Episode 6

full
Published on:

7th Sep 2025

Episode 6: “When Your Department Side-Eyes Your CI”

When your department side-eyes your comprehensible input teaching, it can feel isolating—this episode shares real strategies, survival tips, and encouragement for CI teachers.

🎁 Grab your free CI Survival Kit here: https://imim.us/survival — your go-to resource for staying confident and effective with comprehensible input in the classroom.

In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we sit down with Jackie Deming-Plunk and Kelly Ferguson to talk about what happens when colleagues and departments aren’t exactly cheering for your CI approach. From awkward meetings to subtle digs, we cover the real struggles teachers face—and more importantly, the practical strategies that help you keep your sanity, win over skeptics, and stay true to acquisition-driven instruction. Whether you’re the lone CI voice in your building or just navigating some side-eye, this conversation will remind you that you’re not alone.

#ComprehensibleInput, #LanguageTeaching, #WorldLanguageTeachers, #CITeaching, #AcquisitionDrivenInstruction, #LanguageTeachers, #SpanishTeachers, #LanguageTeachingTips, #TeacherSupport, #CISurvival

Hosts:

Resources & Links:

  • Dynamic Discipline: https://imim.us/discipline
  • CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/survival

Join the Conversation:

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

Watch & Subscribe:

👉 Watch LIVE or replay on YouTube: https://imim.us/live

👉 Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://imim.us/podcastlinks

👉 Never miss an episode: https://imim.us/comprehendthis

Connect with Scott:

Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion

🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com

📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com

Youtube: https://youtube.com/immediateimmersion

Instagram: https://instagram.com/immediateimmersion

Facebook: https://facebook.com/immediateimmersion

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@immediateimmersion

Transcript
Speaker:

Good morning, everybody.

Speaker:

Welcome to comprehend this.

Speaker:

How is everybody doing this morning?

Speaker:

Today we've got some great guests online.

Speaker:

We've got Jackie with us again.

Speaker:

She's been on before.

Speaker:

We've all loved her before.

Speaker:

And now we've got Kelly

Speaker:

Ferguson joining us today.

Speaker:

And today's topic is when your

Speaker:

department side eyes your CI.

Speaker:

Let's go ahead and welcome

Speaker:

them both online with us.

Speaker:

And if I can hit the right button.

Speaker:

There we go.

Speaker:

Good morning, Jackie and Kelly.

Speaker:

How are we doing this morning?

Speaker:

Good morning.

Speaker:

Doing great.

Speaker:

Well, just want to introduce you guys.

Speaker:

Jackie go ahead and give us just a little

Speaker:

bit about yourself

Speaker:

before we go and then Kelly

Speaker:

as well.

Speaker:

What are our intro videos?

Speaker:

Well, I am a Spanish teacher

Speaker:

in Southern Western Tennessee.

Speaker:

This is my eighth year teaching.

Speaker:

And I've been using CI for basically my

Speaker:

entire career at this point.

Speaker:

Awesome.

Speaker:

Awesome.

Speaker:

Yeah, so I'm Kelly.

Speaker:

I teach Spanish in Madison, Wisconsin.

Speaker:

Whereas everybody else hears

Speaker:

it when I say it, Wisconsin.

Speaker:

And I have been doing some type of CI

Speaker:

since probably about

Speaker:

1999, 2000 when I went to my

Speaker:

first TPRS workshop.

Speaker:

Awesome.

Speaker:

So great to have you both.

Speaker:

Let's go into our intro and our preview

Speaker:

videos and then we'll go

Speaker:

ahead and get started here.

Speaker:

Let me switch screens again.

Speaker:

I'm not used to doing this lately.

Speaker:

I've been on to practice for two weeks.

Speaker:

Here we go.

Speaker:

There we go.

Speaker:

So ever been in a department meeting

Speaker:

where you're gushing

Speaker:

about how your students are

Speaker:

actually speaking the language and

Speaker:

someone across the table

Speaker:

hits you with the side eye.

Speaker:

So you're so hard, you

Speaker:

almost fall out of your chair.

Speaker:

That's what today's episode is all about.

Speaker:

We're talking about what happens when

Speaker:

your colleagues aren't

Speaker:

exactly throwing you a CI

Speaker:

parade and how to survive it without

Speaker:

throwing your whiteboard

Speaker:

marker across the room.

Speaker:

With us are Kelly Ferguson and Jackie

Speaker:

Deming-Plunk, two teachers

Speaker:

who've been here, side eye and

Speaker:

all.

Speaker:

Go ahead and we'll be right back after

Speaker:

these two short messages.

Speaker:

Ever feel like you're clinging to the

Speaker:

edge of your teacher

Speaker:

planner, just hoping today's

Speaker:

lesson magically appears?

Speaker:

Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly

Speaker:

membership made for

Speaker:

teachers who love comprehensible

Speaker:

input, but also love not reinventing the

Speaker:

wheel every Sunday night.

Speaker:

Each month you get fresh, ready to use

Speaker:

lessons, time saving

Speaker:

tools, and just enough structure

Speaker:

to keep your teaching life together.

Speaker:

No stress, no guilt, just monthly help

Speaker:

from someone who gets it.

Speaker:

Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the

Speaker:

Survival Kit do the

Speaker:

heavy lifting for once.

Speaker:

Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for

Speaker:

Real Language Teachers.

Speaker:

No drills, no dry theory, just honest

Speaker:

stories, practical ideas,

Speaker:

and a reminder you're not

Speaker:

alone in the CI trenches.

Speaker:

Let's dive in.

Speaker:

And we're back.

Speaker:

So welcome again.

Speaker:

So we're talking about the side eyes when

Speaker:

your department or your fellow colleagues

Speaker:

or your district, whatever it might be,

Speaker:

kind of gives you a side

Speaker:

eye to what you're doing.

Speaker:

It doesn't exactly

Speaker:

wholeheartedly belong to the CI world.

Speaker:

Let's start with you, Jackson, since

Speaker:

you've been here before

Speaker:

and you kind of know how

Speaker:

we're going here.

Speaker:

So when did you first realize that your

Speaker:

department or team wasn't

Speaker:

totally on board with CI?

Speaker:

So I kind of pushed for it at my first

Speaker:

school that I taught at.

Speaker:

In my second year teaching, we ended up

Speaker:

with two new Spanish teachers.

Speaker:

So I was the only one

Speaker:

who had been there before.

Speaker:

I only had a year of experience teaching,

Speaker:

but I was kind of like the most go-getter

Speaker:

with it.

Speaker:

And so I kind of pushed for

Speaker:

us going in this direction.

Speaker:

And both of the other teachers had been

Speaker:

teaching for longer than

Speaker:

me, one of them a lot longer.

Speaker:

And she was a lot used to a very

Speaker:

different environment.

Speaker:

So it kind of intimidated her, I think.

Speaker:

And the other guy was just, he was there

Speaker:

to get a paycheck and coach football.

Speaker:

I mean, he didn't really

Speaker:

care one way or another.

Speaker:

And I actually recently found out that he

Speaker:

has continued using CI

Speaker:

in his classroom when

Speaker:

he is being a more active teacher.

Speaker:

So that was encouraging to find out the

Speaker:

other one at that time.

Speaker:

She's I think left

Speaker:

teaching at this point, possibly.

Speaker:

Or she's not

Speaker:

specifically teaching Spanish.

Speaker:

I'm not exactly sure who's lost touch.

Speaker:

So that was kind of the first

Speaker:

time I got pushed back on it.

Speaker:

I've gotten pushed

Speaker:

back from admin before.

Speaker:

That usually goes away

Speaker:

once they do an observation.

Speaker:

And then I got it some at my second

Speaker:

school, but I tried to

Speaker:

kind of just shut my door and

Speaker:

didn't care.

Speaker:

How about you, Kelly?

Speaker:

I actually encountered any sort of side

Speaker:

eye a little bit later.

Speaker:

Then after I had started doing some CI, I

Speaker:

left a job after

Speaker:

working in my first school

Speaker:

for five years.

Speaker:

And that's when I moved to Madison and

Speaker:

was no longer the only

Speaker:

like Spanish teacher or

Speaker:

one of two kind of just like in our

Speaker:

rooms, didn't really see

Speaker:

what each other were doing

Speaker:

as much.

Speaker:

And so I kind of flew under the radar.

Speaker:

Not that I was trying to be subversive,

Speaker:

but just so often we

Speaker:

don't really know what is

Speaker:

going on in other teachers classes.

Speaker:

But then, as you mentioned, at department

Speaker:

meetings, I would

Speaker:

start mentioning things.

Speaker:

And some of my colleagues were incredibly

Speaker:

traditional, very much

Speaker:

the final exam is 100

Speaker:

multiple choice questions that I can put

Speaker:

through the Scantron machine.

Speaker:

So it grades it instantly.

Speaker:

And this other teacher does a lot of real

Speaker:

tough work the first

Speaker:

week of school to scare

Speaker:

away the students that, in her words,

Speaker:

didn't deserve to be there

Speaker:

in her upper level classes.

Speaker:

And so some of these really like old

Speaker:

mindsets kind of, you

Speaker:

know, tied to some of the very,

Speaker:

very traditional ways that

Speaker:

teaching has always been done.

Speaker:

That's where the side

Speaker:

eyes started coming in.

Speaker:

And fortunately, it, you know, we still

Speaker:

kind of just shut the

Speaker:

door and four walls of the

Speaker:

classrooms.

Speaker:

It didn't have any

Speaker:

real consequences for me.

Speaker:

Other than the side eye.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, for me, when I first started

Speaker:

teaching, I started with C.I.

Speaker:

My second semester, my first school, and

Speaker:

I got talked to by my

Speaker:

department chair many

Speaker:

times about that was when the AP exam was

Speaker:

still focused on grammar.

