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Teaching with poverty in mind
The document discusses the impact of poverty on education, detailing various types of poverty and their effects on students' emotional, social, and academic outcomes. It highlights the importance of understanding environmental factors, relationship building, and effective teaching strategies to improve the educational experience for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Strategies for fostering hope and engagement, along with data-driven instructional practices, are emphasized as means to enhance student success.
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Teaching with poverty in mind
- 1. Teaching with Povertyin Mind Based on Eric Jensen’s book
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- 9. Rankings #3 - FormativeAssessments - .90 #7 - Comprehensive Interventions - .77 #8 - Teacher Clarity - . 75 #10 - Feedback - .73 #11 - Teacher to Student Relationships - .72 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #31 - Home Environment - .57 #32 - Socioeconomic Status - .57 #38 - Pre-Term Birth Weight - .54 #51 - Student Motivation - .48 #88 - Homework - .29
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- 11. Our Data Grade 7-12Free/Reduced Lunch = 25% Grade 7-12 Radar List = 51% FRL kids Grade K-6 Free/Reduced Lunch = 30% Grade K-6 Radar List = 43% FRL kids
- 12. Effects of Poverty •Emotional and social challenges • Acute and chronic stressors • Cognitive lags • Health and safety issues
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- 14. Nature vs. Nurture •30-50 percent of our behaviors stem from our DNA makeup. • 50-70 percent of our behaviors stem from our environment.
- 16. “You can’t changewhat’s in your students’ bank account, but you can change what’s in their emotional account” (p. 21).
- 17. Acute and ChronicStressors • Students subjected to such stress may lack crucial coping skills • More than half of all poor deal with evictions, utility disconnects, overcrowding, lack of a stove or refrigerator • Low-SES parents are more authoritarian – issue harsh demands and spank more
- 18. More stress =less delayed gratification
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- 23. Student’s Beliefs • Parentsdisinterested • No one cares • Teachers don’t like them
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- 26. Risk Load Factors SchoolFactors: 1. Students eligible for free lunch 2. Students known to be in temporary housing 3. Students eligible for welfare benefits from the city Human Resources Administration 4. Special education students 5. Black or Hispanic students 6. Principal turnover 7. Teacher turnover 8. Student turnover 9. Student suspensions 10. Safety score on the district’s Learning Environment Survey 11. Engagement score on the Learning Environment Survey
- 27. Risk Load Factors NeighborhoodFactors: 12.Involvement with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services 13. Poverty rate according to the U.S. Census for the school’s attendance area 14. Adult education levels 15. Professional employment 16. Male unemployment 17. Presence of public housing in a school’s attendance area 18. Presence of a homeless shelter in a school’s attendance area
- 28. Whenever you witnessa behavior that is inappropriate, ask yourself whether the discipline process is positive and therefore increases the chances for better future behavior, or whether it’s punitive and therefore reduces the chances for better future behavior.
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- 30. Cognitive Lags • Low-incomecaregivers speak in shorter, more grammatically simple sentences • High-SES parents added words to their child’s vocabulary at twice the rate • Reading is one of the most important factors affecting the development of a child’s brain • It is possible that a longer period of development leaves the language system more susceptible to environmental influences
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- 36. Low-SES and Attendance Grades:7-12 Absent > 4 days = 62% are FRL Students Grades: K-6 Absent > 4 days = 75% are FRL Students
- 37. Quarter 1 HonorRoll 88.00% 12.00% 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00% Non-FRL FRL Non-FRL FRL
- 38. Health and Safety •The lower a child’s socioeconomic status is, the lower his or her overall health. • The lower parents’ income is, the more likely it is that children will be born premature, low in birth weight, or with disabilities. • A childhood spent in poverty often sets the stage for a lifetime of setbacks.
