Supporting the literacy development of young children living in poverty Burnham Ming Powell

What does it mean to live in poverty? A child has a greater risk of poverty than any other age group in our society (Bryant, 2010). Poverty impacts health, cognitive development, educational outcomes, & emotional stability in children (O’Hare, 2009). In South Carolina, 48% of children live in low-income families (national is 43%) with 25% of the rural population living in poverty. Risk factors include single parent households, teen mothers, unemployed parents, parental substance abuse, low parental education. Three or more risk factors is a good predictor of failure in school.

Activity Let’s discover how these risk factors affect children in poverty. Choose a state and a county. Consider three different risk factors and how they negatively impact children’s educational growth. Discuss with your colleagues what you find to be most surprising in these statistics. http://aecf.org/

How does poverty affect early literacy performance? What has been your experience noticing the effects of poverty on literacy development? Students are more likely to begin school with poor reading readiness skills (Burchinal, Roberts, Zeisel, & Rowley, 2008). Compared to children from middle- or upper-class home environments who enter preschool hearing approximately 45 million words, children living in poverty enter a preschool setting hearing only 16 million words. Hart and Risley (1995) call this the 30 million word gap. Young children with vocabulary deficits often struggle with reading, are less inclined to read, and fall further behind (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003).

What can teachers do to help parents? Parental involvement has been shown to increase students’ academic performance and self- efficacy as well as their feelings of and attitude towards school (Dearing, Kreider, Simpkins, & Weiss, 2006; Turney & Kao, 2009). Administrators and teachers can use a “double dipping” strategy to engage parents. Teach parents about literacy strategies to use in the home. Examples: Book reports Reading together Have children tell stories Helping with homework Incorporate affective elements Ask lots of questions What specific activities do you explicitly explain to your parents to encourage them to adopt literacy strategies?

What can teachers do in the classroom? Encourage authentic activities: Authentic activities encourage critical thinking, support learning in real-world situations, make use of resources beyond the classroom, utilize collaboration, and allow for the demonstration of knowledge through product and performance measures (Rule, 2006). What are some activities that you have used to engage your students in authentic learning experiences? Has technology facilitated these authentic activities? Virtual field trips: Google Expedition Google Hangouts Zoom, Skype E-books Integrate literacy into the entire school day.

What can teachers do to facilitate support from the community? Many community resources are available to support early literacy activities and provide additional information to help families and teachers better serve children's early literacy promotion efforts. These community resources and initiatives are intended to supplement children’s school-based learning. Provide literacy recommendations, on-site materials, and adult resources. Model reading activities. Provide children’s books and parent guide materials. Hold community literacy events.

Inspiration for our next school year Help students create meaning/ Read the world https://youtu.be/2j01hk80sg https://youtube.com/watch?v=EOpoR8zfAls