Episode 25

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Published on:

29th Mar 2026

Episode 25: "CI with Fast Processors, Slow Processors, and That Kid Who’s Reading Novels in Week 2"

Teaching with Comprehensible Input means balancing fast processors, slow processors, and advanced students without losing your mind.

Take the CI Proficiency Quiz to assess where you are in your CI journey: https://imim.us/ciquiz.

In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we talk about differentiation in CI classrooms, pacing challenges, and how to keep everyone engaged with one solid lesson.

Want ready-to-use CI resources that support all learners? Check out the CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit.

#comprehensibleinput, #differentiation, #CIteaching, #languageteacherpodcast, #languageacquisition, #teacherhumor, #CIclassroom, #worldlanguageteaching, #studentprocessing, #comprehendthis

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Transcript
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Hello and welcome to episode number 25.

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Can't believe I'm

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doing 25 episodes already.

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We're almost at a

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year going through this.

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So okay, quick poll.

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Who has a class where one kid is still

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processing the sentence from yesterday?

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Another kid answered before you finished

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talking and then there's

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that kid reading a novel

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in week two.

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Yeah, same.

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Today's episode is CI with fast

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processors, slow processors

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and that kid who's reading

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novels in week two because

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differentiation in CI is

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real, necessary and occasionally

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unhinged.

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I'm joined by Pamela Parks and we're

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talking about how to keep

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everyone engaged without

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planning six different

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lessons or losing your mind.

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If your classroom processing speed looks

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like rush hour traffic,

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this one's for you and

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we'll be right back

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after these short messages.

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To comprehend this, real

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talk for real language teachers.

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No drills, no dry theory, just honest

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stories, practical ideas

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and a reminder you're not

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alone in the CI trenches.

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Let's dive in.

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And welcome back Pamela.

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She has been a steady.

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We're happy to have you.

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We're happy to have you.

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So today we're talking about

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differentiation, which is a buzzword, but

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I think it's an actual,

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unlike many buzzwords we have, I think

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this one is one of

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the more valuable ones.

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Oh absolutely.

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And actually just to put traditional

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teaching up on the block

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right now on the thing doesn't

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really differentiate very much.

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And they say that 4% that number comes

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around a lot, that 4% of

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the people can learn that

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way.

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And I mean, I learned that way.

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It's not where I got my oral proficiency

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from, but I did learn that way.

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But when you figure out 4% of a class of

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about 35 kids, it's one kid.

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It is one kid.

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That stinks.

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And that's not differentiation, teaching

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just to one kid and

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no, if an administrator

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knew that, they would say

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you need to take that away.

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You can't be teaching that way to teach

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only to one kid to the

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exclusion of the others.

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And so hopefully today our audience will

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come away with strategies

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and techniques to differentiate

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without having to reinvent the wheel,

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without having to plan multiple lessons.

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I mean, for many of our teachers who

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teach lesser taught

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languages, which sadly is even

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now French nowadays, they are the sole

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teacher and have to teach all the preps.

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So you teach Japanese and French and

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Japanese and Spanish.

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So you are the queen of preps.

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I would go crazy.

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I am not writing 20 million

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lessons for the same thing.

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I need to import my

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differentiation into every lesson.

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And actually, that's why I turned to

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game-based learning, because

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games have the differentiation

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built right in.

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And I'll explain that as we do.

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They do, actually.

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And I will say I've not had to teach--

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well, one year I did

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teach all the levels, level

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one, two, and three, plus what we called

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level 1B, which was

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for the kids who failed

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level one, but we didn't want to keep

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them with the sixth

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graders, because they were

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seventh and eighth graders.

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And there's just too much of a maturity

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gap between sixth

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graders and seventh graders.

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So those were the challenging students.

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I had quite a few challenges.

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I've got a lot of repeats for my Spanish

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class who took it in middle school.

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And then they come to high school, and

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they want to retake level one.

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And then I've got the seniors who want to

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take Spanish level one, too.

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So yeah.

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That's not the

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challenging I'm talking about.

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Oh, yeah.

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I've had those classes, too.

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I had a kid who ended

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up in an ankle bracelet.

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Oh, yeah.

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I've had that.

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A eighth grader who

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attempted murder on his sister.

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Oh, OK.

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That's challenging.

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Yeah, that was challenging.

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Yeah, he came in the very first day and

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he started cussing

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before class even started.

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He first period, he started cussing.

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He's like, I ain't going

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in that bleeping classroom.

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I'm not going in there

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with those bleeping kids.

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I'm like, what the heck?

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I'm like, usually at least it's three or

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four days in before

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you start this kind of

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behavior. Oh, no.

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That was the first day I had another kid

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who jumped in the garbage can and

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sang the ABCs in English.

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Jumped in the garbage can.

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OK, yeah.

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So that was sweet.

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Yeah, very challenging and lots of

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differentiation needed in that class.

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So, yes, it was I've done all of them and

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what I tended to do, and I don't know if

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you do the same thing, but I like to

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teach parallel lessons.

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So same content and ratcheting it up or

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down depending on the level so that my

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sanity is there.

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So I like that one B.

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I'm still teaching what I would have

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taught in my level one class.

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I'm just taking three weeks to teach it

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instead of one week to teach it.

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That same lesson and using similar story.

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And this is why common

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formative assessments.

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We've got a push in my district that

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everyone needs to be

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giving the same common

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formative assessment on the same day.

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And if you do that, first of all, it's no

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longer a formative assessment.

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But secondly, I've got

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two Spanish one classes.

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They're not on the same level.

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I can't do that on the same day.

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And so this push to March lockstep is

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like you were saying,

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the district doesn't

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understand differentiation.

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Yeah, they they like to spout it, but

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then they don't

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understand and they want us to

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be all robots.

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And if you want a robot, you know, you

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can go ahead and hire

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a or Rosetta Stone and

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just go ahead.

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I've seen districts do that.

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Use Rosetta Stone.

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Rosetta Stone came to all the districts

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in Washington state

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and said, hey, you could

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save money by firing your teachers and

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just having a computer lab.

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Wow.

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That's why one of us language teachers in

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Washington state will

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even touch Rosetta Stone.

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Just ignoring the fact that it's only

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like it's it's not very

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rigorous and it doesn't

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make any sense.

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And it's only the Pimsler method, you

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know, but at any rate,

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yeah, not a good company.

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No, absolutely not.

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Absolutely not.

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And if that's what you really want for

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your kids, then that's

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not doing the best for the

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kids, but that's on you.

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But when you have human teachers in

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there, we are not the same.

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And that's what brings the classroom

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experience to the kids.

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If you want a robot, the kids are not

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going to be engaged.

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They're not going to do that.

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And I'm not necessarily against comative

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formative assessments, but doing

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everything on the same

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day.

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I want to have, OK, by fifth week of

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school, we need to do some

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sort of assessment measured

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the same standard and so we can compare

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apples to apples, a same

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proficiency based formative

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assessment, not one that says can they do

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adjective agreement.

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Right.

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Exactly.

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Because that's not that that's not that's

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that's something completely different.

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But can the kids understand this story

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that has adjectives in it?

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That is one.

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But we don't have to

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give it on the same day.

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You know, at the same point, like I know

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my kids in period three

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will be ready two weeks

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after my kids in period one

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will be ready for that test.

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And so if we say here's a by date, we

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have to have it done by

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because my first one, my

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middle school really did this well.

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We always had by dates.

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So we want to have

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this done by this date.

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You find the best time to give it to your

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students and I

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wouldn't necessarily give it

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in the same like I wouldn't give it the

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same day for all my classes.

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But I would be it would be very, you

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know, by the certain

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date so we can compare data.