- 41. Assignment • Reflect onchapter 3 of this book. • Possible topics – What is the biggest takeaway for you? – How has your view on children living in poverty changed? • Tweet your blog link to me by January 4th by Midnight. • Twitter username: @mdmcneff
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- 44. SHARE Support of theWhole Child Hard Data Accountability Relationship Building Enrichment Mind-Set
- 48. Where do werank? • Academic and alternative tutoring • Academic, career, or mental health counseling • Access to medications • Child care for teen parents • Community services (housing, and utilities) • Dental care • Life skills classes in finances, health, housing • Medical care, both urgent and long term • Psychology (diagnosis and therapy) • Reading materials • After school programing and transportation
- 49. Hard Data Proposed Goal3: • Use data wisely to improve instruction
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- 54. Relationship Building • Student’srelationships with their peers • Caregiver’s relationships with their children • School staff members’ relationships with one another • Teachers’ relationships with students
- 55. Staff-Student Relationships • Avoidraising your voice unless it’s an emergency • Do what you say you are going to do • Acknowledge a change in plans if you need to make one • Always say “please” and “thank you”: never demand what you want • Take responsibility for any mistakes you make, and make amends • Be consistent and fair to all students; show no favoritism • Offer support in helping students reach their goals • Positively reinforce students when they do something right • Show that you care more than you show authority or knowledge
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- 57. Seven Achievement Killers 1.Overdoing the pep talks and hot air. 2. Planning endlessly. 3. Putting kids first and staff last. 4. Creating a climate of fear. 5. Measuring improvement solely through test scores. 6. Treating the symptoms, not the cause. 7. Counting on big wins early.
- 58. Region Rankings 104 99 92 82 74 66 61 61 43 29 14 2528 27 49 35 36 37 38 24 99 65 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 School Score Poverty %
- 59. Assignment • Blog Topic –Whereare we at as a district in your mind – reflect on the steps we are taking and what are our next steps? • Due February 1st by Midnight
- 60. February 26, 2015Meeting Classroom-Level Success Factors
- 61. “It’s not howmuch you do; it’s what you do, and for how long.” - Eric Jensen
- 62. SHARE • Standards-based Curriculumand Instruction • Hope Building • Arts, Athletics, and Advanced Placement • Retooling of the Operating System • Engaging Instruction
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- 64. Assessment • Help studentsunderstand the role of FA • Begin with KUDs • Make room for student differences • Provide instructive feedback • Make feedback more friendly
- 65. Continued • Assess persistently •Engage students in formative assessment • Look for patterns • Plan instruction around content requirements and needs • Repeat the process
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- 67. For many peopleliving in poverty, hope and faith in tomorrow are the only things that keep them going each day. Every member of your staff must buy into this fact: if brains can change for the worse because of hopelessness, they can change for the better because of the hope provided by good people in a good school. - Eric Jensen
- 68. Hope and positivity •The pleasant life • The good life • The meaningful life • TED TALK
- 69. “Students with highlevels of arts participation outperform “arts-poor” students on virtually every measure and that high arts participation makes a more significant difference to low- income students than to high-income students” (p. 119).
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- 71. “Schools that cutphysical education time in favor of more sit-and-git test prep are missing out on big academic gains” (p. 120).
- 74. Retooling the OperatingSystem and Engagement • Champion’s Mindset • Hopeful Effort • Attentional Skills • Memory • Processing Skills • Sequencing Skills “Engagement happens when students are choosing to attend, participate and learn” (p. 136)
- 75. Assignment • Blog: Whatsparked your interest or challenged your thinking within the readings and/or class discussions? • Due date: March 8th • Final meeting: March 26th – Finish last chapter – Article – Final paperwork
Editor's Notes
- #2 You will get out what you put into this course. This course will be a conversation that will include a lot of dialogue. It is important that we are open to share, and that we hear from every one of you. There will be around 4-5 blogs. You will need to tweet these to me over Twitter.
- #3 The home can be a nurturing place for the achievement of students, or a place of low expectations and lack of encouragement in learning. Most parents begin with positive aspirations for their children. Children are born with a set of expectations and these expectations can be critical to the success of the children when they enter school. Some parents know how to speak the language of schooling and others do not – this can be a major barrier if they don’t understand how to speak this language. Parents living in poverty struggle as a whole with understanding the language of school. How do we combat this? What do you suggest we do as a district to help.