Speaker:

And so they go, we are really great

Speaker:

teaching to the AP exam.

Speaker:

We really need to have some

Speaker:

explicit grammar in there.

Speaker:

And they used to always say for the

Speaker:

finals, oh, we're not

Speaker:

putting speaking on the final

Speaker:

because it takes it's too hard to grade.

Speaker:

And I'm like, I thought we were teaching

Speaker:

to the AP exam and

Speaker:

they're speaking on the

Speaker:

AP exam.

Speaker:

So we had that little battle.

Speaker:

I got laid off from that school and then

Speaker:

I got to work with

Speaker:

Carmen Andrews for a while,

Speaker:

for many years.

Speaker:

And so I was in a whole

Speaker:

TPRS type school district.

Speaker:

And then I moved to California and I

Speaker:

taught at middle school

Speaker:

and we were a whole C.I.

Speaker:

TPRS department.

Speaker:

So never had a problem.

Speaker:

I left middle school to go to high school

Speaker:

last year and got a

Speaker:

shock because this school

Speaker:

I trained in C.I. and thought and they

Speaker:

came and observed me

Speaker:

at the middle school.

Speaker:

So I thought that they were C.I.

Speaker:

That's why I chose the school.

Speaker:

And I get there and

Speaker:

they are no longer in C.I.

Speaker:

They're in their second

Speaker:

year of a strict textbook.

Speaker:

The textbook teaches time in the first

Speaker:

chapter, which I think is

Speaker:

really weird to teach time

Speaker:

so early in the year.

Speaker:

I'm supposed to start teaching it the

Speaker:

second week of school.

Speaker:

I'm thinking they

Speaker:

barely know the numbers yet.

Speaker:

You want me to start

Speaker:

teaching time to them.

Speaker:

And then they are not, they're very

Speaker:

traditional in their teaching.

Speaker:

Like what are we going

Speaker:

to put on our midterm?

Speaker:

Well, it depends on

Speaker:

where we get to at that time.

Speaker:

I need to plan ahead to make sure that

Speaker:

I'm covering, especially

Speaker:

since I'm a new teacher

Speaker:

at this school.

Speaker:

I don't know where even where I'm

Speaker:

supposed to even try to get to.

Speaker:

And they're still under this.

Speaker:

Well, we'll get to the final.

Speaker:

We'll tell you, we'll find out what's

Speaker:

going to be in the final

Speaker:

a week before we'll figure

Speaker:

it out because we'll find

Speaker:

out where we're going to be.

Speaker:

And I'm like, this was, and I got a

Speaker:

shocker at the midterm

Speaker:

because they didn't tell me

Speaker:

they went out of order in the chapters.

Speaker:

So a week before they say, oh, we're

Speaker:

really heavily, we go

Speaker:

chapter one, two, four, three.

Speaker:

Well, I went one, two, three.

Speaker:

Four was all the family

Speaker:

members and stuff like that.

Speaker:

And I hadn't even started that yet.

Speaker:

And that was all in the

Speaker:

final, on the midterm.

Speaker:

So I had to go and teach that.

Speaker:

And then when I saw them, they

Speaker:

specifically took all of

Speaker:

the stuff straight out of the

Speaker:

textbook.

Speaker:

So all the questions, all the things.

Speaker:

And a writing assessment for them was

Speaker:

answering single sentence

Speaker:

questions or fill in the blank

Speaker:

with the right verb.

Speaker:

That was the writing section of the test.

Speaker:

And then what threw me really off was

Speaker:

they had to do this

Speaker:

writing part, which made more

Speaker:

sense orally, but either

Speaker:

way, it was a waste of time.

Speaker:

You had to ask them the question, how do

Speaker:

you write your name?

Speaker:

But instead of responding orally to it,

Speaker:

they had to respond written to it.

Speaker:

And then nobody would ever respond to

Speaker:

that written because you

Speaker:

would just write out your

Speaker:

name.

Speaker:

But we had to write it out phonetically

Speaker:

in the spelling of the Spanish letters.

Speaker:

So if it was Michelle, they would have to

Speaker:

go, say escribé con emme emme mayuscula.

Speaker:

E, se, spelling it, C-E, ace, you know,

Speaker:

and spelling, no one

Speaker:

has ever in the history of

Speaker:

the world spelled out

Speaker:

their name that way.

Speaker:

It makes sense to do it orally, but it

Speaker:

makes no sense to do it written.

Speaker:

But that was on the test.

Speaker:

That was the writing part

Speaker:

for level one and the midterm.

Speaker:

That was the whole writing

Speaker:

part that they had to do.

Speaker:

So that was my kind of thing.

Speaker:

I'm lucky that I teach in a satellite

Speaker:

area where we do the

Speaker:

Career and Technical Academy.

Speaker:

So I'm in a satellite place four miles

Speaker:

down the street so no one sees what I do.

Speaker:

I cover everything I'm supposed to cover,

Speaker:

but it's just always a fight.

Speaker:

I got them to remove that question off.

Speaker:

So if we're going to do

Speaker:

it, let's do it orally.

Speaker:

And there was another question they were

Speaker:

doing that I was

Speaker:

like, really, do we really

Speaker:

need to spend all this time

Speaker:

on this type of a question?

Speaker:

Doesn't tell us anything.

Speaker:

And they're big about the standards.

Speaker:

But I'm like, answering that question

Speaker:

doesn't fulfill the standard.

Speaker:

And so that's kind of my thing.

Speaker:

It's not like I'm getting a side eye.

Speaker:

I'm just getting a,

Speaker:

well, this is what we do.

Speaker:

And this is very, we're

Speaker:

very, very, very traditional.

Speaker:

And I'm the only

Speaker:

non-native speaker in the bunch.

Speaker:

So that also makes it like fighting back

Speaker:

here, like we know

Speaker:

better because we're native

Speaker:

speakers.

Speaker:

And then I'm like, well, let's see, did

Speaker:

you learn to do it that way?

Speaker:

How many times have you spelled your name

Speaker:

phonetically in Spanish that way?

Speaker:

Being native speakers, how often was that

Speaker:

something that happened?

Speaker:

So I'm slowly getting them to be a little

Speaker:

bit more proficiently based.

Speaker:

But and they're really nice people.

Speaker:

They're, you know, they've got the best

Speaker:

intentions in mind, but

Speaker:

they're just stuck in the very

Speaker:

traditional way.

Speaker:

And the not backwards planning is really

Speaker:

drives me for a loop

Speaker:

because I need to plan and even

Speaker:

know what I need to cover.

Speaker:

And I can't find out the week before

Speaker:

midterms that I didn't

Speaker:

cover a whole section because

Speaker:

I didn't know it was

Speaker:

going to be on the test.

Speaker:

That's kind of where

Speaker:

the traditional fights in.

Speaker:

So there, there's still like in the 1990s

Speaker:

and early 2000s where

Speaker:

in my last school, we

Speaker:

were very backwards planning.

Speaker:

We knew we had common assessments that we

Speaker:

all planned in advance.

Speaker:

And they were, you know, we all knew what

Speaker:

they were going to be.

Speaker:

We didn't teach to the test, but we knew

Speaker:

where we're going to be.

Speaker:

And when we had to do it, and here it's

Speaker:

more willy-dilly kind of a thing.

Speaker:

It's wild.

Speaker:

That's amazing.

Speaker:

In 2025, not backwards planning.

Speaker:

I mean, I remember doing that back with

Speaker:

the text before, what chapter are you on?

Speaker:

Which, you know, every time you saw him

Speaker:

in the copper room,

Speaker:

which chapter are you on?

Speaker:

It was like a competition

Speaker:

who got to the chapters faster.

Speaker:

But it's funny because I went to a

Speaker:

presentation within my school district

Speaker:

done by Paul Sandrock,

Speaker:

who many of you may

Speaker:

know from from Actville.

Speaker:

He's from Wisconsin.

Speaker:

So we've been very fortunate that he like

Speaker:

lives down the road and is

Speaker:

always at our conferences

Speaker:

and such.

Speaker:

And I remember he asked us the question

Speaker:

in this workshop of how

Speaker:

do you know when you're

Speaker:

done teaching a certain topic?

Speaker:

How do you know when you're done with

Speaker:

that theme or that unit?

Speaker:

And I jokingly said, when you've done all

Speaker:

the pages in the

Speaker:

workbook, I may have said

Speaker:

that a little louder than I intended.

Speaker:

But he knew I was

Speaker:

being sarcastic about it.

Speaker:

And that really is where a lot of

Speaker:

teachers come from, is we're

Speaker:

given this textbook written

Speaker:

by people that we perceive as experts.

Speaker:

And I mean, who am I

Speaker:

to question the experts?

Speaker:

I'm just Kelly from Wisconsin.

Speaker:

And then, you know, they've

Speaker:

come up with these activities.

Speaker:

And so the textbook must be

Speaker:

a thorough way of doing this.

Speaker:

And it must be some magic to the order of

Speaker:

the things in the book.

Speaker:

And I think it's new that teachers are

Speaker:

being given or taking the

Speaker:

agency to really control

Speaker:

what they actually are teaching.

Speaker:

And a lot of teachers don't come from

Speaker:

that background of I can

Speaker:

decide what's right for

Speaker:

my students.

Speaker:

Because well, this textbook teaches

Speaker:

activities before it

Speaker:

teaches places to go.

Speaker:

And that must be the right way to do it.

Speaker:

And I can't flip it because the

Speaker:

activities in the textbook

Speaker:

for the places to go rely

Speaker:

on knowing the

Speaker:

vocabulary of the activities.

Speaker:

And it's, I think, a really big mind

Speaker:

shift for a lot of

Speaker:

teachers to just think that you

Speaker:

also have all the answers.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And now when we look at this book, when

Speaker:

we go to all of us

Speaker:

disagree with the order of

Speaker:

the teachers, that's kind of why they

Speaker:

keep rearranging the chapters.