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That was the point of that date in there.

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And we were really flexible with that.

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We kind of go, oh, my kids

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aren't really right there.

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OK, let's let's shift it up a week.

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You know, we were very flexible, but we

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weren't doing it on the same day.

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But you like you say that lock step.

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A lot of administrators are now saying

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that they want you to be

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on unit two page two lesson

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three of that thing on the same day.

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So if a kid happens to switch that day in

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the middle of the

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period, they will not be

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lost or behind or ahead or anything else.

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And that I that I just find to be.

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Well, this is the you touched on this a

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couple of seconds ago

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when you were talking about

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the standards and everything.

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And this is something that if you're not

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a language teacher, you don't understand.

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Our standards are really descriptors.

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OK, there are what can

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you do with the language?

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There is no standard in the world that

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says all Spanish one

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students need to be able to

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say the pencil is yellow.

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Yeah. Who cares about that?

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OK, it's what can you do with the

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language that you have?

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And so what we are looking for is totally

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different than, hi,

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I'm a math teacher and

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the students need to know how to take the

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differential equation of this thing.

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You know, it's different because we're

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building in relevance to our students.

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We're working with whatever organic

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language comes up with them.

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And we want to know that can they produce

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language in an authentic way?

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That's not this rote memorization of say

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the pencil is yellow.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Because I think a lot of the times there

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are a few exceptions,

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but a lot of the standards

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and other disciplines are more concrete.

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They're more objective.

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Can they do this or not?

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Where ours are more subjective.

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Now English will have some subjective

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ones about can they

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write a persuasive essay,

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that kind of thing.

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But it still is a much more it's much

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more on the objective

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side than ours are because

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ours are skill based and

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can they do this skill or not?

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So it's not like a fact they can't study

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for because my kids always do retakes.

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I'm like, you can't retake.

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It's a skill.

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If you can't dribble a basketball today,

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just if I give you another opportunity to

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dribble a basketball

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tomorrow, doesn't mean you can do it.

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You've got to build up that skill first.

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It's a progressive skill.

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Yes, exactly.

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Yeah.

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So the first thing that absolutely it was

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a light bulb moment

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for me and dovetails into

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this whole discussion.

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This was several years ago.

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Now normally I teach over the summer.

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I enjoy teaching and I'll be the summer

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school teacher and stuff.

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And one of my friends asked me, she's

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like, oh, there's this great conference.

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It's online going on.

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And it's about special ed.

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And I was like, yeah,

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sure, I'll do that with you.

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And as the day got closer,

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I was like, I'm teaching.

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I don't have time for this conference.

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And I was just about to blow it off.

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And I thought, well, maybe I'll turn it

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on in the background

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while I do the dishes or

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something.

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But I'm so glad I didn't blow it off

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because Dr. Shelley Moore was there.

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Dr. Shelley Moore is out of

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Canada and a special ed teacher.

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And she had this beautiful analogy.

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And she said, oh, I went to school.

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I can't do it justice.

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All right.

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I'll give you for the show notes.

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I'll give you the link to her little five

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minute video where she also explains it.

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She says, I went to school because I love

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making baked potatoes.

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So I went to culinary art school and I

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learned how to make

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the perfect baked potato.

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And it was absolutely like so delicious,

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fluffy, melt in your

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mouth and everything.

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And I come into school to feed it to my

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students and I give them all this

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beautiful baked potato.

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And it's lovingly fluffed and it's got

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the butter in it and

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it's got chives sprinkled

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on top and some bacon bits.

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And my first student says, I'm lactose

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intolerant and you put butter in here.

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And my second student

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says, I'm a vegetarian.

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I can't eat these bacon bits.

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And my other my third student says, I

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don't touch vegetables

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and you sprinkle chives on

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the top of you.

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I don't want this.

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You know, and suddenly it made

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understanding the standards and

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differentiations made total

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sense to me.

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And I'm not doing it justice.

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She tells a great story.

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But she always talks about

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what is your baked potato?

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What is the absolute minimum that the

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students need to know?

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This is the skill that they need to know.

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I thought she was genius too.

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They need to know this, the stuff that

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they sprinkle on top,

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the butter, the chives, the

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bacon bits, whatever else, the stuff they

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sprinkle on top, that's

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going to make it relevant

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to the student.

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That's all bonus.

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So if you've got your high flyer who is

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using transition words

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between sentences, yay, that's

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great.

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But all I really wanted was for you to

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have a subject and a verb.

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And today we're working on

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adverbs or, you know, whatever.

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That's my baked potato.

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And if you're doing

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more with that, hooray.

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That's the differentiation.

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And I love that analogy.

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That is an incredibly accurate analogy.

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I love it.

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You reminded me of something when I don't

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assess explicit

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grammar anymore, but in my

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early career I did.

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But I was not the teacher.

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I was trying to find a better way to do

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it because the normal

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way that teachers do it

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is they give you credit and then they

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start taking half

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points off because you missed

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an accent mark or you

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didn't do this or that.

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And I flipped it.

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So I said, what was my minimal, viable

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answer that I wanted?

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So like you said, a subject and a verb.

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Maybe that's all I wanted, right?

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That was the minimum.

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So if you did that, you got it right.

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But if you put some more words in there,

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plus a half a point.

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If you got it all spelled

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correctly, plus a half a point.

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So you weren't losing points.

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You were earning bonus points for being

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more accurate or more detailed.

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And this is game-based learning because

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in a video game,

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Mario's getting the coins.

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He's not losing coins.

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So you're all, yes.

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And the more advanced you are, the

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better, the more

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coins you're going to get.

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And this is long before I even thought

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about game-based

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teaching, but it flipped it so

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that the average kids, the struggling

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kids could still be

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successful because they're

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showing.

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But it also allowed my superstars to get,

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I got seven bonus

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points and they like to show

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that.

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Because I had a principal three

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principals ago who hated extra credit.

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And I had this long, like year-long

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argument with him, why I

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should continue to give extra

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credit.

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Look, the high flyers who have 102% in my

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class, they're not

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competing with the other

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students.

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They're competing with themselves.

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They're pushing themselves to get that

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100, oh, can I get to 103%?

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That's not taking anything away from the

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students who are

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struggling and need a little more

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scaffolding.

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Okay.

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So, like, that's, I think that's crucial.

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Yeah.

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And for me, the idea of extra credit is

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not doing another

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assignment to make up for an

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assignment you did poorly on.

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Not making up for

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something that they missed.

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It's hey, you impressed me.

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I'm going to reward you

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for going above and beyond.

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Exactly.

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That's an all different philosophy than

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okay, you didn't do

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this tough assignment.

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I'm going to let you do this easy

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assignment to make up for.

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No, that's the kind of excret that the

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kids always think about

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when they think of the

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word extra credit.

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I'm like, you got to earn the original

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credit before you can

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get the extra credit.

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Exactly.

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But it is the icing

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on top, like you said.

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It is the icing.

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It's icing on the cake.

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It's icing on the top.

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And it's funny because there is a, I'm

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going to see if I can

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find it while we're talking.

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I have an image of a, it uses a cupcake

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as a explanation, but

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it's a, if I can find it,

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it's an example of explaining how a

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rubric works to kids

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where kids can understand it

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in a way that makes

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sense right off the bat.

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Where is this?

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My cupcake thing.

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See if I just do a Google search.

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Search for my cupcake thing.

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Yeah.

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Hey, it worked.

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I found it.

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Oh, wow.

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It worked. It worked.

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Sometimes the needle in

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the haystack is right there.

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I mean, I have my stuff pretty much

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organized, but when I'm on

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the spot and don't know, I

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don't know exactly where I put it.