- #4 There are different types of poverty. Situational poverty is generally caused by a sudden crisis or loss and is often temporary. Events causing situational poverty include environment disasters, divorce or sever health problems.
- #5 Generational poverty occurs in families where at least two generations have been born into poverty. Families living in this type of poverty are not equipped with the tools to move out of their situations.
- #6 Absolute poverty, which is rare in the US, involves a scarcity of such necessities as shelter, running water, and food. Families who live in poverty tend to focus on day-to-day survival.
- #7 Urban poverty occurs in areas with at least 50,000 people. The urban poor deal with a complex aggregate of chronic stressors (including crowding, violence, and noise) and are dependent on inadequate large-city services.
- #8 Rural poverty occurs in nonmetropolitan areas with populations below 50,000. In rural areas, there are more single guardian households, and families often have less access to services, support for disabilities, and quality education opportunities.
- #9 Lets talk standard deviation. 1.0 indicates an increase of one standard deviation on the outcome – in this case the outcome is improving school achievement. One standard deviation increase is typically association with advancing children’s achievement by two to three years. Effect size of 1.0 would mean that on average students receiving a treatment of whatever would exceed 84% of students not receiving that treatment. Hattie did a meta-analysis which is basically a study of multiple studies. In his meta-analysis Hattie reviewed 499 studies on SES and
- #10 The nice part about this is the top 30 most influential areas on student achievement take place in schools according to John Hattie. Home environment and socioeconomic status can have a large impact on kids – but the nice part is we can override these environmental factors with what we do as a teacher and a school system. Discuss these rankings. Any surprises?
- #11 When students start school from lower SES they have on average spoken about 2.5 million words whereas those from higher groups have spoken 4.5 million words. SES of the school vs. SES of the student. If the school is a high SES school on average (lesser facilities, less teaching staff, lack of expectations) may be more detrimental than if the low-SES student attends a low-SES school. Lower when the student self reported SES than when the parent did. SES is more important at the school than at the individual level.
- #12 As of October 21st – we had 25% of our students on Free / Reduced Lunch at RHS. As of October 21st - 51% of students that were on the radar list were on Free / Reduced Lunch at RHS. We would consider these students at poverty level. As of October 21st – we had 30% of our students on Free / Reduced Lunch at Ely. As of October 21st - 43% of students that were on the radar list were on Free / Reduced Lunch at RHS. We would consider these students at poverty level. Have a conversation about this data. What are your initial reactions?
- #13 One problem for those that live in poverty creates another problem and it becomes a vicious cycle. 40% of children living in chronic poverty had deficiencies in at least two areas of functioning (language and emotional responsiveness) Poor children are disproportionately exposes to adverse social and physical environments. Fewer books in the home, visit the library less often, and spend considerably more time in from of the TV. Children who experience poverty during their preschool and early school years experience lower rates of school completion than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in later years.
- #14 We often sympathize with students from poverty and we lower expectations. We need to empathize with them. WE understand their situation, and we create a system that supports them. Teachers don’t need to come from their students’ cultures to be able to teach them, but empathy and cultural knowledge are essential. Discuss Jensen’s recommendation to empathize rather than sympathize with student with rough home lives.
- #15 Either our relationship with our care-giver is secure and attached or insecure and unattached. School socialization contribute to behaviors too – low-SES kids deal daily with overwhelming challenges that high-SES kids never have to confront.
- #16 We are all hardwired with six emotions this graphic shows an extra and that is contempt. Everything else must be taught – skills like cooperation, patience, embarassment, empathy, gratitude, and forgiveness are crucial to a smoothly running complex social environment like a classroom. It is a primary caregivers job to teach the child when and how to display these emotions. Teachers who expect humility or penitence may get a smirk instead. Regardless of grade level we need to continue to teach students how to behave in complex social situations. Many ask why we teach character development, it is essential that we model and reaffirm how we are to act in different social settings. How do you teach students when and how to display emotions? Secondary teachers don’t get a free pass, because we know that character development does not stop after they leave elementary school.
