As I reviewed my second graders’ takes on our read-aloud of the day, one response stopped me chilly.
Leonardo’s* paper learn: “No me gustó el libro porque es de México y los Mexicanos me hicieron sufrir en el tren.” I didn’t just like the guide as a result of it’s about Mexico. And Mexicans made me undergo on the prepare.
My coronary heart dropped.
Leonardo was one of many three Colombian college students in my class. Throughout his journey to the USA, he rode La Bestia, a harmful community of freight trains. This method of freight trains runs throughout Mexico from south to north and it’s usually utilized by these touring towards the U.S border. It was throughout his time on this prepare that one in every of his mother and father was assaulted at knifepoint by somebody from Mexico.
As a Mexican American educator instructing a room full of scholars with Central American and Mexican roots, I knew I needed to tackle this rigorously. Ignoring it risked permitting stereotypes, harm and division to form our classroom tradition.
Diana Zepeda
I felt a rollercoaster of feelings: heartbreak {that a} little one so younger endured such trauma, understanding of why he expressed himself the way in which he did, and on the similar time, deep self-reflection. His phrases pressured me to confront how simply a single expertise can form our perceptions of others. It jogged my memory of moments after I, too, have allowed one interplay to affect how I assumed or felt.
My classroom included 26 kids representing greater than 5 Latin American nations. The end result was a every day refrain of, “My nation is healthier than yours,” full with passionate proof. This rivalry usually turned a contest over who “belongs” within the U.S, fueled by unfavourable media portrayals of newly arrived immigrants. If I didn’t tackle Leonardo’s notion of Mexicans and the rising national-pride rivalries, the negativity would seep into the whole lot else.
I started by bringing cultural consciousness into our classroom as a part of culturally responsive instructing, an method that acknowledges college students’ cultures, languages and lived experiences as strengths reasonably than obstacles. I partnered with Marilyn Lara Corral from the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen via their Nuestras Historias Trainer Residency Program. Collectively, we co-created an arts-integrated venture centered on self-identity. College students labored on clean sq. canvases which have been later sewn onto a mercado bag.
Every scholar obtained a clean canvas sq.. College students traced their portraits onto the decrease heart of the canvas. Their portraits stayed black and white. Every thing else about their id was in shade: their favourite traditions, meals, actions and the cultural symbols that formed who they have been. Flags rapidly stuffed the squares. Drawings of pupusas, tamales, pozole, arepas and pizza appeared. Every canvas sq. turned a declaration of id and belonging.
On the finish of the venture, I hung their vibrant “mercado baggage,” within the hallway. College students proudly offered their work, explaining what they drew. Someplace in that course of, the tone of our classroom shifted. My second graders realized they may absolutely be themselves and on the similar time recognize everybody round them. Leonardo and all my college students related over meals, music, and recollections.
Mercado Baggage displayed in Diana’s classroom. By Diana Zepeda, March 11, 2026
I’ve but to satisfy a scholar who didn’t wish to share their roots. Yearly, my college students are keen to speak about their traditions and favourite meals. When educators deliberately invite college students’ cultural identities into the classroom, we do greater than promote inclusion. College students thrive in areas the place they really feel seen and valued.
Experiences like these replicate the aim behind Illinois’ Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards: to information educators in constructing lecture rooms grounded in belonging, id and significant connections.
There are a lot of methods we are able to make this a actuality in our lecture rooms. Listed below are only a few:
Select culturally genuine books
Illustration issues, however authenticity issues extra. College students incessantly share connections they’ve made between the textual content and their very own lived experiences. These texts embrace books and tales deliberately chosen to replicate college students’ cultures, languages and communities. This stage of engagement occurs extra usually when books replicate college students’ actual lives, language and tradition reasonably than easy translations. On-line shops like First Book Marketplace provide various, low-cost books in a number of languages that heart college students’ lived experiences.
Incorporate tradition into participation routines
This yr, I modified a Total Participation Technique in our class discussions by pairing college students with pictures of meals from their cultures: encebollado with pan, atole with tamales, arepa with queso. When their dialog companions requested questions, they eagerly defined the dishes.
Find out about college students’ cultures deliberately
I ship residence household surveys to be taught my college students’ traditions, immigration tales and values. I deliberately take my college students’ backgrounds into consideration when lesson planning, constructing on cultural information college students like Leonardo have already got. I join classes to experiences they acknowledge and use examples and texts that replicate their residence lives.
Leonardo turned greatest pals with the identical classmate he usually argued with. They did the whole lot collectively and grew so shut I needed to recommend they be positioned in numerous lecture rooms the next yr, simply to maintain them out of bother. When educators honor college students’ identities, we don’t simply enhance lecture rooms with flags and books, we construct communities the place therapeutic, belonging and studying can take root and blossom.
Diana Zepeda is a 2nd grade bilingual instructor at Haugan Elementary in Chicago and a 2025-2026 Train Plus Illinois Early Childhood Educator Coverage Fellow.
Editor’s Observe: Illinois Latino Information granted anonymity to a minor featured on this story on account of considerations about immigration standing. The person’s id is thought to the newsroom.
