. And right

now, as I said, in America, at least with

the atmosphere that we currently have, it

seems like it's us against them.

And it shouldn't be that way at all,

because, you know, they always said

America was the melting pot and it

doesn't seem like we're that way lately

in the last year and a half or so.

So it is a great. Sorry, it's not even

been a year and a half. That's what's

scary. It's only been a half a year. Oh,

my gosh, that's been terrifying.

So so we're going to try to stay not so

political here, but it's

something that's really important.

I know it's important to me and I know

it's important to

Adriana and Jackie as well.

So let's start off by saying, when did

you first connect those dots that

teaching for

comprehension was really about equity?

Who would like to go first? Are you going

to assign? No, it's

just where I want to start.

I'll let you go first, Adriana.

That is a very hard and interesting

question. I think I cannot pinpoint a

specific date, but it's a journey.

Definitely when I was teaching with more

grammar, traditional approach, it didn't

feel equitable at all,

but I didn't know better.

So that is what I was doing when I knew I

was failing a lot of my students, because

just a few of them would actually acquire

the language or learn the

language if it's that way.

And the joy was not part of the class.

Hope was not part of the class. Success

was not part of the class.

So when I started incorporating my

methodologies into my practice, I started

seeing a switch in the students.

Happiness, hope is what is most important

to me right now, hope of learning.

And that also changed when I changed my

grading system, because first I started

using the methodologies first, but I kept

a traditional grading system with

percentages and average and everything.

So still, even though the methodology,

the approach was more equitable, the

grading system kind of like cut a lot of

the good things that I was doing.

But when I changed my grading system for

a proficiency scale, then I realized, OK,

now I think this is

equitable because it doesn't matter.

I'm not going to punish you for mistakes.

I'm not going to

punish you at an average.

It's not going to ruin your mark. I'm

going to honor the journey

and the end of the journey.

And the end of the journey is going to

reflect your final mark. Unfortunately,

we have to give marks in an ideal world.

I wouldn't have to give a mark. We're

just learning and having fun and enjoying

and getting to know each other.

We have to do it. That's part of what we

do as teachers. So is the hope.

So a lot of kids, I love seeing this

every year. I tell them this. I'm going

to honor your learning and your final

mark is what you show me at the end.

It's the progress of the end. You need to

have bad days. It's OK not to know.

So if you don't know today, you don't

know. Eventually, well, you have to show

me somehow that you know.

So work towards that. So I see a lot of

kids that the

proficiency scale has four points.

So which is emerging, developing,

proficient and extending.

Very simple, very easy to use.

A lot of kids start with developing,

which is fine, but they have hope. And

they ask me, do you think

I can end in a profession?

Of course, Mia, more. Of course you can.

But so they actually do. They actually

end in a profession or some of them even

end in an extending.

And I also realize and I tell them this,

that is a process that is it

takes more than a semester.

I see them a semester every day. We are

in a semester system, not in a year long

system, but semester system.

So it's a process that takes more than a

semester. So you might start with the

developing or even right now and finish

with the developing.

It's fine. But maybe the following year,

because your brain is cooking and you

have to let your brain cook and some of

us cook faster than others.

So when you come back to me the second

year, you actually might be a proficient.

And when you come back to me the third

year, you might be an extending. And I've

seen the journey for the journey for

everyone looks different.

But that is a

possibility. And it gives me hope.

Something that I tell them a lot is the

cooking process. I am neurodivergent. I

am dyslexic. So I am a slow cook.

I cook slow. I cook languages very slow.

I love languages. Give me time.

If you give me my time and respect my

cooking time, brain

cooking time, I will get there.

And I will get there as good as any other

people that is going

through the same process.

So I share that. Don't compare yourselves

with any other person in the class.

No, whatever other people are getting or

the way they're

producing, it doesn't matter.

We could just think of the way you cook

and respect that way. Maybe you're a

microwave microwave brain

like two minutes and boom.

Like you're good for you. And they learn

Spanish to some of them.

So good for you. But

guess what? I am a crockpot.

We're producing food, so it's OK. So I

love saying that because they start

comparing to each other.

Like we just have different brains.

Embrace that. You're here because you

want to learn the Spanish,

learn more about this culture.

We're becoming a family and just diving

through the process.

