Chapter 5: Comprehensible Input as an Inclusive Practice

I entered the Latin classroom determined to make Latin work for everyone, especially for students of color like myself. Classical education typically emphasizes explicit grammar and literal translation of ancient literature, and I spent my first few years as a teacher teaching how I was taught. However, as a teacher, I found that only a few of the highest performing students in my classes were successful with that traditional, textbook-driven approach. When I fully embraced comprehensible input (CI) (Krashen, 1982) as the core of my classroom with support from a community of like-minded teachers, I saw my Latin program balloon in size and diversity within a year or two. In order to do this, I had to make some small but worthwhile changes.