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It takes me a minute.

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Let's see.

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I want to make an image of this, but this

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really helps understand.

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Go ahead.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Go ahead.

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No, no.

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I was just going to say I put over my

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desk, a picture of

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Albert Einstein's desk when he

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died to remind myself it's okay for my

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desk to be really messy

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because my computer is

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super organized.

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My students are always there.

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They're laughing hysterically because

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they'll ask a question

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and I'll be like, "Hold on,"

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and I'll just pull up that lecture that I

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have in my back pocket

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because my computer's

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so organized.

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Yeah.

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My computers are ... My

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classroom is organized too.

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I use all my organization skills at

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school and have none.

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If you saw my desk right now, I'm sitting

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at ... I'm embarrassed,

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completely embarrassed.

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Okay.

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Here it is.

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Let me put this on the screen.

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I'll cover my face up.

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This really helps them

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understand what the rubric is.

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I just like to make a

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mistake though, but it's a cupcake.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it's a cupcake.

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This isn't much differentiation.

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Just help them

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understand rubrics so they know.

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They're mist when it's still a little wet

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and it's not really holding its shape.

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That's a one or two because we were on IB

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Rubrics, so we had up through eight.

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Then you got a fully formed cupcake.

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It's fully formed, perfect as a three,

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four, and then a five, six.

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You put some frosting on it.

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Then seven, eight, you

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went above and beyond.

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You put sprinkles,

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you put a candle on it.

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The kids really understood this a lot

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better than even an ABCD

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type situation because they

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can go in there because I go, "Why didn't

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I get a seven or eight

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on it or an A on this?"

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I go, "Well, did you

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really go above and beyond?

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Did you?"

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This is so funny.

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I don't do projects anymore,

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but when I did, I was so evil.

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I was so evil to my students because you

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know how you always

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keep the good projects?

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I always had examples of good projects.

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What I did is-

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Oh, you saved the student work.

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Yeah, I saved the student

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work, the good projects.

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I had examples.

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I had the Rubric.

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I didn't have this cupcake

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idea, so I didn't have that.

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I just told them, "You got to go above

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and beyond to get the good grades."

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I go, "This is what I saved."

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They're like, "What did that one get?"

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I think that was a C, and

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it was an A plus, right?

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An A plus.

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I would do that every year.

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I did it every year.

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You're so evil.

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But you know what I got?

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I got some of the best projects ever.

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In fact, one, I had this

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one that was really good.

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She made a marionette.

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Remember those little brass fasteners

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that you used to do

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where you could make joints

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with paper?

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She made a whole body with joints on it

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and then labeled all

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the parts, like the little

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arm was a brothel and

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the cabe that she did that.

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Okay, so this is a body parts project?

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Yeah, it was body parts.

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Okay.

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I go, "Oh, this was a C. She could have

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done so much more with this.

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Why wasn't it three-dimensional?

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Why was it more colors in there?"

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I just went off on it, right?

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Here's what I got.

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This is what I got from a kid after that.

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It was a body, but it was cut in half.

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On the one side, it had skin and all the

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regular body parts were labeled.

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On the other side, it

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looked like an anatomy lesson.

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Did they do those bones?

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The bones, the muscles, the organs, and

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labeled all of those.

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Wow.

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Remember that art piece, science piece,

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the body exhibit that toured?

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Yeah, the plasticine bodies.

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This is what it looked

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like way before that came out.

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I'm like, "I would never have gotten that

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if I had said this

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little marionette thing

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that she did was an A."

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But I did that every year.

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I took that one the next year and I go,

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"This might have gotten a B-."

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I do do projects because I like my games.

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For body parts for my

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class, it is "Bonjour."

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I do "Muniekas Kitapenas."

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I show them, I have on the board big

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pictures of me with my

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hands close up so they can see

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what I'm doing and I'm

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doing in front of them.

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I take pipe cleaners and I bend it around

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and I say, "Una Cabeza."

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I only teach Espanol Uno.

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I only need them to say the basic stuff.

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Then I've got yarn and after they make

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their little pipe cleaner

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form, they can wrap whatever

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colors they want around it.

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We could talk about da cara, los ojos,

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unaris, and they can draw

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that on with a marker or

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whatever.

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For me, the project is I don't really

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care if you come up with

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a really stupid looking

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character as long as you're speaking in

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Espanol the whole time.

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If I hear you speak English, that's it.

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The score is can you speak Spanish for

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the whole hour that we do this?

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My baked potato is speaking Spanish.

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It doesn't have to be grammatical.

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The ad chips don't have to match the

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nouns because at that

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point they don't even know

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very many ad chips other than grande and

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pequeño and all that.

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They're so engaged in making the little

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figure that they're

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trying harder to talk to their

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friends and they know their colors so

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they can say, "Oh,

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amarillo, amarillo," and they

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can point to it and I'm like, "Yeah,

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you're speaking in Spanish.

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Good."

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I walk around with a clipboard and I

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pretend to grade them,

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but really all I'm listening

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for is did you speak English right now?

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Yeah.

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I like what you talked about even last

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week and you brushed

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upon it today too, that you

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give them that language so that they can

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communicate with each other on the

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activity on there instead

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of assuming that they

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can come up with their own.

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I think we do that a lot in teaching.

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We assume.

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I made a mistake years ago, years ago

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when I had them write a

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... I was my native speaker,

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so that's like English

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class but in Spanish.

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I asked them to write a paper using

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double space, double space of paper.

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I thought these are sophomores.

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You've had to have written a double space

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paper by now in one class or another.

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They didn't know what it meant, double

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space, and they didn't ask me.

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I assumed they knew, but this is what

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they turned into me,

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word, space, space, word,

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space, space, word, space, space, word.

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They didn't realize it meant I need to

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leave a space between

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the lines so I have room to

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write comments.

Speaker:

It was just so funny.

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My supervisor at the time

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was an ex-English teacher.

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He goes, "You've got to be so graphic

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when you explain these

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things because you can't

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assume that they

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understand and what they know."

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We do that a lot.

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We get into high school.

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We assume they know how to behave in a

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classroom because they've

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already spent nine years there

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before they get to us as

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freshmen, but they don't.

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You have to tell them.

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That was one of the big shifts in my

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classroom management

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techniques was, "Duh, I didn't

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tell them what it looked

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like to behave in my classroom."

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They didn't know.

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I just said, "You need to behave.

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You need to make smart choices."

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They didn't know what those things were.

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You were what a smart choice was.

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Exactly.

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You were absolutely right.

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Differentiation, super easy to do with

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chat mats or any kind

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of scaffold that you hand

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out your students.

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Or I have the students ... We're using

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interactive notebooks this year.

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I'm experimenting with interactive

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notebooks and I'm really liking them.

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I have them write things down in their

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interactive notebooks.

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I'll hand them a handout.

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I've got things projected on the board,

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all the sentence frames

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that they need, and the

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major vocabulary words.

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Okay, now your high flyers, they're going

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to take the paper you

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give them and they're

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going to throw it in their backpack and

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they're never going to look at it.

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For total of the road students, they just

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need something in their

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hands to feel confident.

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Or they need to know

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that's up there on the board.

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Oh yeah, that's right.

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That's where the word wall is.

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They just need to know and they'll glance

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at it, but it's mostly

Speaker:

just to reassure themselves.

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The students who really need the

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scaffolding, they might

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be reading off the board.

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They might be reading off their notes.

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That's okay.

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They have chosen the level

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of scaffolding that they need.

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It wasn't any extra work on my part.

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It's there for everyone and the students

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self-select what layer level of

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scaffolding they're going

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to use.