Absolutely. I love that family.

I love the analogy with cooking. I think

that really is a really important thing

because it is everybody does it.

It is like I always say, it doesn't

matter how you get to the destination,

whether you fly or you

drive or you walk or you run.

We all get there. That's the point is

that we all get there and how we get

there or how fast we get

there doesn't really matter.

The point is that we all get there. And

so I think that's a really

good analogy. I love that.

What about you, Jackie? So I part of why

I got into education in the

first place was because of.

Diversity and equity and social justice.

I remember being in my undergraduate

teaching program and

one of the first days,

I think it was either an intro to

education or intro to special education

foundations, one of the two.

You know, talking about like, OK, well,

what kind of school do

you want to teach in?

And I remember hearing student after

student after student say, oh, I want to

go back and teach in the private school

that I went to or whatever.

And, you know, I want to teach in a

really good school. And then there was me

who went to public school just outside of

a major city and was like,

yeah, I would really like to teach in an

inner city urban kind of difficult

school, probably one with a lot of

academic struggles and stuff like that.

And just the side eyes I got from all of

these 18, 19 year olds

going like, what is she on?

Like, what? Who do you think you are? So

that's kind of always

been a thing for me.

The first school system that I taught in

was not inner city, but

it was a very rural school.

Had a lot of inner city type problems.

This is a school district that back in

the day, a lot of people from Memphis

sent their kids to go live with family

there so that they wouldn't get involved

in gangs in Memphis.

And so there's like many gangs there that

are basically like parallels to Memphis

games at this point.

You know, so it had a lot of those inner

city type of problems, a lot of special

needs, a lot of literacy

issues and stuff like that.

And so part of the reason why I switched

to CI in my first year was because the

traditional method wasn't it wasn't

meeting the needs of my students.

They weren't learning the material and I

it was just frustrating for everyone

because they didn't have the skills in

English with grammar

and they didn't have the foundation they

needed to be successful in

a grammar focused format.

So I was in a district that was very into

promoting equity and, you know, helping

all learners succeed.

So it just kind of made sense. And so I

switched. I found a lot more

success for all of my students,

but particularly for my students who

would not have been successful

that first semester teaching.

Awesome. Yeah, it makes a really big

difference, I think. And let me speak to

it a little bit here.

I've got so I'll say for me, I want to

talk about two things that came up.

My second or maybe it was my third year

of teaching, I was the

only CI teacher going on.

And in fact, I knew it was

called CI. It was only TPRS.

It's all that we had back

there in the early 2000s.

And I started noticing that all of the

special needs students, the 504s and the

IEPs, I was getting more

than the average teacher.

I was getting a lot more of those

students being placed in my classroom,

almost to the point where I

was about to ask for a parapro

because I had so many in a class that it

was really hard to attend

to each one of their needs.

And what one of my what the counselor

told me, I says, why am I

getting so many of these?

I mean, most teachers get maybe one to

two in a class at a time, but

I'm getting six, seven, eight.

I've had 12 in one class out of 30.

Almost half of my class is on the 504 or

IEP, which I didn't have a problem with.

But I was wondering why I was

getting a larger percentage.

And I didn't understand at the time until

the counselor said, well, we're finding

that when we look at these kids and what

their grades in Spanish are,

the kids are successful in your class and

they're not in the other classes.

So we're finding that whatever you're

doing in that classroom is more

successful for the way that they think,

the way that they learn.

And they do better and have less stress

than they do in a traditional classroom.

And I really hadn't

thought about that before.

But then as I started thinking about it,

well, I can see why we

do multi learning style.

We are doing kinesthetic. We are doing

audio. We are doing visual.

We're using images. We're coloring. We're

doing all of these things that are not

just good for IEP or 504 students.

They are good for all students.

And when you teach to your 504s, your

neurodivergence, your IEP students, you

are not just teaching to those students.

You are just being a good teacher for

every student in the classroom.

And so I think that was

one of the big things.

And then another thing that always stuck

with me was, you know,

they say that only 4 percent.

I don't know where they got that number.

It's just been quoted

year after year after year.

Four percent of students can actually

learn from the traditional method.

And that four percent, most of them turn

into language teachers.