- #17 Embody Respect It is fruitless to demand respect from all students – many just don’t have the context, background, or skills to show it. “Give respect to students first, even when they seem least to deserve it.” This is hard! How do I respect a child when they have the worst attitude ever? Discipline through positive relationships. Hurt people, hurt people. – Todd Whitaker Embed Social Skills Teach crucial meet and greet skills – hand shakes, eye contact, say good morning when someone walks by you. Family atmosphere. How do you teach these hidden curriculum skills that are necessities?
- #18 Acute stress = severe stress Chronic stress = high stress sustained over time Poor children were 1.52 times more likely to report physical neglect and 1.83 times more likely to report sexual abuse than well off children Chronic or acute stress on a child’s developing brain is devastating. (Read P. 26) We were evicted several times when I was a child. I can remember vividly having the electricity off several times when I was young. My mom would forget to pay the bill and we would sit in the dark. I can remember living in a hotel at one point with my brother and my mom for an extensive period of time probably around the 2nd or 3rd grade when I lived in Vegas. I remember arguments over money occurring all the time. My dad would gamble it away and rarely worked. I don’t remember a lot of my childhood for some reason. When my wife and I talk about our experiences in elementary school. I can’t remember a single teachers name or very few experiences. Maybe this was a survival mechanism for me.
- #19 More stress = less delayed gratification = More impulsivity You have probably heard of the marshmallow test. Children were given a marshmallow and the researcher said I am going to get one more marshmallow, if you wait to eat the marshmallow until I come back you can have two. The researcher would wait 15 minutes and come back with an additional marshmallow. Children that faced acute and chronic stress due to poverty were less likely to delay gratification and at the marshmallow.
- #20 Low-SES students are more likely to give up or become passive and uninterested in school. This is not genetic – it’s a response to life conditions at home. Learned helplessness is a giving up process. Children become fatalistic about their lives – this can occur as early as the 1st grade More likely to drop out of school or become pregnant while in their teens.
- #26 How do you deal with skunks? Do this right now! Yelling at students Allowing positive choices rather than flight or fight responses Those in poverty typically have dysfunctional responses to correcting behaviors and have very few coping skills.
- #27 Discussion from last time regarding why people that may live in poverty don’t exhibit the signs of poverty. Perhaps they don’t have as many risk factors.
- #29 How do our discipline efforts discourage future behaviors. Punitive measures typically do not change future efforts. Positive methods help teach and encourage students to change behavior.
- #30 How do we teach these skills?
- #31 Children’s vocabulary competence is influenced by the mother’s socio-economic characteristics By the time most children start school they will have been exposed to 5 million words and should know about 13,000 of them By high school they know about 60,000 – 100,000 (p. 38) Fewer books, museum visits, safe play areas, computers, culturally enriching outings, more time watching TV, and less likely to have friends over. Low-income levels often exclude them from enriching afterschool oppportunities – music, and athletic events Pin point assessments – (p. 40) Discuss!
- #32 We know that chronic exposure to poverty causes the brain to physically change. The areas of the brain that are crucial to learning, cognition, and working memory are areas most impacted by acute and chronic stress. The production of fight or flight stress hormone decreases the ability to control emotions, empathize, and function socially. Chronically stressed kids remember trauma more so than knowledge that they may learn in school.
- #33 Hope is positive expectancy and increases mood and persistence which increases results for kids in school. Students who feel “less than” struggle academically, and are more likely to act out with inappropriate behaviors. How do you provide hope to your students? Some students as mentioned previously have developed learned helplessness. Many of our toughest students are hopeless. What are some practical methods on how you develop hope in your students? Daily affirmations, Ask students to share their hopes and reinforce them, Tell students why they can succeed, Help students set goals Teach students life skills in small daily chunks Avoid complaining about students deficits Treating all students as potentially gifted Say things like – when you graduate
- #34 The brain is designed to adapt from experience, it can also change for the better. Schools can provide the emotional, social and academic success that the child may not see at home. IQ is affected by the amount of schooling students receive
- #35 Attachment Parents don’t have to be brilliant psychologists – they just have to be good enough Provide Stable and predictable rythms Fall in tune with their kids needs Need to establish secure and emotional bonds that kids can fall back upon in times of stress Need to be there to provide living examples on how to cope with the problems of the world What if they don’t?
