Ricardo Garcia, a Spanish teacher at Carlmont High School, has incorporated Latin-American culture into his teachings and has seen improvements in AP Spanish Language and Culture test scores as a result.
Garcia was born in Mexico and later moved to the United States to become a Spanish teacher. For the past 13 years, he has been teaching AP Spanish and Spanish 1 classes at Carlmont.
When he first began teaching, Garcia taught in a more traditional way, focusing more on the fundamentals of the Spanish language such as grammar and pronunciation.
However, throughout his time as an educator, he has begun to integrate Latin-American foods, such as Central American fruits and drinks into his classroom. He has also introduced students to Latin American heritage such as Latin American holidays and traditions.
“I noticed kids were a lot more engaged… especially during block periods. Bringing in cultural aspects is huge,” Garcia said.
Following the implementation of these new aspects into this class, student engagement rose, as they felt they were enjoying their time in class more.
“It definitely helped. I learned a lot more about the countries and what makes them unique,” said Vikram Kacholiya, a Carlmont alumni who took the AP Spanish Language course.
Not only did students find this new teaching style fun, but they also found that it helped them better learn and understand what was being taught.
“We learned different songs about different Spanish conjugations and words to help us memorize things,” said Eli Samon, a former Spanish 1 student.
Garcia himself also feels he has seen better engagement with his students after bringing in cultural foods and teaching about traditions.
“We sing, we tell jokes, we tell stories, and that seems to resonate more with students,”
— Ricardo Garcia
The test results seen on the AP Spanish Language and Culture test class attest to the benefits of this way of teaching.
Over the past four years, the pass rate of Garcia’s students on the AP Spanish Language and Culture test has been 100% with the class average test score being 4.31.
These results are far above the national scores as the average score for everyone taking the AP Spanish Language and Culture test is 3.86 with the pass rate being 90%, according to the College Board.
With all of this newfound success Garcia is seeing with his students, he attributes these better AP test scores in part to the rest of the Carlmont Spanish Department as a whole.
He believes it is pivotal that Spanish teachers here at Carlmont work together in preparing students for subsequent classes, and it is the teachers at Carlmont that allow for these exceptional AP test results.
“I am very fortunate to work with a very strong group of teachers in the world language department that are like-minded,” Garcia said.
Moving forward, Garcia hopes to maintain these results with his students and expects to continue teaching in this culture-integrative style.
“I think food, music, and literature are really food for the soul,” Garcia said. “If you can connect with students at that level, you really have a better chance at reaching them.”