They're the ones who just love the

grammar rules and can soak up every

single one of the hundred vocabulary

words that they have

to teach in two weeks,

because we only have a

semester to teach a whole book.

And when I did the math and I'm not a

math person, but I did the math, that's

less than one student in

the classroom out of 30.

When you go four percent,

it's less than one student.

And if a principal or administrator knew

that the methodology that you chose to

instruct your kids only really hits one

kid out of the classroom,

they would tell you, uh-uh, you can't do

that. That's bad teaching that only

addresses the one kid in the classroom.

And so teaching with C.I. is so much more

broad and it hits more kids than a

traditional teaching.

It's because it's how we

actually learn languages.

It's not trying to reframe learning

languages into an academic course, which

is really learning about languages, not

learning the actual language.

And when kids tell me that they can't

learn a language, I

say, no, that's wrong.

You can't learn a language. That's true.

But everybody can acquire a language

unless you have some severe brain damage.

Even, you know, the most mentally

challenged students can

communicate in some way.

They have a way of

communication and acquiring language.

So everybody has that ability.

But learning language, memorization of

grammar rules and memorization of tons of

vocabulary, hasn't worked for nearly

anybody in the history

of doing it that way.

Because if it did, because we've been

requiring languages here in America, two

years of languages in many schools for

decades, and we still have

not created bilingual students.

So what we're doing is wrong.

And so I think it's really important from

what Adriana said and Jackie said about

hitting every student.

It's really, really important.

And my experience, because until I taught

at the school that I'm teaching at now,

mine were all, you know,

mostly suburban schools.

So we didn't have a great mix of

ethnicities, a great mix of religions, a

great mix of educational abilities.

These were generally higher

end middle class students.

And so we didn't have those problems.

The school that I'm in

now, it's not inner city.

It's right next to the city.

But we have a lot of the like Jackie was

talking about a lot of

the inner city problems.

And so I'm now experiencing a lot more of

the issues other than just 504s and IEPs.

I've got behavior issues.

I've got gang members.

I've got kids who've been in and out of

jail or parents have

been in and out of jail.

I've got drunk parents

coming to parent conferences.

We've got all those kinds of issues that

I didn't have before.

And this is the best way that I know how

to address that and make it equal for

everybody, regardless of your background,

regardless of your

economics, all of that stuff.

Does it matter in my classroom?

Because I'm teaching from a perspective

of comprehensible input and everybody has

the ability to understand.

I think that's just so very important.

So that's when I first noticed that

second or third year when that counselor

was telling me that's why they were

putting those kids in my classroom.

Because they were just being more

successful in that type of an atmosphere.

And I really appreciated that.

Never had thought about it before.

And it really wasn't me

doing anything special.

It's just the methodology

that I've chosen to use.

But it really helps all kids learn better

than the traditional method.

So I think for your

perspectives, everybody.

What would you think

would be the benefit?

What do you think is the key thing that

CI gives students that a

textbook only approach doesn't?

Anybody want to go for that one?

I'll go first on this one.

So in the textbooks that I have looked at

and had to work with, one of the

challenges is always,

OK, why does this matter?

Why do I need to know the difference

between "el la los en las"?

Why is that a thing?

Why do I care?

Because it starts off with-- and Scott,

you said this before-- it starts off with

things that are really easy to teach,

but really hard to master.

Kids always want to

know why something matters.

So when we're doing a story in my class,

OK, well, why does this matter?

Well, because I need to know the story

because Profay's going

to test me on it later,

is the very base level of why it matters

to pay attention in my class.

But a lot of the kids, they develop it.

I want to know what happens.

Why is this character doing this?

What's going to happen next?

Where are they going to go?

And so it's more equitable

because it matters to them.

And then they're getting to apply that

language to their own lives and talk

about things that matter to them and

share their opinions.

And so it matters more.

Whereas if we're just talking about poor

and para, they both mean "for."

So why do I care?

This is hard because I have to memorize

stuff and I don't want

to memorize anything.

What about you, Adriana?

I don't think honestly approaching a

language through the lenses of a textbook

is not equitable at all.

A textbook is a cold, soulless thing.

And languages are the

essence of humanity.

This is how we

communicate with each other.

Like we are humans as long as we can

create relationships with others, share

our stories, know how you're doing.