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It's not cheating to have the notes

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because what we want,

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what we're checking for is,

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can you put the words

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together in an authentic way?

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Can you communicate?

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If the words coming out of your mouth are

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understandable by another student, that's

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what we care about.

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Absolutely.

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I'm going to share something with you.

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You said chat mats, but

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something I have learned recently.

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When I heard, I don't know if you've

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heard of this app before

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or not, but Notebook LM,

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which is a Google app.

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I've heard of it.

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When I thought it really was, I thought

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it was a note taking out

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because I'm always looking

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for better ways to take notes.

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That's what I thought that this was.

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But it's not.

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I watched an online video

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that explained what it does.

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I was like, "Oh, this

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is freaking genius."

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Here's an example.

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I'm just downloading it right now of

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something I've created to

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make some kind of chat mats

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and vocab stuff for them.

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I go through my textbook unit and I make

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infographics based on the vocab.

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In each unit, we have

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four sections of vocabulary.

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Each page has got one of the vocabulary

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and then whatever grammar topics I find.

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Here is one I made.

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I try to make it really fun for my kids.

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This is one I made for the vocabulary of

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unit four, adjectives.

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All I do is I put a list of

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my vocabulary into Notebook LM.

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I just copy and paste it.

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Then I tell it to make an infographic

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with all the vocabulary,

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with the English translations.

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Then I tell it what kind of theme I want.

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It could just be a basic cartoon, but my

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kids respond better

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when it's things they know.

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I've made, this is South Park.

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I've made The Simpsons.

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I've made Spider-Man, Batman, whatever

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can be to make it much more interesting.

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I'll print these out.

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I did that sort of stuff on my own.

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It would have taken me hours to this.

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It took a matter of 10 minutes and that

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was for them to do it.

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I just copied and pasted and told I just

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had to wait for it to get done.

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That really made a really

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good reference point for them.

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For your interactive, they could paste

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this into their Notebook easily.

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Here's one for activities that I did.

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This is B2.

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Download, save.

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This one I did Snoopy.

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It's got all of that in there.

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Let me see if I have another one.

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You must have a color printer.

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We just got one.

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Not a printer.

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A color copy machine.

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We got a color copy machine.

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Wow.

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I choose my pictures so that they'll copy

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nicely in black and white.

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I used to do it that way too.

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You could tell, if that's what you

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wanted, you could tell

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Notebook LM to make it all

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black and white for you so

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that it takes that into effect.

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We have this color and technically we're

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not supposed to use

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that much color, but guess

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what?

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You default that way.

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When I send stuff over to the printer,

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you defaulted to color.

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Oops, I didn't change the setting.

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Not my fault.

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Exactly.

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Here's what I did for present tense.

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Where is it?

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PPP present tense.

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That is cute.

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What?

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Did it download?

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I'm a nerd.

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The whole reason I became a professional

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translator in my younger

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days was because I wanted to

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read more comic books.

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You got me in my sweet spot.

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Here's one with SpongeBob and teaching

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how to use conjugations.

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I teach all three

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conjugations simultaneously.

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I don't do the ERIR.

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I don't do it that way.

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I do it from the third person singular.

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This is what's explaining it this way.

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This is great scaffolding for kids

Speaker:

because they have access

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to this and it allows them,

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the chat mats, the different things.

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I have some other ones that I've made

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that aren't as creative as this.

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I use Canva to make them and they've got

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all this stuff in it just

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like these do, but those

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are not as interesting to the kids as

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these are and it allows them to scaffold.

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You were talking about where they can

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self-choose their level of scaffolding.

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One of the things I do is I will write,

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let's get these off my screen now.

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I write a story or I'll take a piece of

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literature because one of

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my favorite things is just

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because they're level one, I don't think

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they should not be exposed to Don Quixote

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since it's such a major influence in the

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whole Western world.

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It was the first Western novel.

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It was written during the rest of

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Europe's dark age, but it

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was the golden age for Spanish.

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On top of that, the kids don't ... I go,

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"You've heard of this.

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You just don't know you've heard of it

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because they reference it all the time."

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There's comments about

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tilting it windmills.

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That's how women broke

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you need to understand.

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Yes.

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Here's what I do with that.

Speaker:

I show them there's a Lexus commercial

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from many years ago

Speaker:

where a kid is in this car

Speaker:

seat and he's looking up at windmills and

Speaker:

looking at the car and

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looking up at the windmills.

Speaker:

That is a acknowledgement to that story.

Speaker:

I explain in the story, I go, "Here's the

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basics of the story.

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This guy dresses up like a knight in

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shining armor trying to fix

Speaker:

problems that aren't really

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problems.

Speaker:

It's a comedy."

Speaker:

They don't really understand that.

Speaker:

I go, "Think of it like this."

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I go, "Think of it like this.

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You got Spider-Man pajamas and you now go

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around the city and

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you try to solve crimes

Speaker:

and be a crime fighter because you are

Speaker:

now dressed up as Spider-Man.

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Are you really Spider-Man?

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You're not."

Speaker:

Then they get the understanding.

Speaker:

I take that little spot where he's

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fighting in the

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windmills, that little section.

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It's only a paragraph and it's written in

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what I call Shakespearean Spanish.

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It's old and it uses a lot of words that

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we don't use anymore.

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I take that.

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Then I write four levels of that.

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I get it down to four

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sentences that are really basic.

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The embedded readings from--

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Price Pedstrom.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I do those and then it gets me--

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It's a total of five levels total to get

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them to the original.

Speaker:

They eventually get to

Speaker:

the actual original one.

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I'm like, "You just read a section of

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what they teach in

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college as an entire class,

Speaker:

this novel, one novel

Speaker:

for an entire class."

Speaker:

Native speakers, my friend

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just took it a couple years ago.

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She's from Argentina.

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She goes, "It was the hardest class."

Speaker:

She goes, "I speak the dang language."

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She goes, "It was just a really hard

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class and understanding all the nuances."

Speaker:

I do those kinds of things and I'll

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staple the whole packet together.

Speaker:

Easiest on top, hardest on the bottom.

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I say, "Don't go for

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the easiest one for you.

Speaker:

Look through them and find one that's

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easy but a bit

Speaker:

challenging and start there."

Speaker:

That's I plus one.

Speaker:

That's just outside of your comfort zone,

Speaker:

zone of proximal development.

Speaker:

That is a foundational

Speaker:

theory of language acquisition.

Speaker:

You gotta be just

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outside of your comfort zone.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

I get a formative assessment right off

Speaker:

the bat without ever

Speaker:

looking at their answers

Speaker:

because if they chose the first one, I

Speaker:

know they either lack

Speaker:

confidence or lack skill.

Speaker:

It gives me right off the bat, then I

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gotta do some more

Speaker:

differentiation to figure out

Speaker:

which one they are because it's different

Speaker:

approach to fix the issue.

Speaker:

If they start at the middle one, I've got

Speaker:

another idea that they went in the middle

Speaker:

one.

Speaker:

Once I know what level they chose for

Speaker:

themselves, then I look at

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the answers to find out if

Speaker:

it's confidence or skill.

Speaker:

Because if they're still struggling in

Speaker:

the answers, then I

Speaker:

know it's skill they chose

Speaker:

it based on there.

Speaker:

If they're nailing every answer, it's

Speaker:

confidence that they're having a problem.

Speaker:

But I didn't do anything.

Speaker:

That's the other foundational theory of linguistics.

Speaker:

Here's another.

Speaker:

Now it's chat GPT.

Speaker:

I said I don't use it to create things.

Speaker:

I use it as an assistant.

