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Making Connections: Brain Development, Poverty, and Life Experiences
Helping educators understand and eliminate barriers that affect the educational outcomes of low socio-economic children.
Jacqueline Johnson Family and Community Educational Support Services, Inc. (F.A.C.E.S., Inc.) [email protected] (615) 631-8577
Presentation Objectives
Recognize how economic realities affect choices and decision making
Understanding life trajectories in terms of poverty
Identifying strategies fore ensuring school success
Closing the Gap Goals
To ensure that ALL children are able to achieve the CCSS
To ensure that data indicates no learning gaps between socioeconomic groups or races
To ensure that all children move to the next level ready to learn and graduate ready to live well
2013 FEDERAL
POVERTY GUIDELINES
Persons in
family/household Poverty guideline
1 $11,490
2 15,510
3 19,530
4 23,550
5 27,570
6 31,590
7 35,610
8 39,630
For families/households with more than 8
persons, add $4,020 for each additional
person
Poverty and Life Trajectories
Poverty damages children’s dispositions
And blunts their brains (Perri Klass, 2013).
Poor academic achievement
High dropout rates
Health issues
− Obesity and heart disease
− Substance abuse and mental illness
− Typical child health illnesses
Other Effects of Poverty
Low quality child care
Sleeping arrangements
Security
Food
Transportation
The Heavy Hand of Early Poverty
Toxic Stress body and brain damage
− Stress hormones (cortisol/norepinephrine)
Deprivation and stress in the early years of life can reduce the chances of educational and life success.
What Can Educators Do?
Bill Daggett:
Rigor + Relevance + Relationships=
Higher Achievement
Ruby Payne:
Rigor + Relevance + Relationships=
Higher Achievement
Why A Focus on Relationships?
“Seek first to understand” (Covey, 1989)
We need to understand the motivation and perspectives of our children who come from poverty if we are to successfully teach them.
Hidden Rules/Mental Models
The assumption is that everyone knows what you know.
We see the world and react to situations through our own mental models but we really do not realize this fact.
Hidden rules govern how we assess another individual and his/her capabilities.
Role Models/Emotional Resources
CSEFEL resources for younger children.
For older children and adults to move from poverty, they must distance themselves from the environment and give up relationships; they will need to have the emotional resources and a role model to effectively accomplish this.
What does this mean for schools?
Poverty is rarely related to lack of intelligence or ability
Schools virtually only place to provide help
Discipline: penance and forgiveness vs. change
Policy should provide structure − clear expectations/consequences
− teach how to make appropriate choices
− for the purpose of promoting good behavior.
Interventions should be based on an understanding of poverty
Model for students the language of negotiation/use of adult voice
Explain the possible need for two sets of behaviors
Instruction and Improving Achievement
Low achievement is closely correlated with lack of resources; numerous studies have documented the correlation between low SES and low achievement.
The disparities in word usage correlates so closely with academic success that children born to families in poverty do worse than professional-class children (Hart & Risley, 1995)
Three Stages in the Learning Process for Teaching Cognitive Strategies
Input like using planning behaviors
Elaboration like defining a problem
Output like using precise language
Regardless of the content, students are taught the strategies and then are required to use.
PK, Reading Programs, CSR, Prevention/Support Programs, Parent Training
Strategies
Teach effective eye movements
Use graphic organizers
Teach systematic approaches to the data/text (highlighting)
Establish goal setting/self-talk
Teach conceptual frameworks
Use kinesthetic approach
Use rubrics
Strategies
Teach structure of language
Teach to make questions
Teach mental models
Make learning/not teaching the focus
Teach teachers to diagnose and then design
Teach to the process/not just content
Strategies
Think about words/hidden language your students do not understand
Use visuals as much as possible
Teach students the social cues/norms they do not know
Always start confrontation in the tone you would like to end it
Make learning/not teaching the focus
Teach to the process/not just content
Teachers should diagnose first, and then design instruction and behavior issues
Hidden rules can limit interactions and opportunities
•Don’t try to discuss or reframe hidden rules unless there is a relationship of mutual respect.
•Use your understanding of hidden rules to create relationships of mutual respect.
•The more rules one knows, the more “middle class games” someone from poverty can play.
•The wider the range of one’s responses, the more control they have over their situation—and the more opportunities become available to them.
Creating Relationships
Key to achievement: creating relationships with students
Relationships are the most significant motivators
Resilient kids are the result of caring adults
Use Covey’s emotional bank account model
Create a caring school, promote achievement, be role models, insist on successful behaviors
Use the Registers of Language as a Teaching Tool
Many times when students say, "I don't know what that means," they cannot say it in your words. Allow them time to translate something from casual register to formal register.
When students speak in casual register, have them come up with two other ways to say it in formal register.
SURVIVAL SKILLS
To survive in poverty, one must rely upon nonverbal, sensory, and reactive skills
To survive in school or work, one must use verbal, abstract and proactive skills.
Final Thoughts
Now, what really makes a teacher
is love for the human child;
for it is love that transforms
the social duty of the educator
into the higher consciousness
of a mission.
Dr. Maria Montessori
No significant learning occurs
without a significant relationship.
Dr. James Comer
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for your time. I enjoyed sharing my hope for all students to be successful in school.
If you have any questions or would like more information on this topic, please feel free to email me at: [email protected]
I invite you to visit my website at: www.tennesseefaces.org