Your relationships, we cannot or we could

not build a

relationship without a language.

Any kind of language, sign language, like

any way of me sharing with you how I'm

feeling, that's what makes me human.

So how am I going to pretend to put that

humanity in a textbook?

The only way to resemble that humanity in

my classroom is exactly doing what we do

when we're learning our native language

and it's building relationship with our

students, connecting with them.

So I already forgot the question, so I

don't know if I'm answering or not, but

the textbook will never ever resemble

anything close to acquiring a language.

I've used it.

I've used the textbook years ago and it

was dry and soulless and I

felt a miserable teacher.

And I was like, I cannot.

When I started, when I used it, it was

like, I don't know, 70 years ago and I

had 70 years ahead of me before retiring

and I cannot picture

myself doing this for years.

This soulless job, what is happening?

And then when I found CI,

I'm like, OK, this is it.

Now I have my people, I

have my family in class.

They are my kids.

I am their Spanish mother.

We get to know each other.

We can manage.

So there is nothing like those teachers

that haven't done the shift or

are afraid of doing the shift.

Just just do it.

Take the plunge is

scary at the beginning.

Very scary.

We all have been there.

I always tell people like I used to wear

black a lot at the beginning because I

would sweat my butt off out of the stress

of standing in front of the students.

Telling a story.

I could really feel me dripping.

But if you wear black,

no one knows who cares.

Wear black for the first

three years that you are doing CI.

And then once you have to do this thing

that you can't wear any other color.

Now I'm impairment of all.

I have to wear black

again because I get really.

So but yeah, no, like the textbook.

No, this is this is languages is humanity

and you cannot put humanity in a textbook

and you cannot reduce humanity to rules.

Just have to connect with the students

and interact with them.

Yes.

See, I have so much fun

and the kids love that.

Like I have so many kids every year who

are like, profane,

your class is my favorite.

We have so much fun in here.

You know, and it's just

because there is that humanity.

Like you're talking about Adriana.

You know, I have so much fun with my kids

and I call them my kids all the time

because that's like, you know, I wouldn't

go so far as to say I'm their Spanish

momma, but I'm

definitely their Spanish auntie.

Like, you know, and it's mainly just

because it's like, I

don't want to be your momma.

Like, I'm not your mom,

but I will be your aunt.

Like, let's let's have some fun, you

know, and then I will send you home to

your real momma, hopefully.

And hopefully she will pick up and have

fun with you as well.

But then they go to like their math

classes and they go to their English

classes and it's just textbook, textbook,

textbook, you know, which they're all on

the Chromebooks now.

But like they just get so bored from it

because, like you said,

there's no life in it.

There's no there's no love.

There's no play in a textbook.

And that's one of the best things about

the eyes that they get to play.

And so a lot of my kids with five of

course and with IEPs who have attention

issues, they get to be silly in my class

and then they get to

and they get to have fun.

And it's and it's honored and it's

rewarded a lot of the time.

And sometimes we have to rein it back in.

But like they get to play

and they get to be themselves.

And that's part of what brings that

equity in, because when they feel seen,

they feel honored, they feel respected.

They're more willing to put forth the

effort when it is hard

because it isn't always easy.

But, you know, they know that they're

supported and cared about.

So then they can have the

motivation to try and succeed.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's funny that you.

I just lost my thought. I

have a thought. I just lost it.

I'll probably come back to it. Let me

just talk about what I wrote some notes

down as you guys are talking and I didn't

write the little note

that I wanted to say about.

But for me, for the textbook, what I see

that is it's already out of date.

By the time it's published, you know, the

references that they make and stuff,

because it takes so long to get from

conception to publishing on a textbook.

It's out of date. I remember when, you

know, the first textbook I

used reference Michael Jackson.

But Michael Jackson was already kind of

passé by that time.

Nobody was really listening to Michael

Jackson. And by the time we got rid of

that book, Michael Jackson

had been dead by three years.

So, you know, it's already passé. And I

like, Adriana says, it's very cold.

There is so much as human beings. One

thing that does not work well for us as

human beings is memorization.

Memorization is like a hamster wheel. And

as long as you keep running and keep

studying it, it will stay in your brain.

But the moment you stop, it

starts to leave your brain.