Speaker:

I already have the Don Quixote or if it's

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my own story that I

Speaker:

wrote, I will then ask

Speaker:

chat GPT to give me four differentiated

Speaker:

levels starting with just the basics.

Speaker:

I tell it, and if I don't like what I

Speaker:

get, I tell it to redo it.

Speaker:

I don't like that one or I didn't like

Speaker:

the second one it did.

Speaker:

I don't have to create each

Speaker:

differentiation anymore.

Speaker:

I can have chat GPT go

Speaker:

through and come up with that.

Speaker:

I wrote the story.

Speaker:

It's just coming up with the variations

Speaker:

because I'm a busy teacher.

Speaker:

My friend always used to say when it

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comes to classroom jobs,

Speaker:

anything that doesn't require

Speaker:

a college degree,

Speaker:

delegate out to students.

Speaker:

You don't need a college degree to

Speaker:

simplify a writing, a

Speaker:

reading that they're going to

Speaker:

do.

Speaker:

I delegated to chat GPT because I could

Speaker:

be better used my time

Speaker:

coming up with other readings

Speaker:

or stories for that.

Speaker:

It's another way to differentiate.

Speaker:

Sorry to monopolize

Speaker:

right here at this moment.

Speaker:

Oh, no.

Speaker:

Another thing, and this happened live.

Speaker:

It was live on one of our

Speaker:

podcasts, I think it was.

Speaker:

They asked, they goes, "I'm having a

Speaker:

problem where I've

Speaker:

got," I can't remember.

Speaker:

It was a blind, I think it was blind,

Speaker:

some severe inhibition to

Speaker:

being able to teach language

Speaker:

because you need your eyes and your ears

Speaker:

really to be able to absorb the language.

Speaker:

I believe it was she was blind.

Speaker:

She goes, "I don't really know how to

Speaker:

help her understand

Speaker:

some of this stuff because

Speaker:

I'm so visual.

Speaker:

I got pictures, I've got

Speaker:

gestures, and she can't see that.

Speaker:

I don't know how to verbalize that."

Speaker:

She's not holding young.

Speaker:

What I did is, I knew one thing because I

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use closed captions

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because I'm an old person.

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I use closed captions on TV because I

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can't always understand.

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Sometimes I hit the wrong one.

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If you hit the descriptive ones, then you

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get the ones that are

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saying they are walking

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from the left side of the screen to the

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right side of the screen.

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I said, "You have to

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do that with a student."

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That was my answer.

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Then I said, "You know what?

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I'm stumped beyond that.

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I've not had a blind, I've had a deaf

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student, but I've

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never had a blind student."

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We went into chat GPT and

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said, "I'm a Spanish teacher.

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I'm teaching level one.

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I use a lot of gestures and images, but I

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have a student who is blind.

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Give me 10 different ways that I can

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differentiate for this

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student to make the language more

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comprehensible for them."

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It gave me a long list, and we read it

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out loud in the podcast.

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Not all of them worked well.

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We excluded those completely

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or generated some ideas for us.

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We go, "Can you

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elaborate more on that one?

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That one sounds like a really good one."

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When you're stumped, you can also use it

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for brainstorming to come up

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with ideas to differentiate.

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You can tell it really ... You got to

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give it the context.

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You guys say, "I'm a busy teacher.

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I have four different

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preps that I need to do.

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Can you help me with the least amount of

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time effort to be able to do that?"

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It comes up with some different things.

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One of the things it said was if you get

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the little food, for

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example ... I had this when

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I was younger as a teacher.

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I got all the plastic foods.

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You get the plastic.

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You give it to her.

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She can touch it.

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She can feel it.

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She can do that.

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Bread.

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Get actual ... Yeah, the real bread where

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you can actually touch

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Wonder Bread and feel

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it and stuff like that.

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Smell it and use those senses.

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And also talked about

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using all the senses.

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What does it smell like?

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What does it taste like to use those

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other senses and things

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you don't really think about?

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You just don't think about ... That's

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probably really good for

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the other students too.

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Yes, absolutely.

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They can be learning their sensory words.

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They can be learning how to say, "It

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smells like, it feels

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like, it tastes like ..." They

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can learn all those things also along

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with the students so that

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the student doesn't feel

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singled out.

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The differentiation should be like that.

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It should be ... This is for everyone.

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It's just plain good teaching.

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If you need the

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scaffolding, you're going to take it.

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If you don't, you're not.

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That's exactly it.

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I always say differentiation or teaching

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for special needs,

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things that you're supposed

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to do for special needs students isn't

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good just for the special needs students.

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It is good for all students.

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And then when I explain in workshops

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about accommodations,

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because they always think

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that, "Well, we're

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making it too easy for them.

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We're making it ..." And I

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don't look at it that way.

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I go, "Here's what it is."

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And I'm going to mess this phrase up, but

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fair isn't always equal.

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When I say glasses ...

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I talk about glasses.

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These aren't reading glasses.

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These are blue light glasses that I use,

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but I'm blind without my contacts in.

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My contacts don't give me super sight.

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They just bring me back to the

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level that everybody else has.

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When we do accommodations for kids, we're

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just negating whatever

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issue that they have.

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We aren't giving them superpowers.

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We're just negating.

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My big thing is I hate in books when I

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wish our CI authors

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would listen to this a little

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bit more.

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They like to footnote the vocabulary at

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the bottom of the page,

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or worse yet, put it at

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the back.

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And I know they can't do it for

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everything to put the words,

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like I'm going to tell you,

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because it'd be way too

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much of a translation.

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But when I put a word ... Like if I have

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a reading on a test,

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and I need a word, and

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I know they don't know this word, I'll

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put it in parentheses

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right next to where they

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needed it.

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Because a lot of kids, especially

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struggling readers, whether

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it be from a special needs

Speaker:

issue or just their slow

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readers, have trouble tracking.

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It's got a little footnote.

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They know to go to the bottom of the

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page, and then they go

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back and they lose where

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was I.

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And they got to reread that whole

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section, where it's just

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easier to have the parenthetical

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right next to it and

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help them through that.

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That's not giving anybody superpowers.

Speaker:

It's making everybody on the same level

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playing field that only my

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top students could figure

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that word out, and not my average and my

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struggling students

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could figure that out.

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So we need to talk about the difference

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between accommodations and modifications.

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Yes.

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Because those are two different things.

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Absolutely.

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Accommodation is how does the student

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access the material?

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All right?

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So you might ... Are they

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going to access it through writing?

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Are they going to

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access it through speaking?

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Are they going to

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access it through listening?

Speaker:

Are they going to look at pictures?

Speaker:

That's how do they access the materials.

Speaker:

Modifications are you're giving them a

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different assignment.

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We don't want to do that.

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We don't have time.

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I teach Spanish, French, Japanese, and

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they made me take on an

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English language arts class

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this year.

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I don't have time to write 15 different

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assignments for the same skill.

Speaker:

So I don't want to modify anything.

Speaker:

I want to accommodate the students so

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that they can all have the same lesson.

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They're just accessing it differently.

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Here's a good example of that.

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Accommodation is I'll take a reading and

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I'll chunk it, where

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normally I'll have most of

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my kids read the whole reading and they

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have the questions at the bottom.

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But for my struggling

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readers, I'm going to chunk it.

Speaker:

I'm going to have a paragraph or a few

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sentences, and then the

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questions that apply just to

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that section right there.

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The modification is I write a simpler

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story for them to answer.

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Like you said, I don't want to do that

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because it's not that I

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don't really want to do it.

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It's the time constraint that if I have,

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let's say I have seven

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struggling readers who are

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struggling at different levels, that's

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now eight versions of

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an assessment that I need

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to make.