Speaker:

But they, I mean, activities aren't even

Speaker:

taught to level two.

Speaker:

I mean, I can't even imagine because I

Speaker:

always start and I still

Speaker:

start my level twos and

Speaker:

my level ones the same way because they

Speaker:

don't get taught in level one.

Speaker:

I asked them what do they like to do?

Speaker:

What's their favorite activity?

Speaker:

That's something that

Speaker:

we can all bond around.

Speaker:

I mean, how do they not know how to play?

Speaker:

To say I play basketball until level two.

Speaker:

But they're telling time in week two.

Speaker:

The order of the stuff they put in there

Speaker:

just doesn't a lot of make sense.

Speaker:

And even though our book is online, it's

Speaker:

an online textbook, we

Speaker:

have the paper printed

Speaker:

versions, but I only use it online.

Speaker:

The electronics section, they have a

Speaker:

whole chapter on the

Speaker:

electronics and they're already

Speaker:

the stuff that they're talking about.

Speaker:

We don't use anymore.

Speaker:

They still got the DVD recorder and the

Speaker:

stuff that they do to have a DVR.

Speaker:

They do that in there and then they teach

Speaker:

us really long word

Speaker:

for streaming music and

Speaker:

streaming thing.

Speaker:

I'm like, come on, people

Speaker:

don't even say that in English.

Speaker:

We just say Spotify or

Speaker:

YouTube music or Apple music.

Speaker:

We don't say I listen to a online

Speaker:

streaming service that does

Speaker:

music, you know, those kinds

Speaker:

of things.

Speaker:

Like even my kids, like when am I ever

Speaker:

going to use this vocabulary?

Speaker:

I'm like, you're right.

Speaker:

Let's just cross this one off.

Speaker:

Cross it off.

Speaker:

Because it makes sense some of the

Speaker:

vocabulary that they have

Speaker:

in there and the order that

Speaker:

they put it in, it just it

Speaker:

doesn't always make sense.

Speaker:

So it's been a while since I had to work

Speaker:

from a textbook, but I

Speaker:

remember what a traditional

Speaker:

I've worked like in

Speaker:

three textbooks before.

Speaker:

And this order, I don't know where they

Speaker:

got this order from.

Speaker:

I've never seen one so haphazard before.

Speaker:

Well, and that's the thing that always

Speaker:

like has befuddled me

Speaker:

about textbooks is like it's

Speaker:

always such low frequency vocab and it's

Speaker:

like always out of date.

Speaker:

You know, like I just I've never

Speaker:

understood why they

Speaker:

structure things the way they do.

Speaker:

It's like I'm honestly surprised that

Speaker:

there isn't a textbook

Speaker:

yet that takes the idea

Speaker:

of like Super 7 16 and front load that

Speaker:

and then start doing

Speaker:

other things like it would

Speaker:

do it just makes so much more sense to me

Speaker:

because when I first

Speaker:

started teaching my thought

Speaker:

process was oh, I'm going to teach him

Speaker:

how to conjugate all

Speaker:

the verbs like the first

Speaker:

two weeks of class because their

Speaker:

conjugation Spanish is not

Speaker:

hard unless you make it hard,

Speaker:

you know, but I can teach all of the

Speaker:

president's conjugations in

Speaker:

like what two weeks maybe.

Speaker:

And then we just spend the rest of the

Speaker:

semester playing with it

Speaker:

and like talking about stuff

Speaker:

and building in the rest of the vocab.

Speaker:

I mean, it didn't work.

Speaker:

I'm going to put that out there.

Speaker:

It did not work.

Speaker:

But I also didn't know what I was doing

Speaker:

because I was a first year teacher.

Speaker:

So like, you know, but it's

Speaker:

just it's no strange thing.

Speaker:

Like I just don't understand how these

Speaker:

textbook writers think.

Speaker:

No.

Speaker:

And I remember Bill Van Patten saying he

Speaker:

said the way the textbooks

Speaker:

because he made a textbook

Speaker:

that didn't have grammar in it.

Speaker:

I forgot what he called it, but it didn't

Speaker:

sell because they were

Speaker:

they're flipping through

Speaker:

the book and they couldn't find any the

Speaker:

grammar boxes, you know,

Speaker:

the conjugation boxes and

Speaker:

all that stuff.

Speaker:

So then he just haphazardly

Speaker:

said then I made this textbook.

Speaker:

I took the exact same textbook.

Speaker:

I didn't change anything, but I added

Speaker:

grammar charts to it and started to sell.

Speaker:

I didn't do anything different.

Speaker:

Just added the grammar charts because

Speaker:

that's what they're

Speaker:

looking for and it started to

Speaker:

sell.

Speaker:

But he always says that textbooks always

Speaker:

put first what's easiest

Speaker:

to teach, not necessarily

Speaker:

what's easiest to learn because they'll

Speaker:

put gender and verb and

Speaker:

gender and adjective agreement

Speaker:

first, which are really difficult

Speaker:

concepts for English

Speaker:

speakers because we don't have

Speaker:

that.

Speaker:

And he goes and subjunctive isn't coming

Speaker:

to level three when

Speaker:

actually subjunctive is really

Speaker:

easy to do.

Speaker:

It's not easy to explain as a teacher,

Speaker:

but it's really easy.

Speaker:

It's one of the early tenses that kids

Speaker:

acquire who naturally acquire the

Speaker:

language do it really

Speaker:

early.

Speaker:

And he goes textbooks have always

Speaker:

arranged themselves that way.

Speaker:

And Kelly, you're so right when teachers

Speaker:

like when we first was

Speaker:

it 2002, 2003, I can't

Speaker:

remember right around there.

Speaker:

We were going to be adopting a new

Speaker:

textbook and we had this

Speaker:

textbook called Yavadas, which

Speaker:

they had been using for a long time and

Speaker:

they didn't explain it

Speaker:

to us and standards were

Speaker:

just coming out.

Speaker:

So we really didn't

Speaker:

have the good concept.

Speaker:

They said write down the things that you

Speaker:

want to teach and when

Speaker:

you want to teach them so

Speaker:

that the idea was behind it that once we

Speaker:

got that down, we

Speaker:

were going to look for a

Speaker:

textbook that kind of went with what we

Speaker:

thought was important to teach.

Speaker:

But what did we do?

Speaker:

We went back to our old textbook and

Speaker:

says, well, when do they teach that?

Speaker:

We'll put that there.

Speaker:

When do they teach that?

Speaker:

But we couldn't think for ourselves and

Speaker:

just say, we are language teachers.

Speaker:

This is what our kids

Speaker:

need to know in level one.

Speaker:

And this is what our kids need to know at

Speaker:

the end of level two.

Speaker:

They couldn't do that kind of a thing.

Speaker:

That's where some teachers are still

Speaker:

stuck and they get the

Speaker:

textbook and they can only

Speaker:

teach it in that particular order and

Speaker:

they can't think for themselves.

Speaker:

They say, okay, I've got to use the

Speaker:

textbook and I've got to

Speaker:

get know this by the midterm

Speaker:

or the final, but I can rearrange the

Speaker:

order of it and teach it

Speaker:

however I want up until

Speaker:

that point as long as they get to that

Speaker:

same point at the end.

Speaker:

I always think of it like if we're all

Speaker:

going to go to a

Speaker:

conference, let's say we're going

Speaker:

to go to a conference in San Antonio, we

Speaker:

all get there a different way.

Speaker:

Some of us are close

Speaker:

enough to where we can drive.

Speaker:

Some of us take the train

Speaker:

because we don't like to fly.

Speaker:

Some people fly, but we all get to the

Speaker:

same place and it

Speaker:

doesn't matter how we got there

Speaker:

as long as we get to the same place.

Speaker:

And that's kind of what a lot of

Speaker:

teachers, they don't

Speaker:

think that they have the power

Speaker:

to do that.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker:

So how did you guys deal with any of that

Speaker:

pushback or that for

Speaker:

teachers who are going

Speaker:

through it now, how

Speaker:

are you combating that?

Speaker:

Is it just keeping your door closed and

Speaker:

not speaking, which is

Speaker:

kind of like what I did

Speaker:

last year.

Speaker:

I kept my mouth shut most of the time.

Speaker:

Or are you trying to actively or

Speaker:

subversively add in some

Speaker:

more CI type activities or how

Speaker:

are you handling the situation or how did

Speaker:

you handle that situation?

Speaker:

Whoever would like to go first.

Speaker:

Sure, I'll let you start.

Speaker:

Yeah, thanks.

Speaker:

I think the thing that is most successful

Speaker:

when you're getting

Speaker:

pushback is to make sure

Speaker:

you are not trying to shove

Speaker:

too much towards everybody.

Speaker:

I know I went to my first TPRS workshop.

Speaker:

Donna Tatum Johns did a demo in French.

Speaker:

I still remember, "Ilette Arrive," and

Speaker:

the gesture for arriving.

Speaker:

I arrived on a plane from

Speaker:

that workshop like 26 years ago.

Speaker:

Obviously, when you see a demo of a

Speaker:

lesson, when you get to

Speaker:

experience comprehensible

Speaker:

input in a language you don't know and

Speaker:

you are so amazed at

Speaker:

how much language you seem

Speaker:

to have acquired in just a few minutes,

Speaker:

it's really easy to go

Speaker:

back and be super overzealous

Speaker:

which anytime you want to convince

Speaker:

someone of something, being too

Speaker:

overzealous is always

Speaker:

a turnoff.

Speaker:

I used to work in retail and they said,

Speaker:

"No one wants to be sold anything.

Speaker:

Everybody wants to buy something."