Very few things actually get stuck into

permanent memory through memorization,

flashcards and that.

And textbooks generally give between 50

and 100 vocab words per chapter.

And I'm like Adriana, we

teach a semester in a year.

So a year worth of Spanish in a semester.

That's a lot to cram down kids brains.

And just because they're in class for 90

minutes, five days a week doesn't mean

you can cover the same thing that you

would cover in an

hour class in two weeks.

And they have to memorize because we have

two weeks to complete a chapter and they

can't memorize all that

vocabulary and make it useful.

And then on top of that, that vocabulary,

most of it is not practical. It's not

high frequency vocabulary.

When is my kid going to be

able to need to know? Paperclip.

Once they graduate from high school,

unless they turn into an office job,

they're probably never going to have to

ever say the word paperclip

for the rest of their lives.

But that's a word that I have to teach.

And so that kind of stuff is in there.

And I always equate the textbook to the

sports. We are not an academic class, not

to put us down by saying

that we are less of a class.

But when I think of an academic class,

you're really studying and you're trying

to get higher in that.

And I think of us more like a performing

art or a sport where we can't you can't

give someone a book and say, read this

book and then you'll be able to play the

violin or read this book and you'll be

able to show up to football

on Friday and win the game.

You can't do that. Can you read? Can you

learn about the rules and

the history of all of that?

You absolutely can from a book, but the

actual doing of it, you

can't learn from a book.

And so I equate it like that. You can't

learn football from a book. And so the

textbook is similar in that way.

And I think where it really hits home

where CI completely kicks the butt of a

textbook is in personalization.

There is nothing personable. It's like,

as I'd rather say, it was

cold. The textbook is cold.

There's nothing

personable about the textbook.

The kids don't look at that textbook and

see themselves in that

in any way, shape or form.

And I adapt my class to it. I know every

week what I have to teach. I know that.

But what I don't know is the stories I'm

going to use to teach that because I have

different kids in

every class every semester.

And so I write stories based on those

kids. And that's the stories

that I use in my classroom.

We have conversations, not about some

generic things. We have conversations

about what mattered to kids.

What did you do over the weekend? What's

your favorite music?

It's not what my favorite music or what

the music in the

textbook is talking about.

I'm asking about your music, your groups,

your TV shows. It's about you.

And I write stories when we do our

readings. We do two readings a week.

And every week I write two new readings

based on stories from my kids

that I make up about my kids.

From something they said that was funny

or something I know that they do.

Like they have a really big hobby. I have

one kid who like to go on Facebook

Marketplace and buy antique

computers and stuff like that.

That's what he like to do. And he told us

a story about he went with his uncle to

this really strange guy's house.

And it was a really uncomfortable

situation. Well, I

wrote a story about that.

And I wrote a story, lots of stories

about him searching for weird things on

Facebook Marketplace.

And one of my students said to me, which

really hit home last year, he was an

average student, probably a

C student in most classes.

He got a B in my class. But he said, he

goes, "Profit, I hate reading. I

absolutely hate reading.

But I come into class on Thursdays and

Fridays and I'm

excited to read our stories."

And I knew what the answer was. And I

said, "Well, why is that?"

And he couldn't figure out why, what the

difference was. And one of their kids

goes, "It's because the

readings are all about us."

And that makes the big difference.

Because I can teach anything through a

reading about one of my students.

It doesn't have to be a boring, cold

reading about, you know,

using, I got to use these verbs.

I got to find some boring reading about

that as that. I can take those verbs and

put them into any story

if they're high frequency.

I don't have to stretch to do that. And I

can make the stories about my kids and

that's what gets them engaged.

And heck, I know they're going to teach

Romeo and Juliet in

ninth grade English class.

That is not an ancient distance story. It

is a real life and it's living and

breathing today, every

single day in our classroom.

We have one kid who is going out with

someone whose parents

don't agree with that.

If you turn Romeo and Juliet into that

story, now it's relatable.

And now they understand it and now they

see the power and potential of reading a

story that's hundreds of years old.

Because it still has

importance today. It has value today.

And so I think that's the thing that the

textbook is never going to be able to do.

Because they can never publish enough of

it and update enough of it for every new

set of kids that we have.

I may have to have a different story for

first and second and third period because

I have different groups that are so

different that I can't use a similar

story to get them involved.