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I'm only human.

Speaker:

I can only do so much.

Speaker:

If you are teaching French or Mandarin or

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German and you're teaching all the preps

Speaker:

and you have to do that for every class,

Speaker:

now your job has become overwhelming.

Speaker:

Well, and not only that,

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we spiral a lot in language.

Speaker:

My French two classes, there's not enough

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students who are

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interested in French three

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and French four to make a

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separate class for them.

Speaker:

They get embedded into

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my French two classes.

Speaker:

Sometimes I'll say, "All right, you guys

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are ready for the subjunctive.

Speaker:

Here's a little reading with subjunctive

Speaker:

that you can do and you

Speaker:

can circle the subjunctive

Speaker:

or here's a blue kit for you while

Speaker:

everybody else does this

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thing, which you're so good

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at this other thing, you don't need to

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waste your time on this."

Speaker:

But generally, generally it's fine if

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they do things that

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they did last year because

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they're doing it at a higher level now.

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You're gearing up to play store where

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I've got all my ugly

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clothes that I've been saving

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because my mother's a shopaholic and

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sends the ugliest things.

Speaker:

I've got my plastic food and I've got all

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my school supplies

Speaker:

and we're going to have

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a store.

Speaker:

Guess what?

Speaker:

The French three, the French four

Speaker:

students, they get to be the

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shopkeepers while everybody

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else is coming and

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buying stuff from them.

Speaker:

They need to understand the

Speaker:

culture of French shopping.

Speaker:

The customer is not always right.

Speaker:

You better greet the cashier when you

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come in or they are

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not going to wait on you.

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Absolutely in France.

Speaker:

And you have a problem with something.

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I'm sorry that's on you.

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You bought it.

Speaker:

My French three, French four students are

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the cashiers, but also my high flyers.

Speaker:

The ones who need more challenge, you

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guys get to be cashiers

Speaker:

too because you've already

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mastered all the language of, "Do you

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have this in my color?"

Speaker:

Now you can be suggesting things.

Speaker:

It's super easy to differentiate.

Speaker:

If you know your baked potato, you know,

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or your cupcake as you're saying.

Speaker:

And it's like, I need you

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to understand store culture.

Speaker:

I need you to understand these basic,

Speaker:

like, how do you get

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what you want phrases?

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Okay.

Speaker:

Now go to town.

Speaker:

You're going to have to apply that when

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you want to buy this

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ugly striped red shirt that

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I have lying on the table or whatever.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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And I always say, when it comes to CI

Speaker:

teaching, a lot of

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differentiation is already built

Speaker:

in.

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Yes.

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Because we do gestures.

Speaker:

So you've got your kinesthetic modality.

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We do songs.

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You've got your music modality.

Speaker:

We do images.

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So you've got your visual modality.

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You've got, you listen.

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So you've got your oral modality.

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Then you've got text on the board.

Speaker:

You've got your written modality.

Speaker:

So we're already doing that.

Speaker:

Plus, when we ask questions, we're asking

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what I hate the word

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circling because I don't

Speaker:

like terms I have to explain what the

Speaker:

term means before you can understand.

Speaker:

Every teacher knows what it is.

Speaker:

They just don't know because you've tell

Speaker:

them what circling is.

Speaker:

I like to call it scaffold a

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differentiated questioning

Speaker:

because that's what it actually

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is.

Speaker:

I'm scaffolding it.

Speaker:

I'm saying yes, no, either or who, what,

Speaker:

where, when, and then

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how and why is my top

Speaker:

questions.

Speaker:

That's my scaffolding.

Speaker:

Now, my differentiation is,

Speaker:

that is a big glass of water.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, you totally dehydrated.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

Then the differentiation is asking the

Speaker:

right question to the

Speaker:

right student at the right

Speaker:

time.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker:

That's the differentiation part.

Speaker:

We do this constantly and we know our

Speaker:

goal is to get to know

Speaker:

these students on a scholastic

Speaker:

intimate level.

Speaker:

Not an intimate level, but a scholastic

Speaker:

intimate level so that I

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know who my struggling students

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are, who my top flyers are, and who are

Speaker:

my average Joes are

Speaker:

right in the class so that

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I know which question they need.

Speaker:

I might see that my struggling student

Speaker:

right here, struggling

Speaker:

Sarah, she's really struggling

Speaker:

and a yes and no question is

Speaker:

still too difficult for her.

Speaker:

I'll ask her a yes or no, but then I'm

Speaker:

going to slightly point to the answer.

Speaker:

None of the other kids know.

Speaker:

They don't know that I'm pointing to the

Speaker:

answer because they're

Speaker:

not used to using resources

Speaker:

around the room

Speaker:

because they're struggling.

Speaker:

This is a classic example of I go over a

Speaker:

test one day and one of

Speaker:

the top kids says, "I didn't

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know this and it's not fair

Speaker:

to have this on the question."

Speaker:

Going all thing because she got it wrong.

Speaker:

One of my struggling students goes, "It's

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on the board, dummy."

Speaker:

But the top kids aren't used to grasping

Speaker:

that last rung of the

Speaker:

ladder before they plummet.

Speaker:

They're not used to doing that and our

Speaker:

struggling students are

Speaker:

really good at using resources

Speaker:

around the room.

Speaker:

In real life, I saw this happen as well.

Speaker:

A lot of my peers that got straight A's

Speaker:

in high school ended up

Speaker:

dropping out in college

Speaker:

because they don't know how to study.

Speaker:

That was me.

Speaker:

I didn't drop out of college obviously,

Speaker:

but I never took a

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single note in high school.

Speaker:

Didn't have to.

Speaker:

I paid attention and I remembered it.

Speaker:

When I got to college, I couldn't do the

Speaker:

same thing so I had to learn.

Speaker:

I learned how to take notes right away

Speaker:

otherwise I would have struggled.

Speaker:

But a lot of my peers dropped out and the

Speaker:

C kids are the ones

Speaker:

who became the doctors

Speaker:

and the lawyers because they already knew

Speaker:

they had to learn to study in high school

Speaker:

just to stay afloat.

Speaker:

Then they excelled in college where they

Speaker:

could really use those skills.

Speaker:

It's the same kind of thing.

Speaker:

Your struggling kids learn to use all

Speaker:

their resources and the top

Speaker:

kids don't need necessarily

Speaker:

all those resources.

Speaker:

When they actually do, they

Speaker:

have no idea how to use them.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

I'm glad you saw that too because I saw

Speaker:

our valedictorian

Speaker:

totally drop out of college.

Speaker:

He washed out because he had a full ride

Speaker:

scholarship to

Speaker:

anywhere and he washed out.

Speaker:

One of the things I do for scaffolding is

Speaker:

I'll ask the question.

Speaker:

I know I'm about to call on

Speaker:

Bob and Bob needs more help.

Speaker:

I'll be like, "Tell those.

Speaker:

Where do we look in the

Speaker:

class for the answer to this?"

Speaker:

I'll have everyone point to the chart of

Speaker:

chartiness or whatever,

Speaker:

the word wall or whatever.

Speaker:

Where do you look for scaffolding?

Speaker:

It's a whole class thing and then I can

Speaker:

call on Bob and Bob

Speaker:

knows exactly what to do.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

I don't know if you've heard of I'm still

Speaker:

learning the process and experimenting my

Speaker:

classroom with TPRS 2.0.

Speaker:

2.0.

Speaker:

Yeah, it's an upgrade.

Speaker:

It's controversial because it looks like

Speaker:

there's forced output but it's not.

Speaker:

It's been really scaffolded output and

Speaker:

you're giving them lots

Speaker:

of time just to read it.