- #36 Beginning at birth, the attachment formed between parent and child predicts the quality of future relationships with teachers and peers, and plays a leading role in the development of such social functions as curiosity, arousal, emotional regulation, independence, and social competence. Which is great, if your kids won the “parent lottery.”
- #37 Greater incidence of health issues among lower-income students leads to increased: School absences Duration of school absences Tardiness rates Incidents of illness during class Rates of undiagnosed problems These figures are from 10/22/2014.
- #38 150 total kids FRL = 18 Non-FRL = 132
- #39 Mental health
- #46 I brought this back because I believe that this is the underlying theme of the book. American education is slowly moving towards whole child education. It has taken us along time to realize that students must have their most basic needs met before they can learn. Americans dislike socialism – and I think this though process inhibits key agencies from working together Example of Chuck – we are hindered by a right to privacy and organizations like schools, health care facilities working in their own silos. There is very little collaboration between education and health care. We need to build a bridge because we could really help each other.
- #47 Blooms – knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation and synthesis Maslow – Needs, safety needs, love, esteem, self actualization, and self transcendence Students cannot meet high academic standards if their most basic needs are unmet. Food, shelter, medical care, safety, family and friendships.
- #48 There are a few of us working on this idea right now. The department of health and human services completed a study in the interim and the study indicated that our state needs to improve their access to health care and more specifically mental health care. There is a bill that is out there that will appropriate around $6 million for mental health services. We wrote an amendment to the bill to provide pilot projects for school districts. It would provide 4 - $250,000 grants to rural schools, 1 Million dollar grant to urban and 1 million dollar grant to an REA. We are hoping the DHS committee will support this amendment. Our kids in rural north dakota lack adequate health care and what great way to provide it in schools. Partnerships are key – particularly in a rural area
- #49 Jensen recommends the following support services. Where do we rank? Talk with a partner where do we rank? These are whole child education services
- #50 IQ scores do not determine destiny We need to create a culture of continual data collection, analysis, and application. We need to emphasize using data to improve instruction. This comes through the use of formative assessment. I am not talking about using our MAP and NDSA data more effectively. I am talking about using our I can statements, developing assessments based on those, giving the assessment, looking at the data, adjusting instruction, reteaching if needed, reassessing. If we use formative assessments effectively and they are aligned to standards/I cans the summative data on NDSA and NWEA will take care of themselves.
- #51 Discuss in groups – Where are you in terms of P-standards and I can statement development?
- #52 We want an assessment on every powerstandard/I can statement.
- #53 Discuss in groups – Wow is it important to tie all of this together?
- #54 As I read this section I thought that: Everyone one of us at one time or another has wavered or wandered. We say things to our self is this really going to make a difference? Self doubt sets in – Where does it come from? It changes from day to day – some days it is fatigue or something just didn’t go quite right. - we tend to concentrate on these little hickups along the way and fail to look at the whole picture. I think many of us are dealing with this right now as you implement changes that are new and you don’t see results immediately. I have heard this from many of you in my conversations. Stay the course!
- #55 The assumption that students from poverty won’t succeed at school because of their home lives is not supported by research. P. 87 According to Jensen these are the relationships that matter at our school. I found it interesting that he included number three. That is a very important one in my opinion. How do we treat each other in front of students shows a lot about our school. It is important that our students see our teachers get along and support each other. I love hearing teachers laugh in the hallways with each other. That tells me they are happy to be here, and I KNOW that rubs off on kids. Mentorship – piece on p. 89 “The best thing you and your staff can do is include, include, include. Help students feel accepted for who they are and give them all micro-niches” p. 90
- #57 Stop thinking remediation and start thinking enrichment
- #58 Rah Rah speeches don’t often cause change or sustain change If all we do is plan we will never get anywhere – Similar to our PLCs and PLPs – we jumped and took a risk and tweek as we go Teacher quality – I am a students first kind of guy, but I do understand that we must meet the needs of our teachers as well Climate of fear – this is obvious – we know that threatening and using scare tactics does not motivate Teachers need to feel like they can take a risk and not be concerned of getting chewed out for it I mentioned this previously I care MOST about our locally developed formative assessments. Symptoms – This is always difficult – what will actually address the problem – RTI at the high school – has significantly reduced the failure rate, but we still have a small percentage that fail – so what is the next step – mentors? “Improvement is not a race; It’s not even a marathon. It is the process of life.” – explains it best – we wont have big wins early – it is about incremental progress.