And that's where I think we excel. Even

the textbook that my school officially

uses, we have a physical version and an

online version of it.

But even the online version of the book,

they can't update it fast enough for us

to adapt to all the different kids.

And they still have tons and tons and

tons and tons of vocabulary.

And we just had a training on it a couple

weeks ago for our PD and he was showing

us this culture, which

was really wonderful.

All the cultural resources they have.

They have videos and

newscasts and stuff like that.

But he said, "Okay, here's level one."

And I went and looked at it.

I'm like, "There is no way a level one

kid can understand this."

Could they get the basic idea?

Yeah, I could say, "Okay, we're going to

listen to this." And yeah,

you can tell me the basic idea.

But that's all I can do with that as it

stands because you wrote it way too big.

Why not just limit it down to something a

kid could understand?

So even the textbooks don't really get

the kids that we have in our classroom.

And so I think that's where it really,

really hits home there.

And can I say something that you made me

think of when you were

talking about the textbook also?

I can say most of them, I don't know all

the textbooks, but most of them, the ones

that I know, they are written

with a very wide perspective.

The approach is more a

touristic approach of the culture.

Like as a tourist, you will travel to

these places, mainly Spain, maybe some

Peru, maybe some Mexico.

So because we have to bring the equity

conversation also to the

things that we use in the class.

It's not the relationship, I mean the CI

relationship that we

built with the students.

Of course, it is. We've talked about it.

But also what kind of materials do I

bring to the class at the kids?

Either there are different things.

They see themselves reflected, like we've

heard different times or several times,

there's the mirrors, the

windows and the sliding doors.

So they see themselves reflected in those

stories that we bring

or those situations.

Or authentically, I'm opening a window or

a door so they can actually peek in in

the culture and learn from the culture.

So the textbooks tend to cater to a

tourist audience, assuming those kids

will be able to travel

and go to these places.

But the tourist places, which are, I

mean, we all have been tourists in a

place, are the tip of the iceberg.

But what is the culture behind and below

that iceberg that informs those places

and those traditions?

So also, I don't want to focus on the

touristic approach that tends

to be the textbook approach.

I want to go to the culture.

So it's not about eating

tacos or doing day of the death.

What is the meaning

of death for Mexicans?

Why do they do the day of the death?

This is a deep meaning that when I

learned about it to be able to bring it

into the class deeply, I was like, oh my

God, this is so beautiful and profound.

It's not coloring a Katrina.

It goes beyond that.

Or when we're eating a taco or eating an

arepa, it's not just,

oh, I ate the arepa.

What's the meaning of corn for us?

For arepa made of corn, the meaning of

corn as a staple food for us is a

resistance food that

has survived colonization.

500 years, we still eat

arepa in Colombia and Venezuela.

So I want also to go beyond

from the equity standpoint.

It's not this

superficial approach to culture.

I want to go beyond the culture that I am

teaching and I want my kids to connect

with that culture and also make cultural

comparisons and bring the

interculturality as a

huge piece into the class.

So this is what we do.

What do you do in your culture and show

them that we are different but equal at

the same time because we share things.

So this week I was sharing.

I like with my second year students.

I do picture talk

using pictures of myself.

This is something that I do with my

second year students, not

with my first year students.

I do it a lot to stay in the past tense

in context because I talk

about me when I was little.

I showed the pictures of me

in the 80s in high school.

I showed them pictures of my wedding.

They figured out how old I

am and they're like, what?

What is this?

So I was showing them a tradition in

Columbia for New Year's Eve, which is all

the things that we do.

Like we burn and we run

around the block with a suitcase.

We wear yellow underwear.

So I was sharing with them those

traditions and trying

to make connections.

Okay, so yellow for us.

It's the lucky color.

What is the lucky color for your culture?

So my Chinese students were saying red.

Okay, let's have a discussion.

Why red?

What does it mean red for you?

But this is all in the target language.

Target language coming from me.

And it's another equitable point that I

want to bring to the forefront.

Target language for me.

But I allow translanguaging from them.

So if they can say that in a Spanish

grade and I will prompt

them to say it in Spanish,

but if this is what they

can use is "banglish grade".

And if this teacher wants to participate

and he can say what he

wants to say in English,

go for it.