Speaker:

What you're asking them to do is to at

Speaker:

the bare minimum read a

Speaker:

correct sentence in the

Speaker:

different form.

Speaker:

You're asking it in first, second and

Speaker:

third questions and they

Speaker:

play the different roles.

Speaker:

They call this triangling.

Speaker:

I call this interviewing.

Speaker:

You're interviewing

Speaker:

the character of the...

Speaker:

The circles and all the triangles.

Speaker:

Oh my God.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

We're going to have cylinders and 3D

Speaker:

spheres coming up soon.

Speaker:

But again, triangle...

Speaker:

No, I'm not even doing this.

Speaker:

What's wrong with me that there's

Speaker:

something new that I haven't heard of?

Speaker:

It's this thing.

Speaker:

I mean, triangling, I

Speaker:

have to explain what that is.

Speaker:

If I say interview the characters, then

Speaker:

it's much more obvious.

Speaker:

They'll say something like after he's

Speaker:

gone over, it takes a

Speaker:

lot longer to go through

Speaker:

a story.

Speaker:

Like four to five weeks to go through one

Speaker:

story in the beginning as you're training

Speaker:

the kids.

Speaker:

So you've really worked on this slide for

Speaker:

like three or four days.

Speaker:

And then, because he always has slides up

Speaker:

there and he's got

Speaker:

the scaffolded sentences

Speaker:

up there.

Speaker:

And he's also got a verb conjugation

Speaker:

chart up there too for

Speaker:

that verb that they're working

Speaker:

on.

Speaker:

That's a square.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So you go through and you do this.

Speaker:

And then after you've worked on this

Speaker:

sentence and you've done

Speaker:

all that circling, all the

Speaker:

scaffolded differentiated questions, you

Speaker:

now go to the triangling

Speaker:

questions, which is the

Speaker:

interview questions.

Speaker:

And you'll say, "John, you are the

Speaker:

telephone book in the story.

Speaker:

Tell me what's going on.

Speaker:

I am the telephone book.

Speaker:

I am Bob's telephone book.

Speaker:

I am big."

Speaker:

But the other day the

Speaker:

students were awful at it.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

You got to practice it.

Speaker:

"I am big."

Speaker:

But you're asking your top

Speaker:

flyer to start this, right?

Speaker:

I am thick and I have

Speaker:

lots of numbers in me.

Speaker:

And then you're asking every kid to be

Speaker:

the telephone book and

Speaker:

they can copy exactly what

Speaker:

the other person said.

Speaker:

And I'll write down the

Speaker:

sentences on the board for them.

Speaker:

So the scaffolding for the other kids.

Speaker:

But the last kids you ask how you're

Speaker:

struggling kids,

Speaker:

they've now heard it 27 times.

Speaker:

It's also written on the board.

Speaker:

It's also on the slide.

Speaker:

So they have all of these

Speaker:

things that they can say.

Speaker:

But then I'll say, "Okay, now you're

Speaker:

going to be the main character.

Speaker:

Now talk about that."

Speaker:

And so you're using it.

Speaker:

And it says, "Now I am, you the teacher,

Speaker:

are the telephone book.

Speaker:

Talk about me."

Speaker:

So it says, "You are the telephone book."

Speaker:

So they're practicing all

Speaker:

the different verb forms.

Speaker:

But where it comes into the

Speaker:

differentiation, the scaffolding is you

Speaker:

pick your kids strategically.

Speaker:

You start with

Speaker:

volunteers, you get your top flyers.

Speaker:

Then you start going

Speaker:

through your mid-kids.

Speaker:

And then you're going to

Speaker:

go to your struggling kids.

Speaker:

And what I like about this is you're

Speaker:

supposed to do this at

Speaker:

least 20 times with each thing.

Speaker:

So that you're getting, you're not

Speaker:

necessarily doing every student, but

Speaker:

you're doing, they're

Speaker:

getting enough repetition of this.

Speaker:

And you are working on

Speaker:

form, that they do it correctly.

Speaker:

So you help them.

Speaker:

They go, if they go, "To S," they go,

Speaker:

"Hmm, is it to, which

Speaker:

sounds better, to S or to

Speaker:

Aries?"

Speaker:

And they'll go, "Aries," or if not,

Speaker:

they'll point at the

Speaker:

little chart that's on the slide

Speaker:

to help them with that.

Speaker:

Oh, you'll channel like it, yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah, so that they are really working on

Speaker:

form, but not coming up with the form out

Speaker:

of their head.

Speaker:

They're reading it.

Speaker:

So that's where the subtlety comes in.

Speaker:

It's not forced.

Speaker:

I'm not asking them to come up with these

Speaker:

sentences out of the

Speaker:

air, but we're practicing

Speaker:

correct sentences so

Speaker:

the forms get in there.

Speaker:

And they say that after about 80 hours of

Speaker:

instruction, the kids

Speaker:

can get a three on the

Speaker:

AP test.

Speaker:

80 hours of construction on level one.

Speaker:

The first 80 hours.

Speaker:

And he goes, "Some kids

Speaker:

can do it quicker than that."

Speaker:

And that's amazing

Speaker:

when you think about that.

Speaker:

And there's a book.

Speaker:

Here's the book.

Speaker:

In fact, it's sitting right here.

Speaker:

So the fastest way to fluency 2.0, you

Speaker:

can get this on, I'll

Speaker:

link it in the show notes,

Speaker:

on tprsbooks.com.

Speaker:

It's the only place it's available.

Speaker:

So there.

Speaker:

And then if you search on YouTube for

Speaker:

Blaine Ray, tprs2.0, he's

Speaker:

got entire classes because

Speaker:

he teaches online now, entire classes

Speaker:

that you can watch

Speaker:

and see the progression.

Speaker:

But what the kids can

Speaker:

do is amazing after this.

Speaker:

And I am nowhere near as good at it, but

Speaker:

I like how they

Speaker:

differentiate by making sure

Speaker:

that the last kids to be able to ask the

Speaker:

question have heard it

Speaker:

at least a dozen times

Speaker:

before it's their turn.

Speaker:

And then they can kind of figure out what

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they want to say and what they got.

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And they got all these different options.

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So it's really amazing.

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We are near the end.

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It went so quickly again.

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You're such a great person to talk with.

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And I didn't get to what I

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promised to talk to you about.

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And that's what I was

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just about to ask you.

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I was going to say, before the show

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started, she wanted to talk

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about a game that she likes

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to play.

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So I like to tell,

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invite her to talk about that.

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This is a speed run of

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my description of this.

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Okay.

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The reason I like game-based learning is

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because the

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differentiation is built right to the

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game.

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So I have made an apples to apples for

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French, for Spanish, and for Japanese.

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And I use it with all levels.

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Because what is apples to

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apples at its foundation?

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It's here's a noun or a noun phrase.

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Here's an adjective match them.

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Okay.

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But the fun of apples to apples is

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arguing with each other.

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So the struggling students are going to

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say, the elephant is big.

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That's fine.

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That's a valid sentence.

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That's your baked potato or your cupcake.

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All right.

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The middle of the road students are going

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to be able to say, I

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don't know, the whale

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is bigger than the elephant.

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Okay.

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Maybe it might not be completely

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grammatical, but they'll

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try to make a comparison.

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Okay.

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The high flyers are going

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to say, ah, the injustice.

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How could you choose the

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elephant over the whale?

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The whale is much bigger than the

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elephant and they're

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going to go on a tirade.

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And everybody is engaged in the game.

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Everybody wants to win.

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Everybody's having fun.

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Everybody's speaking the target language.

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The students who need the scaffolding

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have their chat mats or

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their notes or the supports

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up on the board.