Speaker:

I think that just like if you have

Speaker:

friends or maybe you are

Speaker:

that friend who got involved

Speaker:

in a business opportunity, multi-level

Speaker:

marketing, all of that, and

Speaker:

immediately every conversation

Speaker:

turns to this revolutionary yoga pants or

Speaker:

Tupperware or

Speaker:

whatever that there's nothing

Speaker:

wrong with the product.

Speaker:

It's probably a great product, however, I

Speaker:

don't need you to just

Speaker:

everything I say remind

Speaker:

me that you've got an

Speaker:

essential oil for that.

Speaker:

I think it's the same when we're getting

Speaker:

wrapped up in how

Speaker:

amazing our students are

Speaker:

doing, how wonderful things are going for

Speaker:

us that if you try and say, "Hey, there's

Speaker:

this whole new philosophy of teaching

Speaker:

that could completely

Speaker:

revolutionize your class,"

Speaker:

it's just too much.

Speaker:

People are not generally

Speaker:

receptive to making big changes.

Speaker:

I think my strategy to deal with pushback

Speaker:

is to not try to push, but really do what

Speaker:

I do, get the results I get, not throw it

Speaker:

in people's faces how

Speaker:

my kids are better than

Speaker:

their kids, and maybe start

Speaker:

from more of an activity level.

Speaker:

Here's a thing I did today in class, not,

Speaker:

"Here's how you can

Speaker:

change your whole year."

Speaker:

I think those bite-sized pieces get a lot

Speaker:

less pushback because

Speaker:

no one has to change

Speaker:

in order to just do

Speaker:

this one activity today.

Speaker:

That's very true.

Speaker:

I remember, Susan Gross used to always

Speaker:

say that the best way

Speaker:

to convert people over is

Speaker:

one activity at a time.

Speaker:

Take this one activity and replace it

Speaker:

with this other

Speaker:

activity, and slowly you do that

Speaker:

one at a time.

Speaker:

Eventually, you'll get there because if

Speaker:

you tell them, "This is

Speaker:

the way," and you become

Speaker:

overzealous about it, and you tell them,

Speaker:

"This is the way," and

Speaker:

you get all these magical

Speaker:

results, and especially if they've been

Speaker:

teaching a while, then

Speaker:

they get this personal feeling

Speaker:

like I have disappointed and have

Speaker:

disservice my students previously.

Speaker:

If I accept this new way,

Speaker:

then that's what I'm saying.

Speaker:

I was a bad teacher for the first 10, 15

Speaker:

years, five years,

Speaker:

whatever it may have been, and

Speaker:

now I'm doing better.

Speaker:

That's overwhelming

Speaker:

for a lot of teachers.

Speaker:

I always like to think of Maya Angelou's

Speaker:

saying, and I don't have

Speaker:

it exactly memorized, but

Speaker:

she says, "Do your best that you can, and

Speaker:

then when you know better, do better."

Speaker:

It's not that you did bad the first five

Speaker:

or how many years, but

Speaker:

now that you know that

Speaker:

there is maybe a more effective way, now

Speaker:

that you know better, you can do better.

Speaker:

It doesn't mean that everything you did

Speaker:

before was a bad thing,

Speaker:

but I think a lot of people

Speaker:

have that giant hill, and using that one

Speaker:

technique at a time, that

Speaker:

one activity at a time, it's

Speaker:

less overwhelming because there are very

Speaker:

few of us who went in

Speaker:

and jumped in all in.

Speaker:

I was one of those, but

Speaker:

very few of us were those.

Speaker:

We did the slowly activities, activities.

Speaker:

We have all the different gamut on here,

Speaker:

and a lot of people just can't do that.

Speaker:

It's too much of a

Speaker:

big change all at once.

Speaker:

What about you, Jackie?

Speaker:

What are you thinking about?

Speaker:

I have at my current school, there's one

Speaker:

other language teacher,

Speaker:

and I was very cautious

Speaker:

with sharing anything I was doing just

Speaker:

because the teacher who

Speaker:

came before me was not a good

Speaker:

teacher at all, and happened to use the

Speaker:

same curriculum that I do.

Speaker:

I knew I had the chops, and I knew that a

Speaker:

lot of it was just

Speaker:

because that previous teacher

Speaker:

was not fluent enough to really be

Speaker:

teaching the language, I don't think.

Speaker:

I was very slow to share

Speaker:

things that I was doing.

Speaker:

I started with, if I had my kids to a

Speaker:

written exit ticket, I

Speaker:

would be flipping through them

Speaker:

in the hall between classes, and I would

Speaker:

show them to this other

Speaker:

teacher and be like, "Yeah,

Speaker:

this is what we're doing."

Speaker:

They would see multiple sentences written

Speaker:

in Spanish, and be like, "Oh, wow, that's

Speaker:

really good."

Speaker:

Fast forward to the start of this school

Speaker:

year, I actually lent

Speaker:

that teacher, I think I had

Speaker:

the seventh edition of the TPR

Speaker:

storytelling book, the

Speaker:

Green Book, from Blaine Ray and

Speaker:

Connie Seeley, and I lent them that, the

Speaker:

TPRS 2.0 book that they wrote.

Speaker:

I gave them both to her and was like,

Speaker:

"Here, if you want to

Speaker:

read these," because we had

Speaker:

to do so many hours of professional

Speaker:

development here at the school district.

Speaker:

I've never been in a district that

Speaker:

required us to find

Speaker:

10 hours of PD somehow.

Speaker:

That was an adhered.

Speaker:

You might be able to do these as a book

Speaker:

study or something like

Speaker:

that for your PD this year.

Speaker:

I've already got nine because I went to

Speaker:

TPRS over the summer.

Speaker:

She started reading through those, and

Speaker:

it's been working through that.

Speaker:

I was like, "If you ever want to come and

Speaker:

observe in my room while we're doing some

Speaker:

of these things, feel free."

Speaker:

That's the tack I take with it, because I

Speaker:

know what I'm doing

Speaker:

when it comes to teaching

Speaker:

with CMI at this point.

Speaker:

I'm always like, "Hey, come on in.

Speaker:

If you want to observe, feel free."

Speaker:

I say that to admin.

Speaker:

I say that to other teachers.

Speaker:

At my first district, I even invited my

Speaker:

superintendent to come

Speaker:

and observe in my classroom.

Speaker:

He actually did it, which surprised me.

Speaker:

I find that that's one of the ways that

Speaker:

works really well, along

Speaker:

with what Kelly was saying,

Speaker:

is that don't push back, but be firm.

Speaker:

You are a rock.

Speaker:

If they want to push on you, that's fine.

Speaker:

Don't move, but don't be

Speaker:

aggressive back with it.

Speaker:

It works even better that way.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

Last year, for me, it was just staying

Speaker:

under ... They knew what I did.

Speaker:

They hired me.

Speaker:

They know what I taught, because they

Speaker:

came and observed my classroom.

Speaker:

They knew exactly what I was doing.

Speaker:

I didn't get any overt pushback, and it

Speaker:

helped me that I was not

Speaker:

in the same building as

Speaker:

they are.

Speaker:

I am four miles down the street.

Speaker:

I told the kids, "First of all, I'm not

Speaker:

hauling, because I'd have

Speaker:

to go pick up the books from

Speaker:

the library, pick up 32 of those big,

Speaker:

heavy books, and then

Speaker:

cart them into my room, and

Speaker:

then have to cart them back

Speaker:

at the end of the school year."

Speaker:

I'm like, "No, we've

Speaker:

got an online version.

Speaker:

If there's anything that they require me

Speaker:

to do that I have to

Speaker:

actually pull from the textbook,

Speaker:

we will go online, because all of our

Speaker:

kids have Chromebooks.

Speaker:

We'll go online and do it that way.

Speaker:

You don't have to worry

Speaker:

about carrying a textbook.

Speaker:

I don't have to worry

Speaker:

about carrying a textbook."

Speaker:

That's it.

Speaker:

I keep the teacher's edition in my room,

Speaker:

on my desk, but it

Speaker:

never moves from that spot.

Speaker:

It stays there from August, and it goes

Speaker:

back in the file cabinet in June.

Speaker:

That's where that is.

Speaker:

Now, what I did do to help myself keep on

Speaker:

track, because I'm still doing total CI.

Speaker:

I don't do any activities in the book at

Speaker:

all, but what I have is

Speaker:

I printed out the scope

Speaker:

and sequence from the textbook.

Speaker:

I know what order

Speaker:

we're doing the chapters.

Speaker:

Every year we change the order of the

Speaker:

chapters that they want to

Speaker:

do, which it makes it also

Speaker:

difficult because if we're doing chapter

Speaker:

four before chapter

Speaker:

three, it assumes they

Speaker:

already know chapter three vocabulary,

Speaker:

and they don't know

Speaker:

chapter three vocabulary,

Speaker:

so it causes more problems than it's

Speaker:

worth, to be quite honest.

Speaker:

But I've got the scope and sequence that

Speaker:

I'm following along the way, so I know.

Speaker:

Okay, I've got to cover these parts

Speaker:

before the midterm,

Speaker:

and I just look at it.

Speaker:

I look at what grammar I need to do, what

Speaker:

my general vocabulary

Speaker:

is, and I don't teach

Speaker:

all the school stuff all at once.

Speaker:

Then it just becomes

Speaker:

a list of vocabulary.

Speaker:

I just write stories, and

Speaker:

I insert the vocabulary.

Speaker:

Actually I cheat.

Speaker:

This is what I do.

Speaker:

It's really subversive here.

Speaker:

I write my stories about my kids.

Speaker:

So like we just had a kid.

Speaker:

Oh, he told us a story that I asked what

Speaker:

he's doing the weekend.

Speaker:

He's like for his football team, they're

Speaker:

doing a car wash, and he

Speaker:

said he was going to wear

Speaker:

his speedo to do the car wash.