Because that means any ways you're

proving me that you're engaged, that

you're listening to me.

I am in the target language.

You're understanding what I am saying.

You're not there yet in

the Spanish production.

Fine, say it in English.

So they were complaining about red and

what it means red and when

they use red in their culture.

And then I went back to the

tradition and then I asked them.

So it was pretty neat to

connect with them as well.

So it's not just this superficial

approach to culture.

It's going deep and understanding what

informs these traditions and these

celebrations and these places

and connecting with their cultures.

So their cultures become also as

important as my culture or the target

culture that would be.

Absolutely.

I love that idea of the iceberg that

you're talking about because it's true.

Most of us only cover the

very tip of any culture.

The stuff the kids already have some

familiarity with or

that's going to excite them.

The food, the parties,

those types of things.

I like to focus because before I worked

as a teacher to get

myself through college,

I worked through airlines.

And one of the things we had to learn

about was how to approach

people of different cultures

so not to offend them with our American

ways of doing things.

And I'm a lefty and so I had to learn

that I like people of Muslim faith.

I could not hand them anything with my

left hand because the

left hand is the dirty hand.

Well, I'm left handed.

So my natural thing is always to hand

things with my left hand.

So I used to have to tuck my left hand in

my belt behind my back.

That would remind me

not to use my left hand.

I would be using my right hand so I

wouldn't offend these people.

I wasn't intentionally trying to offend

them but by learning about their culture

and what was important to them,

I'm bringing that humanity.

I'm valuing what they believe in and

making them feel better as human beings

in a culture that's not their own.

And I learned also like with Thai kids,

Americans, we like to pat

little kids on the head.

Well, for Thai kids, that's their

connection with God.

And when you put your hand on their head,

you're breaking that connection.

And so we learned a lot of these cultural

things that I think are much more

valuable than learning

about the Chinese New Year

or that the Chinese eat this food or the

Hispanics eat this food.

I think those kinds of things are much

more authentic to learn it because it's

not just superficial what

you can see from the outside.

And I like to call my feet these.

I like to teach the culture that makes us

look less ignorant as

Americans because Americans,

what you can always pick an American when

you go to a foreign country,

you can always take an American because

they're speaking English or they don't

know enough of the language.

They don't even want to learn like even

the basics like hello.

Thank you in that.

And I'll see the kid

going, I want a chicken.

And they're like they're making the

motions of a chicken to try to get the

restaurant guy to understand that that's

what he wants to order.

I want my students to understand that

there are different ways of doing things

and we want to make

ourselves less conspicuous.

We want to understand where people are

coming from a little bit better.

That's the culture that

I want to teach my kids.

I know like in Colombia

and Venezuela, a lot of them,

they point with their lips

rather than with their fingers.

And so I don't want kids to think that

these are how are mentally challenged

people because they're

pointing with their lips.

I want them to understand where this is

coming from and why

that's important or you know,

we a lot of people will make

it because I'm in California.

So Disneyland is a big thing that a lot

of cultures don't

queue up, don't line up.

They cut line in there and I'm like,

well, you're talking about a lot of times

it's the Asians and no offense to Asians.

But I was explaining, you know how the

Japanese they don't have a

line up culture in Japan.

They have such a small place and so many

people that they just have

to make room for themselves

and they actually have the job and the

kids couldn't believe this.

They have the job.

I don't know what the official name is,

but they're pushers.

They wear white gloves and they stand

outside elevators and train stations and

they are there to push as

many people in to the elevator

and into the train station as possible

because there just isn't enough trains

and elevator space for people to like,

let me get some body room.

I need to have my personal space.

There's none of that.

And I said you now that you understand

that's where they're coming from.

They come into America.

They don't understand that we

line up and that we do a line.

So we want to learn those cultures when

we go to those places when

in Rome do as the Romans.

So when you go to another culture, you

want to assimilate

yourself as much as possible.

So learning those everyday customs really

helps you much better because you

probably aren't going to be in Mexico on

the Day of the Dead.

You're probably not going to be in Mexico

on their Day of Independence.

You're probably not going to be in Mexico

and Spain and the running of the bulls.

So it's nice to know those things.

But what are the everyday cultures that

live and breathe within that culture?