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The high flyers aren't looking at that.

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And I didn't have to do anything new.

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All I have to do is take my clipboard,

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sit in the middle of

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the class and eavesdrop on

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everybody and just laugh at the way that

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they are doing each other.

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So differentiation for the win.

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Apple.

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I was going to say absolutely.

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But I'm also thinking about Apple.

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So I've said absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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So differentiation is

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it's just good teaching.

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It is.

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It's just good teaching

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and it doesn't have to.

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The whole point of what we were talking

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about today, it doesn't

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have to take a lot of extra

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effort where a lot of people go, oh, I've

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got four IEPs in this

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class and I got they've

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got all these different

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things that I've got to do.

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It shouldn't matter, you know, because

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you're going to help all

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students teach to that one

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student and you're

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going to help all students.

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I know last semester I had in my

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non-Spanish class, I had to teach one

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class called Building

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Foundations for Success.

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It's a whole lot of stuff, but it's

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teaching them how to live

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and prepare for college and

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all kinds of stuff.

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There's a lot of stuff there.

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But I had I've never

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seen an IEP this long.

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Never have I ever.

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It had like 30 things that teachers were

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supposed to do for this child.

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And I am like I looked

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at it and go, oh, my gosh.

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And I didn't know how

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to teach this subject.

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They just threw the subject on me and I

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they literally gave me

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the lesson plan the day

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be the like on Thursday or Friday and

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teach it the next week.

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And they gave me the lesson plan, but I

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had no idea and I had to

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study it myself and what

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I had to do and modify it to my style.

Speaker:

And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

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But when I looked at it and I just

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started taking notes and

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boiling it down, it really

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was more like four or five things.

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They just really

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specified in great detail.

Speaker:

I just my eyes just went so big.

Speaker:

But the extra time break things down into

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steps, preferential seating.

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I mean, those are the big ones, right?

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Those are the big ones.

Speaker:

And he had a lot of other things because

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he had a lot of

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different issues, processing

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words and all kinds of different things.

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But when I boiled it down, I got down to

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like four or five things.

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And then when I said, OK, I

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do this, I'll do this anyway.

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It's what I do in my language class.

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I just did not apply

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it to this new class.

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It's just good teaching

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and you help everybody.

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So take the worst of the IPs, not the

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student, not the worst

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student, the worst of the IPs,

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once it's most restricted, the one that

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it's demanding most

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from you and adapt all your

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lessons that way with that lens, then

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your life is so much easier.

Speaker:

And you're not making all the different

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lessons for everybody

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because you take the.

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When I'm saying these words, do not apply

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it to the student,

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apply it to the document.

Speaker:

The lowest common denominator IP, find

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that one and then do

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everything through that lens.

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And you'll help everybody, including your

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other IPs and the kids who

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don't need differentiation

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as much.

Speaker:

And differentiation isn't always about

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learning abilities or disabilities.

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It could also be that this kid has got

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four other AP classes

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and really doesn't have the

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brain power to apply to your level one

Speaker:

class right now, or

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they've got stuff going on at

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home or they're just not a good student.

Speaker:

They just don't know how to do school.

Speaker:

They're not that kind of a kid.

Speaker:

They are more of a gamer or something and

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school is just not

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that important to them.

Speaker:

We have all different types of kids.

Speaker:

And if we teach to our to those

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scaffolding, the

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struggling students and scaffold and

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build, we will be teaching to all of our

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students, not just to one

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or two, three or just the

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top half or just the bottom half.

Speaker:

We are teaching to all of them and then

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allow them to be able to

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grow at their own rate.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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OK, is there any final words that you

Speaker:

would like to say before we end today?

Speaker:

That was a pretty good way to end it.

Speaker:

I just say final words.

Speaker:

Don't lower the bar.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

Just think about what is your we'll go

Speaker:

with your cupcake analogy.

Speaker:

What's the cupcake that you

Speaker:

want the students to make?

Speaker:

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Speaker:

Build in the differentiation.

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Don't modify things.

Speaker:

Don't make new stuff.

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Think about how to embed

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what you need to embed in.

Speaker:

What is what is your cupcake?

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Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker:

And just let everybody know next week is

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Easter here in the

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United States and for most of

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the Christian world.

Speaker:

So we will be taking Sunday off.

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We'll be back on April 12th.

Speaker:

So I will see all of you then.

Speaker:

So that makes a wrap on

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today's episode of Comprehend This.

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A huge thanks to Pamela.

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She's been such a great

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guest the last few weeks.

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Love having her and we

Speaker:

welcome her back in the future.

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You're welcome.

Speaker:

So for she's been helping us talk through

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this differentiation

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without turning CI into

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a full time juggling act.

Speaker:

I've linked her YouTube channel.

Speaker:

It is a treasure trove of ideas.

Speaker:

So please go ahead and visit that to

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learn more because

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she's got such great ideas.

Speaker:

And if today reminded you that fast

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processors, slow processors

Speaker:

and everyone in between can

Speaker:

all thrive in the same CI

Speaker:

classroom, take a breath.

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You're doing it right.

Speaker:

Now make sure you subscribe, leave a

Speaker:

review and share this

Speaker:

episode with another language

Speaker:

teacher who's teaching to a full spectrum

Speaker:

of processing speeds.

Speaker:

And remember, you can watch live on

Speaker:

YouTube or catch the

Speaker:

replay on your favorite podcast

Speaker:

app.

Speaker:

Ditch the drills, trust the process and

Speaker:

I'll see you next

Speaker:

time on Comprehend This.

Speaker:

Goodbye everybody.

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About the Podcast

Comprehend THIS!
Real talk for real language teachers—because comprehension isn't optional.
Welcome to Comprehend THIS!, the podcast for language teachers who are tired of the same old textbook chatter and want the real talk instead.

Every episode is like pulling up a chair in the copy room or leaning on the hallway wall at your favorite conference — except it’s not awkward, the coffee’s better (yours, not mine), and nobody’s grading you.

Host Scott Benedict sits down with 1–2 guests — teachers, trainers, authors, CI rebels — to swap stories about what actually works in a comprehension-based classroom.

We talk the good, the weird, the messy middle — first wins, facepalms, reading that actually sticks, grammar without drills, surviving department side-eyes, grading for real proficiency (without losing your mind), and everything in between.

It’s casual. It’s honest. It’s LIVE — so you get all the “did they just say that?” moments, unfiltered.

Pull up your favorite mug. Laugh, nod along, steal an idea or two for Monday, and remember: you’re not the only one doing it different — and doing it better.

Watch LIVE: Sunday mornings at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern, on YouTube at youtube.com/@immediateimmersion — or listen soon after on your favorite podcast app.

Comprehend THIS! — Real talk for real teachers. Ditch the drills. Trust the process. Stay human.

About your host

Profile picture for Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict has been teaching Spanish since 2001—which means he’s survived more textbook adoptions, curriculum rewrites, and “revolutionary” teaching fads than he cares to count. He runs Immediate Immersion and hosts the Comprehend THIS! Podcast, where he tells the truth about teaching with comprehensible input: the good, the bad, and the “did that student just say tengo queso again?”

After two decades in the classroom, Scott knows what actually works (spoiler: not conjugation charts) and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. On the podcast, he dives into CI strategies, teacher survival hacks, and the occasional story that will make you question your career choices—but in a good way.

When he’s not recording or coaching teachers, you’ll find him traveling, taking photos, or wandering yet another zoo because apparently, one giraffe enclosure is never enough.

Comprehend THIS! is equal parts professional growth and comic relief—because let’s be honest, if we don’t laugh about teaching, we’ll cry.