Teaching Kids with Poverty in Mind

1. Teaching Kids with Poverty in Mind

2. This presentation discusses what being poor can do to children’s brains and what schools can do about it.

3. Major Points • Brains can change for the better or worse. • Some factors can affect learning. • Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change

4. Brains can change for the better or worse. • Kids download the negatives of chaos, disharmony, poor relationships, foul language, poor manners and weak vocabulary just as quickly as they would automatically any positive or enrichment input.

5. Brains can change for the better or worse. • A mother in poverty is less likely to provide the emotional support needed for proper developmental growth when she is stressed out about her own health, safety, bills, hunger, and household issues.

6. Brains can change for the better or worse. • Discipline problems arise when teachers expect what they can not get. Many kids don’t know how to respond unless they have been taught how to respond.

7. Brains can change for the better or worse. • Emotional markers include but are not limited to verbal affirmations, smiles, physical gestures, head nodding, positive comments, celebrations, and positive music.

8. Brains can change for the better or worse. • Staff must teach a healthy range of emotional responses, build and strengthen connections, and model positive relationships.

9. Some factors can affect learning. • For those in poverty, nearly everything takes more time. • Transportation • Food gathering and prep • Getting medical help • Information gathering • Locating & securing • School help

10. Some factors can affect learning. • The physical environment needs to be safe, varied and challenging .

11. Some factors can affect learning. • The language must be interactive, comprehensive and continuous. • The cognitive environment needs variety, richness and increasing complex physical movement.

12. Some factors can affect learning. • Ideal Home Support for Reading Includes 1) material available 2) being read to often 3) accurate evaluation

13. Some factors can affect learning. • Language Influences Cognition • Toddlers from middle and upper income families actually used more words in talking to their parents than low SES mothers used in talking to their own children. .

14. Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change • To be effective, school must provide enriched skill building targeting executive functions.

15. Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change • Teach and model coping skills to sustain minimal damage. • Some will struggle and finally graduate • Many won’t get the help they need.

16. Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change • Get a New Understanding • Brains can and do change everyday. But if the experiences stay the same, so will the brain! We must change things. • Use the I’ll show you how approach.

17. Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change • The “Academic Brain” Attitudes/mindsets must be strengthened for success.

18. Getting on board- Isn’t it time for a real change • S - Skill-Building • H - Hope & Growth Mindset • A - Accommodations • R - Relationships • E - Enriched Engagement

19. Accommodations for Weak Working Memory in Students • Use the “pause” technique. Every few minutes, pause, to let content sink in. • Chunk content into smaller chunks to aid understanding, then review. • Do a fast physical activity 1st to activate frontal lobe uppers. • Use games for skills and building working memory.

20. Wow’s • If you don’t teach it, don’t punish kids for not being good at it.

21. Wow’s • Stop telling kids to pay attention and start teaching them how to do it.

22. Wow’s • Accommodations are not a special gift, a bonus, extra or an unfair advantage. What they do is to “level the playing field”.

23. Wow’s • You have much more to do with how your students turn out than you may have previously thought.

24. Let’s Simplify… • 1. Agreeon a clear, smart path • 2.“Buy-in” from yourself • 3. Committo implementation

25. Remember • DNA is not your destiny. Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.