Teaching with Poverty: The Impact and Strategies By: Matt Bergman

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Essential Questions for Today: ● What is poverty? ● How does poverty impact our classrooms? ● What strategies can we use to overcome the challenges of poverty in our classrooms?

% of Americans Living in Poverty Source: US Census Bureau

We see the impacts of poverty in our classroom Lack of motivationCognitive lagsChronic tardinessInappropriate behaviorLack of parental involvementHigh transience rates

But do we understand what poverty really is? Poverty is “the extent to which an individual does without resources.” - Ruby Payne SOURCE: Payne, R. (1996). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

In the United States, the official poverty thresholds are set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Persons with income less than that deemed sufficient to purchase basic needs—food, shelter, clothing, and other essentials—are designated as poor. In 2011, what was the poverty threshold of a family of 4? $23,018 SOURCE: Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. United States: ASCD.

Source: US Census Bureau

How Poverty Occurs… SituationalGenerationalAbsolute RelativeUrbanRural SOURCE: Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. United States: ASCD.

Situational

Generational

Absolute

Relative

Urban Poverty

Rural Source: William P. O'Hare, The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America (2009).The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America

Source: William P. O'Hare, The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America (2009).The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America

Barrier = Poverty Many of our students come from poverty, which we cannot control We can control how we can help our students in our classrooms

Strategies We Can Use to Overcome the Challenges of Poverty in our Classrooms

Tip 1: Build Relationships "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." James Comer (1995)

Tip 2: Create a Stable Environment

Tip 3: Encourage a Growth Mindset Lowering expectations does not work!

Reading to your child is a critical element of cognitive development. 36%of low income parents read daily to their kindergarten aged child. SOURCE: Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. United States: ASCD.

Tip 4: Reading is the Key to Vocabulary Development

The Matthew Effect Keith Stanovich

What can we do? Provide access to a variety of reading materials Opportunities to read in school Supports in place Reading through a social lens

4 A’s Model: What assumptions does the author make? What do I agree with from the text? What do I argue with from the text? What do I want to aspire to from the text?

A mother’s role is critical in the development of vocabulary. According to research, by the time MOST children start school, they will have been exposed to 5 million words and should know about 13,000 of them SOURCE: Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. United States: ASCD.

Tip 5: Developing Vocabulary Strategies “The achievement gap is largely a vocabulary gap.”

How do you choose words to teach? Tier 3 – Domain Specific Tier 2 – General Academic Tier 1 – Everyday words that we use Beck, I.L., McKoeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

What can we do? Multiple opportunities Meaningful interactions

Word Walls Word Wall

Tip 6: Oral Language is Important! Teachers use Academic Vocabulary and “smart words” in the classroom. Embed higher-level synonyms and explanations within language. Never use slang.

Tip 7: Increase Engagement

One last thought… “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at.” Theodore Roosevelt

Thank You! ● For questions: ● ● For more Web 2.0 ideas! (Twitter) ● learn-lead-grow.weebly.com/ (Website) learn-lead-grow.weebly.com/ ● (Blog)

References Beck, I.L., McKoeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: The Guilford Press. Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. United States: ASCD. Payne, R. (April 2008). Poverty and learning: 9 powerful practices. Educational Leadership, 65(7),