Speaker:

So we made a story about him being in the

Speaker:

car wash and him

Speaker:

posing in his speedo to try

Speaker:

to get more people to

Speaker:

come into the car wash.

Speaker:

So I wrote this story about him, but I

Speaker:

had this vocabulary

Speaker:

that I had to enter in.

Speaker:

So I put my story.

Speaker:

I copied and pasted it into chat GPT, and

Speaker:

then I gave the

Speaker:

vocabulary list that I also

Speaker:

had to teach.

Speaker:

I put chat GPT.

Speaker:

But this vocabulary, a few of them, not

Speaker:

every single one,

Speaker:

naturally within this story, throw

Speaker:

it into this story and add it in there in

Speaker:

a funny kind of a way.

Speaker:

And so that's kind of what I did.

Speaker:

And with some school supplies, it was

Speaker:

like instead of pulling

Speaker:

out a sponge, he pulled

Speaker:

out an eraser out of the bucket and just

Speaker:

funny little things that they did.

Speaker:

And he would write on the windows with

Speaker:

the dry erase markers,

Speaker:

those kinds of things,

Speaker:

and so then he could wash them off and

Speaker:

show off more in his bathing suit.

Speaker:

So it was just kind of a little funny

Speaker:

little story, but that's

Speaker:

how I get that vocabulary

Speaker:

in there.

Speaker:

Because I can't think of ways to put some

Speaker:

of this vocabulary in there.

Speaker:

I don't know funny ways to get a stapler

Speaker:

and staples into or a

Speaker:

thumbtack into a story.

Speaker:

So I'll write my stories about my kids

Speaker:

and then tell chat GPT to

Speaker:

insert that strategically

Speaker:

within the story in

Speaker:

some kind of a funny way.

Speaker:

And it comes out funny and the kids are

Speaker:

always like, we love

Speaker:

these stories because they're

Speaker:

about us.

Speaker:

There are funny stories about them and

Speaker:

over something dumb that

Speaker:

they say in class or like

Speaker:

I have a kid who also

Speaker:

likes to flip chairs.

Speaker:

So he wrote a whole story about him

Speaker:

flipping the chairs and

Speaker:

then the chairs got revenge

Speaker:

and they flipped him and

Speaker:

left him alone in the room.

Speaker:

And so just funny little

Speaker:

stories that come up with kids.

Speaker:

I mean, these are freshmen, so they do a

Speaker:

lot of weird things.

Speaker:

But that's how I kind of get that

Speaker:

vocabulary in that I have

Speaker:

to teach and still stay true

Speaker:

to my CI that I do.

Speaker:

Yeah, learning to do improv comedy is one

Speaker:

of the best ways to

Speaker:

learn how to work in weird

Speaker:

vocab.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Because once you learn how to

Speaker:

do improv, it's a lot easier.

Speaker:

Yeah, I've just never had to insert vocab

Speaker:

like I'm good at

Speaker:

inserting the super seven,

Speaker:

the sweet 16.

Speaker:

Those are easy to get in there.

Speaker:

But it's really hard for

Speaker:

me to work in thumb tech.

Speaker:

It just is just not one that comes off my

Speaker:

off my tongue very easily.

Speaker:

So I use chat GPT cheat to get

Speaker:

those kind of things in there.

Speaker:

They only get those about gravity only

Speaker:

show up in the readings.

Speaker:

Because when I'm spontaneously coming up

Speaker:

with stories orally, it

Speaker:

I just can't think to get

Speaker:

that vocabulary in there.

Speaker:

I'm working too hard to

Speaker:

get the super 16 in there.

Speaker:

I was super 16, the sweet 16 in there.

Speaker:

I don't even think I know the word for

Speaker:

some pack in Spanish.

Speaker:

I definitely don't.

Speaker:

It is.

Speaker:

That is definitely a word I've never

Speaker:

needed if I ever learned it.

Speaker:

But I think that's the other thing, you

Speaker:

know, textbooks, they

Speaker:

don't want to leave off some

Speaker:

vital word because there is some teacher

Speaker:

who is going to look in

Speaker:

that school supplies chapter.

Speaker:

And if they don't see thumb tack, they're

Speaker:

not going to want to

Speaker:

buy that book because

Speaker:

their word, what they think

Speaker:

is important isn't in there.

Speaker:

So the book just throws it all at you.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's bonkers.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Oh, Ching Ching.

Speaker:

The only thing I always make fun of the

Speaker:

word paperclip because

Speaker:

the paperclips always in

Speaker:

the school chapter and I'm like, okay,

Speaker:

you guys are at the height

Speaker:

of using the word paperclip.

Speaker:

And unless you're going to work in an

Speaker:

office after you

Speaker:

graduate, you'll probably never

Speaker:

use the word paperclip again.

Speaker:

But it's a mandatory

Speaker:

word to teach paperclip.

Speaker:

Even when I had actual desks with chair

Speaker:

and table attached, I

Speaker:

still called them either

Speaker:

table, chair or seat.

Speaker:

I never use the word pupitre because that

Speaker:

is so limited in the

Speaker:

context of when you can

Speaker:

use it.

Speaker:

And there is nothing wrong of saying, you

Speaker:

know, like go to your

Speaker:

seat instead of your

Speaker:

desk.

Speaker:

You're going to use seat all the time.

Speaker:

You're going to take a train or an

Speaker:

airplane or, you know, whatever.

Speaker:

Take all the seats.

Speaker:

And so I think, you know, looking at that

Speaker:

even and winnowing

Speaker:

down the vocab list that

Speaker:

the textbook gives you, that that is not

Speaker:

what kids all need to master.

Speaker:

If it shows up on the test because you're

Speaker:

copying it right out

Speaker:

of the textbook, there

Speaker:

is no law that says you can't put dumb

Speaker:

tech equals chinchay up

Speaker:

on the board while the

Speaker:

kids are taking the test.

Speaker:

If you are not going to require kids to

Speaker:

know that word because you get to decide.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And that's funny thing you talked about

Speaker:

and it just made me

Speaker:

think of something twice.

Speaker:

I lost the first one though, but sorry.

Speaker:

But the other that's okay.

Speaker:

The second one I was going to say is we

Speaker:

had this this this

Speaker:

little epiphany went off, not

Speaker:

on me, but this other teacher we were

Speaker:

talking in a department

Speaker:

meeting a couple of weeks

Speaker:

ago and she's like, you

Speaker:

know what I'm noticing?

Speaker:

We spend a really long time on certain

Speaker:

things like the capitals

Speaker:

of the countries and the

Speaker:

alphabet and we could probably get much

Speaker:

further in the book if we

Speaker:

chop some of this not it's

Speaker:

not really important stuff out.

Speaker:

And I'm like ding, ding,

Speaker:

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Speaker:

And she's like some

Speaker:

of this vocabulary too.

Speaker:

Shouldn't we maybe limit like because

Speaker:

when I used to teach

Speaker:

with Carmen Andrews and we

Speaker:

used to do.

Speaker:

Um, when to me and when to me, my that

Speaker:

those those books back

Speaker:

then we went and we would

Speaker:

go through each chapter and we would

Speaker:

decide which words we

Speaker:

wanted to actually teach from

Speaker:

the chapter as a group.

Speaker:

So we would go through and we would say

Speaker:

we don't want to teach like they taught.

Speaker:

Um, Lobo and Coyote and we're like, do

Speaker:

they really need both

Speaker:

those words plus the pictures

Speaker:

in the book?

Speaker:

They looked almost exactly the same.

Speaker:

So why bother?

Speaker:

So we only taught Lobo

Speaker:

because coyote was a cognate anyway.

Speaker:

Um, they had a way for, I

Speaker:

can't remember what they used for.

Speaker:

They used a word that was only used in

Speaker:

Mexico and wasn't versatile enough.

Speaker:

So we took that word out and

Speaker:

replaced it with another word.

Speaker:

We didn't want to teach shepherd.

Speaker:

It wasn't a big important word, but

Speaker:

that's in their first

Speaker:

story because it's the boy

Speaker:

who tells who yells wolf.

Speaker:

It's kind of that story.

Speaker:

So we didn't teach, um, pastor.

Speaker:

And then you kept using, uh, quite a

Speaker:

little bit of talk for Crow.

Speaker:

Well we taught in Vegas.

Speaker:

So all of our kids knew

Speaker:

what quite a little was.

Speaker:

It was a drink.

Speaker:

It was not a bird.

Speaker:

And so we didn't have to teach that where

Speaker:

we just changed it to

Speaker:

part, which is a more

Speaker:

universal word anyway,

Speaker:

just a generic word for bird.

Speaker:

Because we went through that and that's,

Speaker:

I think now the wheels are spinning.

Speaker:

And so I'm hoping that we go through and

Speaker:

go through the hundred

Speaker:

vocabulary word that we're

Speaker:

supposed to teach every two weeks.

Speaker:

Cause we're on the four by four.

Speaker:

So we have to teach it so much quicker,

Speaker:

um, that we can go and

Speaker:

whittle down some of that

Speaker:

vocabulary to the point where we don't

Speaker:

have to teach all of these words.

Speaker:

And I'm with you.

Speaker:

Um, I am, I've always been

Speaker:

the out of bounds teacher.

Speaker:

I am very out of bounds.

Speaker:

I do not stay within bounds and I find

Speaker:

that my kids do better

Speaker:

because I don't stay in

Speaker:

bounds.

Speaker:

But what I do do is I give

Speaker:

them the words they need to know.

Speaker:

So if it's a reading right next to the

Speaker:

word in parentheses,

Speaker:

I'll put what it means.

Speaker:

I don't gloss it at the bottom because a

Speaker:

lot of, you know, um,

Speaker:

kids who've got learning

Speaker:

disabilities can't track.

