Essential Takeaways and Reminders from CI Midwest

Last weekend I had an amazing and inspiring time re-connecting with fellow CI teachers. It was much needed, as I have transitioned out of a CI curriculum at my last school into a non CI program, although thankfully my DC has given me some leeway to explore teaching the unit targets in a way that works for me.

The transition has been much harder than expected. I launched into navigating success for students through long lists of vocabulary words paired with authentic resources only. The grammar quizzes have proved particularly difficult to work around (if you have ideas on how to do this, please comment below). Previously, I had mostly used authentic resources, still with lots of scaffolding, in upper levels only (well, not totally true–I of course use songs, memes, etc), and had relied on co-created texts in novice levels, paired with LOTS and LOTS of reading. So, it has been a tough transition. So hard that I forgot who I was as a teacher for the last couple of months… I was pretty lost.

Until I went to CI Midwest. I was reminded of ALL of the strategies that I thought were so ingrained in me in the past five years and how to make them work in my classroom now, despite not having an ADI/CI curriculum in front of me. Needless to say, it was exactly what I needed.

Last time I went to CI Midwest (in 2022), I left with tons of new ideas. This time, it was different. I left with both TAKE-AWAYS and REMINDERS on what works right and how to adapt a non ADI curriculum to my needs (read: student needs).

Here are my six take-aways/reminders:

Take-Away: Brain Breaks. …Especially ones that bring laughter and joy into the classroom. I am now at a school that teaches on block schedule ONLY. Uh, I need brain breaks in my life, so do my students! Prior, brain breaks didn’t feel that necessary with 45 minute classes… but now that I’ve started them, they are such a game changer. Special thanks to La Maestra Loca for her presentation, as well as Andrea Eiter. I’ve done 1,2,3 ¡Dale! and ¡Plato! already within the first week back. FRESH AIR TO BREATH!
Reminder: Personalize, Personalize, Personalize. I started out the year strong personalizing–using special person interviews, followed by write and discuss, asking PQAs during/after reading, but somewhere in the last two months, I lost it. I’m not sure what happened, but CI Midwest woke me back up. In this last week, my class already learned about a fellow classmate who wants to move to Iraq where he has family. I never would have learned that, and I’m sure many classmates did not know that either. I’m excited to build on that knowledge as class progresses.
Take-Away: Learn From Culture, Not About. I loved Adriana Ramírez’s presentation on Culture in upper level CI, emphasizing that we need to learn from culture, not about culture. I will officially be changing the way I talk to students thanks to this statement. Oh, the power of words! She additionally talked a lot about the #ownvoices movement and how important it is to teach level readers (or other resources of course) that come from the voice of someone native to the culture/country. The presentation came at a perfect time, as I am trying to get leveled readers into my school’s curriculum, hopefully for next year… so selection time might come soon. She discussed that zero representation might just be better than mis-representation, which then leads to stereotypes or an unequal balance of power between the dominant and non dominant culture. Makes sense to me.
Reminder: Use Tickets. Thanks to Andrea Eiter, I was energized to put back into place my ticket system of “Súper Soles” (adapted from Peruvian currency). My previous system was more like a raffle system and had utilized academic rewards (like one point extra credit or dropping lowest formative grade). I was aware I couldn’t do that system at my new school–which is fine, it might not have worked as my last school students were very motivated by academic rewards, for better or for worse). However, when this school year started, I just kind of lacked all inspiration for a new system, even though I had a hunch students would need something “fun” and different to motivate them. Enter Andrea Eiter’s presentation, where she walked us through how she gives out tickets and her different tiers of rewards. I adjusted it to fit my needs, presented it this past Monday/Tuesday and voilá, classroom magic is already happening! One way students can earn my tickets is to speak Spanish to me outside of the classroom… in the hallway, if they run into me at Target, after school, etc. In just a week, I had six students seek me out in the hallway to ask how my day was going, ask what my favorite class was, explain where they were going, etc. This is what proficiency is about… that application is key!
And my biggest Take-Away that has still got me thinking: Interculturality and how to foster it. Circling back to Adriana Ramírez’s presentation, she did such an excellent job explaining the difference between interculturality and multiculturality, and the danger with the latter. Interculturality, meaning a dual balance between cultures, will now guide everything I try to do curricular-wise. My culture is not more important than my students’ cultures, nor is the culture we are learning from more important than any other. A great example of my shift in thinking is the following:
- The next unit I am going to teach is about celebrations. The unit plans included quite a bit of celebrations here in the U.S.: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Students then were asked to research Hispanic celebrations to complete an interpersonal exam. Many things didn’t sit right with me on this unit, so I suggested to my DC, and she thankfully obliged, a re-work: We, as a class, work through Día de los Muertos (perfect timing), Quinceñeras (Mexican lens), Wedding traditions (Peruvian lens), and La Lotería del Gordo (Spanish), all the while comparing our own cultures’ celebrations. Then, during the interpersonal, students will share information on their own cultural celebration. Interculturality?It’s not perfect, but I’m a better teacher and cultural thinker thanks to Adriana’s presentation.
And my biggest Reminder: Use MUSIC, duh. Where did the music go? Music, in my previous classroom, had been such a central part. I couldn’t imagine my classroom life without it and I don’t think my previous students could either. And now, new school… no music? This is mostly on me. Why wasn’t I pressing play at the start of the passing period? Why didn’t I post my QR code for our class playlist? And… all my old favorites that grammatically align to common Spanish 2 target structures, where did they go? It’s like I had musical amnesia.