- #59 These are recent rankings that were shared with everyone on Monday. Please take a moment to review them.
- #62 The only thing we have the most influence over is the quality of the teaching occurring within our school.
- #64 We focus on standards because they are the most visible method of measuring a schools success. We of course want to take it to the next level with our work as a PLC. Developing formative and summative assessments, lessons and activities that are aligned with these statements – not page 27 Section 2 Review. Where are we at in this process? Lets have a discussion about this topic.
- #65 Review with them
- #66 Jensen references formative and summative assessment in this section. In terms of assessment Where are you at individually? Where would you like to see training and how would you want it delivered?
- #67 Research suggests we can teach hopefulness. Can we teach hopefulness? Can we teach a growth mindset? What are your thoughts? Unrelenting hopelessness is learned helplessness. Many students in this area as discussed in Chapter 2 exhibit a fatalistic attitude towards everything in life.
- #69 After reading the section on hope building I researched a bit about Martin Seligman, he has a Ted Talk that I watched a few times. He suggests that happy people are social people, but happiness and giggling aren’t enough to be happy. Happiness is not defined by being more religious, not better looking, not more good events vs bad events in their life. They don’t spend time alone. He breaks down happiness into these three areas. The pleasant life – involves pleasure seeking - Are people truly happy if they have every materialistic item in the world? I would guess that we would all say no. Pleasure seeking is The good life – Life of engagement – are you engaged in the flow of your work, time stops The meaningful life – Giving, religious, your life is meaningful – recraft your work based on your strengths to make work meaningful Positive emotion alone don’t make us happy, we need flow and meaning in our life to be happy. With that said what are the implications for kids and our district? What can we do to increase hope?
- #70 This will transition us into our next discussion regarding Arts, Athletics and AP.
- #71 If we know poor children are half as likely to be taken to museums, theaters, or the library and are less likely to go on other culturally enriching outings. How are we targeting students in these areas to provide cultural outings to them? Arts build your students’ academic operating systems as well as or better than anything else your school offers. I have always said that you can figure out immediately what a school values when you walk into the front doors. What do we value at Rugby Public Schools?
- #72 Schools everywhere are focusing on test prep to the point of reducing recess, arts and activities. Higher fitness levels are associated with higher achievement.
- #73 Jensen mentions activities and physical movement important for student from low-ses status. School districts around the country are reducing recess time in favor of test preparation. Take a minute to view the video and lets bring it back to a discussion on balance. Thoughts?
- #74 We do not have an Advanced Placement program at RPS. Leah briefly describe AVID – she saw this in action at Bismarck High during her school visitation.
- #75 Read latest blog. Why do we seem to focus on kids that come from environments of which our school will never be able to impact? They come to us preprogrammed and we have to find a way to retool the operating system. Champion’s Mindset - Use affirmations, goal setting – brains can change!! Celebrations of learnign Hopeful Effort Build strong relationships Use hopeful expressions Share success stories Provide students with mentors Abilty to delay gratification Attentional Skills Student engagement Sample size of 81,000 students – over half were bored in school 1 out of 6 bored in every class Discipline levels increase in low-ses students Teachers report higher amounts of time extendes to student discipline – decreasing student engagement Memory Content in small chunks kinetic activities Processing Skills Movement / think aloud strategies Sequencing Skills Project based learning Sensory labs / physical movement