Speaker:

So if they go, they see the word here,

Speaker:

they go to the bottom,

Speaker:

they can't find where they

Speaker:

left off back up here.

Speaker:

And so then they have to start all over

Speaker:

again from the beginning.

Speaker:

So I just put it right next to it because

Speaker:

they don't have to look

Speaker:

or search for it anywhere.

Speaker:

It's right there for them.

Speaker:

And when I'm doing it in class orally, I

Speaker:

just write it up on the board.

Speaker:

I don't stop my Spanish.

Speaker:

I just put it up on the board.

Speaker:

But what I find is like, when I, my, I

Speaker:

gave it to another

Speaker:

teacher, my reading, because

Speaker:

the readings in Spanish one in the

Speaker:

textbook are like this big.

Speaker:

They're like four or five sentences max.

Speaker:

And they're really simple.

Speaker:

And I'm like, she goes,

Speaker:

and I give them my reading.

Speaker:

That's 300 words.

Speaker:

And it's got a lot of words that they

Speaker:

wouldn't know, but I

Speaker:

need it for the story.

Speaker:

So I put them in there and

Speaker:

she's like, you give that.

Speaker:

I go, yeah, that's my second reading we

Speaker:

did on the third week of school.

Speaker:

And she's like, that

Speaker:

is really, really hard.

Speaker:

I go, but my kids on their

Speaker:

own, they got an average of 87%.

Speaker:

And reading that is practice.

Speaker:

So and now guess what they can do later?

Speaker:

They're going to be, they're going to

Speaker:

have more language under

Speaker:

their belt, not necessarily

Speaker:

the vocabulary, but they're going to be

Speaker:

exposed to the grammar in

Speaker:

much more detailed way that

Speaker:

they can actually start picking it up.

Speaker:

And my kids do so much better.

Speaker:

So when they do give us those textbook

Speaker:

readings that we have to

Speaker:

give for the final, my kids

Speaker:

nail it every time because they're like,

Speaker:

that was a piece of cake

Speaker:

because it was only five

Speaker:

sentences and we're used to 300 words.

Speaker:

So it makes a big difference.

Speaker:

So yes, I definitely agree

Speaker:

with that, that vocabulary.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Having that data also

Speaker:

definitely helps with the side.

Speaker:

Because if you can, because, you know,

Speaker:

everybody's about data now.

Speaker:

So if I can go, here's what

Speaker:

my Spanish one children did.

Speaker:

Like we just did our

Speaker:

second fluency, right?

Speaker:

And I had used a technique that I got

Speaker:

from Craig Sheehan over

Speaker:

the summer about, you know,

Speaker:

you do their first one and then you take

Speaker:

all that data, you

Speaker:

figure out what the 20th

Speaker:

percent of how it was.

Speaker:

And then that many words in

Speaker:

10 minutes, that's your fee.

Speaker:

And I took that and I

Speaker:

modified it a little bit.

Speaker:

And I did a one three ten free write with

Speaker:

my Spanish one children.

Speaker:

And then we're, we just

Speaker:

finished week five of school.

Speaker:

So at the end of week five, I had kids

Speaker:

who the majority of my

Speaker:

children wrote over 100

Speaker:

words in 10 minutes.

Speaker:

So I mean, I haven't

Speaker:

read what they wrote yet.

Speaker:

So I mean, I just I haven't had time.

Speaker:

I liked it a very quick skim.

Speaker:

I just wanted to see what

Speaker:

the numbers were looking like.

Speaker:

So I was like, OK, 42 words in 10 minutes

Speaker:

was my 20th percentile.

Speaker:

I'm sure most of my kids will get that.

Speaker:

And I think I might have

Speaker:

five who wrote less than that.

Speaker:

So we're coming up to our fifth week this

Speaker:

week will be our fifth week.

Speaker:

And I'll do my eyes on the when I taught

Speaker:

a year round, it'd be

Speaker:

my third month where I

Speaker:

start the writing.

Speaker:

But in a four by four,

Speaker:

it's about week five I start.

Speaker:

And we're going to do our first one three

Speaker:

ten this week and see how that goes.

Speaker:

So I've never graded my fluency rights

Speaker:

based off number of words

Speaker:

because I have kids also

Speaker:

has met with their ability.

Speaker:

What's in their head is fine, but they

Speaker:

are slower writers or

Speaker:

they have some other kind

Speaker:

of writing.

Speaker:

So I never thought that was and I could

Speaker:

have kids who wrote 100

Speaker:

words that had nothing

Speaker:

to do with each other.

Speaker:

I made no sense.

Speaker:

And I had kids who wrote 30 words that

Speaker:

made beautiful Spanish.

Speaker:

So I only grade the ones.

Speaker:

They all go in the grade book under the

Speaker:

zero categories so I can

Speaker:

track them and I'm looking

Speaker:

for growth over time.

Speaker:

So if this kid starts at 20, that's fine.

Speaker:

That was his baseline.

Speaker:

I just expect him to

Speaker:

be improving over time.

Speaker:

But when I pick random ones to grade and

Speaker:

I grade them on

Speaker:

proficiency, that's how I've

Speaker:

always done it.

Speaker:

Just because I've seen, you know, kiddo

Speaker:

write 300 words, I'll be amazed.

Speaker:

I look at his paper.

Speaker:

All he did was list all the words that

Speaker:

were on the board all around the room.

Speaker:

They were just a list of words.

Speaker:

I didn't put that in there.

Speaker:

Or they wrote things that made no sense.

Speaker:

I did put the caveat on there that they

Speaker:

had to write at a novice

Speaker:

mid level of proficiency,

Speaker:

at least.

Speaker:

And then if they wrote at a higher level

Speaker:

of proficiency, then

Speaker:

their score got a bump.

Speaker:

So like 42 words was at a

Speaker:

novice mid level was an 80.

Speaker:

And then if they wrote at a novice high

Speaker:

level, that bumped it up

Speaker:

5% for my regular students.

Speaker:

So I do, I kind of modified it a little

Speaker:

bit because I did

Speaker:

notice that when I was just

Speaker:

doing timed writes, and I just wanted to

Speaker:

know the number of

Speaker:

words, I had students who I

Speaker:

knew could write a lot better, who just

Speaker:

started doing the listing

Speaker:

the words off the board.

Speaker:

And that's novice low at best.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And frankly, lazy.

Speaker:

So I do put the caveat on there.

Speaker:

I'm like, you need to try to write

Speaker:

something that makes sense

Speaker:

and try to communicate an

Speaker:

idea.

Speaker:

But this is where I would also get the

Speaker:

after they learn they couldn't do that.

Speaker:

This is what they did next.

Speaker:

There is a very, very, very, very, very,

Speaker:

very, very, very, very,

Speaker:

very, very, very, very,

Speaker:

very, very, I go time fat boy.

Speaker:

And right when I said time, they'd add

Speaker:

the last two words,

Speaker:

but everything in between

Speaker:

was very, very, very, very, very, very,

Speaker:

for 75 words as fast as

Speaker:

they could write it down.

Speaker:

And thank God in

Speaker:

Spanish, only three letters.

Speaker:

So they did that really, really quickly.

Speaker:

And they didn't put the commas down

Speaker:

because it would slow them down.

Speaker:

So they would just list

Speaker:

them all the way through.

Speaker:

And so that's why I went through, I said,

Speaker:

the number of words isn't an indicator of

Speaker:

ability because I had some really smart

Speaker:

kids who thought through

Speaker:

their words or I had kids

Speaker:

who had, I mean, I don't know about you,

Speaker:

but I have kids who write

Speaker:

like they're kindergarteners.

Speaker:

Their handwriting is still like they're

Speaker:

kindergarteners because they stopped

Speaker:

teaching handwriting and

Speaker:

they worked on the keyboard.

Speaker:

And now in California, they put the

Speaker:

handwriting back in the

Speaker:

standards because I have a kid

Speaker:

who now writes, his letters are two to

Speaker:

two and a half inches

Speaker:

to three inches big.

Speaker:

So he goes seven words is half a page for

Speaker:

him because he writes so big.

Speaker:

And he goes, I wrote a half a page

Speaker:

because he wrote seven words.

Speaker:

And the handwriting is just so horrible.

Speaker:

So they don't have that high, that eye

Speaker:

hand coordination, that

Speaker:

fine finger movement to

Speaker:

be able to write quickly.

Speaker:

And I noticed that when I started

Speaker:

teaching middle school,

Speaker:

my sixth graders just could

Speaker:

not write quickly.

Speaker:

And they were never asked to even write

Speaker:

100 words in English,

Speaker:

let alone in Spanish, write

Speaker:

five sentences, write a paragraph.

Speaker:

And I always ask you, how

Speaker:

many sentences is a paragraph?

Speaker:

Because teachers trained them that a

Speaker:

paragraph was X amount of

Speaker:

sentences, but it's never

Speaker:

been X amount of sentences.

Speaker:

You know, five sentences, eight, it's not

Speaker:

a, it's not a

Speaker:

standard, you know, number of

Speaker:

sentences in there.

Speaker:

So teaching them to do that was always,

Speaker:

always backfired in my classes, at least.

Speaker:

A French teacher colleague of mine did

Speaker:

the low key cultural

Speaker:

lesson about French handwriting

Speaker:

and how it's a different font of like

Speaker:

penmanship than what we do

Speaker:

here and had the students

Speaker:

practice writing and writing in cursive

Speaker:

in the French font,

Speaker:

because so many things were

Speaker:

so unreadable that she turned it into a

Speaker:

handwriting lesson,

Speaker:

basically, but you know, within the

Speaker:

context of culture.

Speaker:

So there you go.

Speaker:

That's funny.

Speaker:

That's funny.

Speaker:

I'm not wasting my time with that.

Speaker:

But they're putting handwriting back in

Speaker:

the curriculum at the younger ages.

