teaching with poverty in mind - clover...
TRANSCRIPT
Teaching With
Poverty In
Mind
Ann Burns, EdD
Laura Dedic
Outcomes
– Changes in the Brain
– Achievement Factors
– What can teachers do
Poverty Myths
1. Most poor are lazy and lack ambition.
2. Poor value education about the same as middle class.
3. If you gave the poor money, everything would change.
4. The parents of poor children have got to do more for
the children to learn better.
5. Schools already do their part; it’s up to the students to
do more.
6 F
aces
of
Pove
rty
INTENSITY
Absolute VS Relative
DURATION
Generational VS Situational
CONTEXT
Urban VS Rural
Bottom Line
– Kids from poverty are different
– Brains adapt to suboptimal conditions
– Brains can and do change everyday
– YOU can facilitate positive change
– It will take a 100% “no excuses” mindset
How are children from low SES
different? EACH deserves better
Emotional & Social Challenges
Acute & Chronic Stressors
Cognitive Lags
Health & Safety Issues
Social and Emotional
Challenges
Surviving, Not Thriving
– Medical Care - Substance Abuse
– Support Networks - Depression
– Books - Attendance
– Single Parenting - Change, Disruption
– Emotional Responsiveness - Instability
– Stress - Isolation
More Likely to Display
– Acting out behaviors
– Impatience and impulsivity
– Gaps in politeness and social graces
– More limited range of behavioral responses
– Inappropriate emotional responses
– Less empathy for others’ misfortunes
Emotional Support
– A mother in poverty is less likely to provide the
emotional support needed for proper
developmental growth when she’s stressed about
her own health, safety, bill paying, hunger and
housing prospects.
Emotional Punctuation
– Students that have emotional punctuation learn much
faster than students that do not.
– Emotional Punctuation is a “memory maker” and these
positive interactions make better memories. These
include: verbal affirmations, smiles, physical gestures,
head nodding, positive comments, positive music,
celebrations, etc.
What about Negative Emotional
Punctuation?
– Teachers who criticize, demand, and use sarcasm as
classroom discipline will activate the fear and stress
areas of the student’s brain. This alters the student’s
ability to think and learn.
– Fight, Flight or Freeze
So What? Now What?
– What might you do differently in your
context with this new knowledge?
Acute and Chronic
Stressors
Stress and Distress
– Stress (on and off) is healthy for us!
– Distress (chronic) is toxic to our brain and body!
– Low SES children are exposed to more stressors,
more intense and longer lasting stressors, and
have fewer coping skills than higher SES
counterparts.Evans, G.W., Kim P. (2007) Childhood Poverty and Health: cumulative risk exposure and stress dysregulation.
School Behaviors
– Children in poverty are often distractible and
hyper vigilant OR may have learned helplessness.
These are symptoms of stress disorders, not apathy
or a negative anti school attitude.
So What? Now What?
– What might you do differently in your
context with this new knowledge?
Cognitive Stimulation
Environments Power Brain
Growth
– The physical environment needs to be safe, varied
and complex.
– The language must be interactive, complex and
continuous.
– The cognitive environment needs variety, richness
and increasing complex physical movement.
Parental Verbalization
– The difference in the amount of parental verbalizations of children in families on welfare versus professional families is:
A) double
B) triple
C) four fold
Extras for Learning
– Quality child care Team travel costs
– Stimulating toys Summer camps
– Recreational books School supplies
– Private music/ dance lessons
Memory and Cognition Conflict
– Low SES students are less able to handle
dissonance; the cognitive conflict skills which are
learned because they often get little or not role
models to see and hear them being used.
So What? Now What?
– What might you do differently in your
context with this new knowledge?
Health and Safety
Issues
More Toxic Exposure– Lead
– Twice as likely to have levels of lead in their blood
– Poison
– 1/4 live with someone who smokes
– Hazards
– Greater exposure to environmental hazards
– Dangerous Address
– Live on or near toxic waste sites
– Pesticide Exposure
– More exposure to pesticides
So What? Now What?
– What might you do differently in your
context with this new knowledge?
Instruction:
What can we do in the
classroom?
Use Mental Models
– Help students develop a file management system for their brains.
– Develop mental models for your curriculum
– Helps with identifying abstract content information.
– Reinforce generic mental models for occupations
– Space – our relation to direction; establishing order to the universe we
inhabit
– Time – understanding days, weeks, hours, etc.
– Part to Whole – break down in parts to understand the whole
– Formal Register – the language of work or school
Vocabulary
– Vocabulary is the tool for thinking.
– It is essential to help build the vocabulary in a child living in poverty.
– Classroom Strategies
– Word walls SAT word of the day
– Working on Greek and Latin prefixes Madlibs
– Identifying key vocab in content areas
– Bell Ringers/Exit Slips
– Daily Oral Grammar
– Teach school/workplace vocabulary
Teach the Processes or “How”
– Teach how to complete the task.
– Classroom strategies
– Demonstrations
– Rubrics
– Examples of good and bad work
Student Developed Questions
– Question making leads to metacognition for a student
– Classroom strategies
– Jeopardy Questions
– Student Created Study Guides
– Student Created Multiple Choice test questions
– Thick or Thin Question Activity
Exercise, Energy & Oxygen
– Do not take recess away from students. They need physical activity
for the brain.
– Classroom Strategies:
– PE in the classroom Creative Dramatics – Skits & Plays
– Breathing techniques Stretching
– 30/90/10 Rule
– Games with movement – Twister, Board Races, etc.
Forge Relationships
– Children need a strong, caring, & positive adult in the classroom.
– Classroom Strategies:
– Learn student names
– Learn about their families
– Ask about their hobbies
– Demonstrate and role-model positive behaviors rather than
reprimanding
– Mentor or develop Peer Mentor relationships
Questions for us?
Contact information