Speaker:

So hopefully that will, because they went

Speaker:

all one direction

Speaker:

towards the keyboard and

Speaker:

neglected the handwriting part.

Speaker:

Now kids can't, they

Speaker:

can't even sign their names.

Speaker:

Oh, no, they can't.

Speaker:

They don't know what the difference is

Speaker:

between signing and printing.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And, and sometimes when you look at a

Speaker:

print, I'm like, I call

Speaker:

one kid, his nickname was

Speaker:

roller coaster.

Speaker:

Cause even if he had lines on the paper,

Speaker:

his handwriting went all

Speaker:

over like this, you know,

Speaker:

like the lines are

Speaker:

supposed to be the guide.

Speaker:

The bottoms of your

Speaker:

letters should touch those lines.

Speaker:

Because he would just like write and it

Speaker:

would go down to like the

Speaker:

third line and then come

Speaker:

back up.

Speaker:

And I'm like, he's like, he thought they

Speaker:

were a suggestion, not a guide.

Speaker:

It was hilarious.

Speaker:

But I have so many kids and I thought it

Speaker:

was really a middle school thing.

Speaker:

And I go back to high

Speaker:

school after 10, 11 years.

Speaker:

I was 11 years away from high school and

Speaker:

back and like the

Speaker:

handwriting has not improved.

Speaker:

They really can't write.

Speaker:

And it makes it so difficult.

Speaker:

They're so used to typing, typing,

Speaker:

everything, typing,

Speaker:

everything, and they can't type either,

Speaker:

which is things.

Speaker:

So both things have failed because you

Speaker:

see him typing like this.

Speaker:

They don't know what a

Speaker:

capital letter is or a period.

Speaker:

Cause it's text.

Speaker:

They just know what a text is.

Speaker:

They type as they text.

Speaker:

It's kind of funny.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So we're getting close to our end.

Speaker:

Do you have any, I'll do, we'll combine

Speaker:

two of these things together.

Speaker:

Do you have any survival strategy when

Speaker:

you are the sole CI

Speaker:

person and you feel outnumbered

Speaker:

and or do you, what would you say to a

Speaker:

lone CI teacher now to

Speaker:

give them confidence to

Speaker:

not give up and continue the tough fight?

Speaker:

Keep your receipts.

Speaker:

You know, I keep my kids

Speaker:

writing samples from year to year.

Speaker:

And that is what I look at.

Speaker:

And I, because I was taught in the

Speaker:

traditional way and I could

Speaker:

not read Spanish for a very

Speaker:

long, um, it was not until I took an

Speaker:

intro to lit class that

Speaker:

I learned how to read in

Speaker:

Spanish.

Speaker:

Um, and so I think about that and how my

Speaker:

kids are able to read

Speaker:

so much more and so much

Speaker:

better.

Speaker:

Like, and I show my kids every year at

Speaker:

some point, the first

Speaker:

short story that we had to

Speaker:

read and it was like,

Speaker:

I have a page at best.

Speaker:

And it took me at least 45 minutes, if

Speaker:

not longer to read and understand that.

Speaker:

And now I know that if I taught my kids,

Speaker:

and it's stories and

Speaker:

part of it and imperfect,

Speaker:

I could probably hand them

Speaker:

that at the end of Spanish too.

Speaker:

And they would have to

Speaker:

have it read in five minutes.

Speaker:

You know, so that knowing that what they

Speaker:

were able to do

Speaker:

because of this and keeping

Speaker:

the receipts of how to keep their samples

Speaker:

of their writing and

Speaker:

look back on that when

Speaker:

you're feeling discouraged.

Speaker:

And you know, it, you can use that also

Speaker:

when you were being

Speaker:

pushed on by, by, by colleagues

Speaker:

and you can say, look, this is what my

Speaker:

kids are able to do.

Speaker:

Are your kids able to do that?

Speaker:

No.

Speaker:

Okay, goodbye.

Speaker:

And then you showed your door and you

Speaker:

teach like it in

Speaker:

Tennessee, at least, you know,

Speaker:

I have never been in a really strong

Speaker:

world language department

Speaker:

where we have our department

Speaker:

meetings and common

Speaker:

assessments and all that.

Speaker:

And I've never had an admin who knows

Speaker:

another language or has

Speaker:

any experience really with

Speaker:

world language.

Speaker:

So they all just kind of go, we trust

Speaker:

that you know what you're doing.

Speaker:

And we're just gonna let you do that, I

Speaker:

guess, you know, but it's

Speaker:

just keeping your receipts.

Speaker:

Yeah, it goes back to the data.

Speaker:

Goes back to the data, the proof, the

Speaker:

proof back of what you're doing.

Speaker:

What about you, Kelly?

Speaker:

I agree.

Speaker:

I think number one, don't get fired.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

You need to leave a particular position,

Speaker:

but don't get fired.

Speaker:

Do what you need to do.

Speaker:

My video died.

Speaker:

Do what you need to do

Speaker:

in order to keep your job.

Speaker:

And sometimes that's going to be maybe

Speaker:

have to jump through a

Speaker:

hoop that you don't agree

Speaker:

with.

Speaker:

But you know, do the best that you can do

Speaker:

within the context that you are in.

Speaker:

And if it's untenable, then look for a

Speaker:

new job, but don't get

Speaker:

fired from the one you

Speaker:

have.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker:

The other thing is, you know, finding

Speaker:

those subtle ways to

Speaker:

encourage more and more input

Speaker:

driven work in the class, you know, it's

Speaker:

not unusual to have a

Speaker:

paragraph on a textbook

Speaker:

test.

Speaker:

It's a paragraph, read this, answer

Speaker:

questions, or read this

Speaker:

and fill in the blank.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

The first time kids read

Speaker:

shouldn't be on the test.

Speaker:

And that seems kind of like a no brainer.

Speaker:

And so that might be something, you know,

Speaker:

you encourage with

Speaker:

your colleagues that, hey,

Speaker:

if we're going to have them read this kid

Speaker:

talking about their schedule on the test,

Speaker:

maybe we need to bring in a few of these

Speaker:

beforehand, right, and ask

Speaker:

questions so they know how

Speaker:

to think about this reading.

Speaker:

And suddenly you're kind of like, you

Speaker:

know, asking the story of

Speaker:

this reading without changing

Speaker:

their whole philosophy to comprehensible

Speaker:

input or, you know, what have you.

Speaker:

And working in those individual

Speaker:

activities, I start

Speaker:

the year with card talk.

Speaker:

And you know, at one point, you know,

Speaker:

circling with balls or PQA

Speaker:

or, you know, whatever name

Speaker:

people give, I think you say compelling

Speaker:

conversations or

Speaker:

something like that, right?

Speaker:

There's, but we start the year with that.

Speaker:

And the biggest selling

Speaker:

point is it is almost zero prep.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

Now it is probably takes a little bit

Speaker:

more skill to do that

Speaker:

day one, level one, lots

Speaker:

of flooding them with language.

Speaker:

But someone who teaches level two or

Speaker:

level three, where they

Speaker:

know those kids will know

Speaker:

some basics.

Speaker:

That's a pretty low stress way to start

Speaker:

the year because you

Speaker:

don't have to get a ton of

Speaker:

copies ready.

Speaker:

And you don't have to

Speaker:

have a brilliant slideshow.

Speaker:

You need like a whiteboard.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so selling it as things that will

Speaker:

make things easier and

Speaker:

that will support students

Speaker:

in doing whatever they're already going

Speaker:

to do might be a way to

Speaker:

coexist without really

Speaker:

pushing something.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

To go on with don't get fired.

Speaker:

What I always tell people is do what you

Speaker:

need to do to keep your

Speaker:

job, but advocate for what's

Speaker:

best for your kids.

Speaker:

So go to your administration, go to your

Speaker:

department chair, talk to

Speaker:

your fellow students, your

Speaker:

fellow teachers and

Speaker:

advocate for what's best for kids.

Speaker:

And really, nobody

Speaker:

can fault you for that.

Speaker:

If you have kids best intentions in mind,

Speaker:

then nobody, they

Speaker:

might disagree, but they

Speaker:

can't fault you from where you're coming

Speaker:

because it's not coming

Speaker:

from a motive of I want this

Speaker:

because I want this.

Speaker:

I want this because

Speaker:

it's best for my kids.

Speaker:

No one can fault you for that.

Speaker:

So as Kelly said, keep your job, do what

Speaker:

you have to do to keep

Speaker:

your job, but advocate for

Speaker:

your kids.

Speaker:

It's not working if you're just finding

Speaker:

that kid perspective

Speaker:

is not hitting with your

Speaker:

administration, with your fellow

Speaker:

colleagues, then you might

Speaker:

want to look for another job

Speaker:

for the next year.

Speaker:

I remember in my old school, the best

Speaker:

principal I've ever had,

Speaker:

and I only had him for four,

Speaker:

maybe five years, was he always said that

Speaker:

I will never say no

Speaker:

if it's good for kids.

Speaker:

If it's good for kids,

Speaker:

we'll find the money.

Speaker:

We'll find a way.

Speaker:

We'll find whatever we need to find

Speaker:

because if it's good for

Speaker:

kids, it's good for kids.

Speaker:

And that's what we

Speaker:

should be doing, period.

Speaker:

It's not to make the state happy.

Speaker:

It's not to make the district happy.

Speaker:

It's not to make parents happy.

Speaker:

We are here to service the kids.

Speaker:

And if it's good for

Speaker:

kids, then it's good, period.

Speaker:

And we will find a way.

Speaker:

And I thought that

Speaker:

was really eye-opening.

Speaker:

It's kind of like why we do what we do

Speaker:

because teachers would

Speaker:

always complain at the end

Speaker:

of the year that their

Speaker:

kids didn't know anything.

Speaker:

At the end of the year, they're like, "My

Speaker:

kids didn't know

Speaker:

anything, and I'm going to

Speaker:

do things differently in the fall."

Speaker:

And when the fall comes, they do exactly

Speaker:

the same thing that

Speaker:

they did the previous fall.

Speaker:

And then at the end of that next year,

Speaker:

they complain about all

Speaker:

the things that the kids

Speaker:

still don't know and do.

Speaker:

But they don't want to make that change.

Speaker:

They're not thinking about

Speaker:

what's best for their kids.

Speaker:

And that's why we made that change

Speaker:

because we saw that our

Speaker:

kids were not learning or

Speaker:

acquiring what they should be acquiring

Speaker:

from what we were doing before.

Speaker:

And so then we looked for

Speaker:

something else that worked better.

Speaker:

And as Blaine always says, the inventor

Speaker:

of TPRS, he said,

Speaker:

"TPRS is the best way that

Speaker:

I know how to do this right now.

Speaker:

But if something else comes down the line

Speaker:

tomorrow that works

Speaker:

better than TPRS, I am

Speaker:

wholeheartedly switching tomorrow."

Speaker:

So he's not, even though the system that

Speaker:

he invented or

Speaker:

hodgepodge together from different

Speaker:

ideas, he came up with that.

Speaker:

He is not completely 100% tied to that.

Speaker:

He is tied to the idea

Speaker:

what works best for kids.

Speaker:

And I think if we go in with that

Speaker:

mindset, we can't be wrong.

Speaker:

We may have different ideas of what's

Speaker:

best for kids, but we

Speaker:

can't be wrong when you think

Speaker:

about things like that.

Speaker:

And then I'll say also with the data,

Speaker:

because we keep talking about that.

Speaker:

And our administrators are

Speaker:

all about data right now.

Speaker:

They all want data, data, data.

Speaker:

And I use, and I've moved, this year I

Speaker:

moved exclusively,

Speaker:

everything that I do that my

Speaker:

kids turn in in language

Speaker:

class is done on formative.com.

Speaker:

Love formative.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Because, I take it back, one thing, quick

Speaker:

writes, those they do

Speaker:

on handwriting and they

Speaker:

do that one.

Speaker:

But everything else is done on formative.

Speaker:

My warmups are done on formative.

Speaker:

My exit tickets are done on formative.

Speaker:

My speaking is done on formative.

Speaker:

All of this is done on

Speaker:

formative because it gives me data.

Speaker:

I can tie it to a standard.

Speaker:

I can see which questions they got right,

Speaker:

which questions they got wrong.

Speaker:

I can see which standards they're hitting

Speaker:

and which ones they're missing.

Speaker:

I can see it all and much

Speaker:

better than my grade book.

Speaker:

I take all those grades and I put them in

Speaker:

my grade book, but

Speaker:

everything is there and

Speaker:

my kids know, go to

Speaker:

formative, that's where it is.

Speaker:

That's kind of like my learning

Speaker:

management system

Speaker:

because our school has two.

Speaker:

We have Google

Speaker:

Classroom and we have Canva.

Speaker:

And some teachers use one and some

Speaker:

teachers use the other.

Speaker:

Last year I was doing things on Canva and

Speaker:

on formative and I'm

Speaker:

like, why am I repeating

Speaker:

everything twice?

Speaker:

So I stopped using Canva because I don't

Speaker:

like Canva assessments at all.

Speaker:

And I like formative's assessments and I

Speaker:

have all my assessments

Speaker:

there and I can record

Speaker:

a listening on there and

Speaker:

they can hear the listening.

Speaker:

I can put my writing up there and it

Speaker:

works just so well for me.

Speaker:

So I use formative for everything now and

Speaker:

this is the first year that I also put my

Speaker:

exit tickets and my warmups on there.

Speaker:

I used to have them both write them in

Speaker:

their notebook, but I don't

Speaker:

have them do that anymore.

Speaker:

I put them on there and I can read them.

Speaker:

I can see them.

Speaker:

I can evaluate them right there and I can

Speaker:

compare if someone asks me.

Speaker:

I don't say, well, I have to go get three

Speaker:

notebooks for my kids

Speaker:

so you can kind of see

Speaker:

a thing.

Speaker:

I can show you the kids stuff that's all

Speaker:

written right in there

Speaker:

and it works so well.

Speaker:

And I used to love Flipgrid, but Flipgrid

Speaker:

went away and I've

Speaker:

used formative to replace

Speaker:

that because they can

Speaker:

record videos on there as well.

Speaker:

So they can record those videos on there

Speaker:

and I can see their

Speaker:

videos or they can just record

Speaker:

the audio.

Speaker:

And for my, I pay for it.

Speaker:

It's $15 a month.

Speaker:

It's worth it to me.

Speaker:

It comes out of my own pocket, but it's

Speaker:

worth it to me because

Speaker:

of all the features that

Speaker:

it has.

Speaker:

And it's one I highly recommend.

Speaker:

And if you need to keep track of data,

Speaker:

that is a great one to

Speaker:

do it because it doesn't

Speaker:

automatically without you having to

Speaker:

manually figure anything

Speaker:

out or go back to the grade

Speaker:

book and try to figure it out

Speaker:

and do all that kind of stuff.

Speaker:

Because in my old school, we used to have

Speaker:

to give data reports to our admin.

Speaker:

We go into department chair, department

Speaker:

meeting, and we'd have to

Speaker:

have all the data and then

Speaker:

we have to give it to them in a folder so

Speaker:

that they had all the

Speaker:

data so they could compare

Speaker:

where the kids were.

Speaker:

And then we can analyze the questions and

Speaker:

we're supposed to ask

Speaker:

questions about they

Speaker:

got question number four wrong.

Speaker:

Why did they get that wrong?

Speaker:

Did they not know the vocabulary?

Speaker:

Was the question written

Speaker:

poorly or was it too tricky?

Speaker:

And we found out problems

Speaker:

that helped us teach better.

Speaker:

Like in level two, our kids were having

Speaker:

trouble with dates and weather.

Speaker:

Well we taught it really heavily in level

Speaker:

one, but they forgot

Speaker:

it and we never touched

Speaker:

it over in level two.

Speaker:

So we said, oh, we're going to start

Speaker:

adding it back to level

Speaker:

two a little bit, sprinkling

Speaker:

it in and it did.

Speaker:

And then they got better on that.

Speaker:

Or we realized that middle schoolers have

Speaker:

a real tough time

Speaker:

with all of the above or

Speaker:

none of the above or questions that say,

Speaker:

is it A and C or is it B and D?

Speaker:

They couldn't figure those things out.

Speaker:

So we stopped writing those questions and

Speaker:

then we also taught

Speaker:

them how to answer those

Speaker:

questions in the classroom, not on an

Speaker:

assessment type thing.

Speaker:

Because they didn't know how to approach

Speaker:

those questions, had

Speaker:

nothing to do with language.

Speaker:

They didn't understand those types of

Speaker:

questions that they asked.

Speaker:

So we're trying to prepare them for

Speaker:

standardized tests where

Speaker:

they might ask some of those

Speaker:

types of questions.

Speaker:

But we did, we would never have known

Speaker:

that without analyzing the

Speaker:

data question by question.

Speaker:

So I said formative or a alternative

Speaker:

program that works like

Speaker:

that is a really handy way

Speaker:

for the data.

Speaker:

Because you can back

Speaker:

up what you're doing.

Speaker:

You know, like right now I've got a

Speaker:

period that is underperforming.

Speaker:

It's not doing bad.

Speaker:

It's just doing a low B average where my

Speaker:

other kids are doing a

Speaker:

high B, low A average.

Speaker:

And I'm telling my administrator, this is

Speaker:

because I have

Speaker:

behavior issues in this period

Speaker:

too and I'm spending more time correcting

Speaker:

behavior issues than I

Speaker:

am actually teaching.

Speaker:

And you can see how it's affecting.

Speaker:

What I'm doing is effective because

Speaker:

everybody's got, you know,

Speaker:

most kids who are trying have

Speaker:

a B or better, but you can see that

Speaker:

there's a great difference

Speaker:

with the exact same instruction

Speaker:

why there's that difference in the

Speaker:

average right there.

Speaker:

So data can back up a

Speaker:

lot of different things.

Speaker:

Anybody have any closing

Speaker:

remarks before we go for today?

Speaker:

Okay, well, let's go

Speaker:

ahead and wrap this up.

Speaker:

We've talked a lot already today.

Speaker:

So that's a wrap for today's

Speaker:

episode of comprehend this.

Speaker:

Thanks for hanging out

Speaker:

with us because let's be real.

Speaker:

Your time is so precious and you could

Speaker:

have been grading those

Speaker:

quizzes you've been ignoring

Speaker:

all week or reading

Speaker:

those quick writes, Jackie.

Speaker:

A big thank you to our amazing guests,

Speaker:

Jackie and Kelly for

Speaker:

keeping it real about surviving

Speaker:

the infamous CI side eye.

Speaker:

So what did we learn today?

Speaker:

Basically, you're not

Speaker:

crazy and you're not alone.

Speaker:

And yes, you can survive the hallway

Speaker:

judgment look and still

Speaker:

teach with CI tomorrow.

Speaker:

If you love today's chat, make sure to

Speaker:

subscribe, leave us a review

Speaker:

and share this episode with

Speaker:

that one teacher who

Speaker:

really needs to hear it.

Speaker:

You can also watch us live on YouTube or

Speaker:

catch the replay on

Speaker:

your favorite podcast app.

Speaker:

And until next time, ditch the drills,

Speaker:

trust the process, and

Speaker:

I'll see you next time on

Speaker:

comprehend this.

Speaker:

Goodbye everybody.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Comprehend THIS!

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.