Reaching Students from Poverty Leslie Ballard, Director AdvancED Indiana

Given #1 For things to change, I must change. © 2010 AdvancED

Given #2 Brains Can Change

P.P.S. Neurogenesis is the raw material for explicit learning!

Poverty is…C-M-R chronic condition mind, body, and soul risk factors A chronic condition affecting the mind, body, and soul resulting in synergistic risk factors. © 2010 AdvancED

Why Positive Emotions Matter Of all the things researchers have discovered about the value of quality relationships, one of the most surprising is that they are strong mediators of stress. Good relationships diffuse stress and make your life easier.

Emotional Punctuation is “Memory Marker” Event + positive emotions = better memories Home and classroom might include these: verbal affirmations, smiles, physical gestures, head nodding, positive comments, positive music, celebrations, use of name or pre-set celebration rituals

Teachers who criticize, hold negative attitudes and use sarcasm as classroom discipline will activate the fear and stress areas of the student’s brain This activation alters the student’s ability to think and learn.

10 Those in poverty typically have “dysregulated” emotional systems. Staff must teach a healthy range of emotional responses, build and strengthen affiliations, relationships and use emotional punctuation. “Great theory! But what do we do?”

Stress and Distress stress (on/off) is healthy for us. distress (chronic) is toxic to our brain and body low SES children are exposed to 1) more stressors, 2) more intense stressors, 3) longer lasting stressors, and 4) have fewer coping skills than their higher SES counterparts. Evans, G.W., Kim P. (2007) Childhood poverty and health: cumulative risk exposure and stress dysregulation.

Effects of Allostatic Load.

Impact on your staff Chronic stress among your staff changes how staff be_________. Expect less creativity, lessened risk-taking and lessened s_______ skills. In addition, their likelihood of implementation from any staff development depends on their own co____ skills and st____ levels. What does this suggest you might do? © 2010 AdvancED

S - Skill-Building H - Hope & Growth Mindset A - Accommodations R - Relationships E - Enriched Engagement S-H-A-R-E Themes for Success

What Skills Matter Most for the Student’s Academic Success? Processing Attentional focus Locus of control Memory (working) Prioritization Ordering/sequencing Deferred gratification

How Do You Boost These Skills? 2. Buy- in/Relevance 3. Repetition Over Time 4. Constant Variety 1. Make Skill- building a Priority

Skill Building Insight Every subject is the perfect vehicle for strengthening academic skills. When we over-focus on mastering content, we don’t make time for skill development and it loses out. Every staff needs to collaborate to discover not IF but HOW, WHERE and WHEN they’ll do this.

Building Processing Skills Observe another doing it and take notes. Post up and use models and flow charts. Talk through your own thinking with a partner/coach.

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Building Processing Skills Create an experiment to test a hypothesis. Use of a mentor to walk you though it. Follow prompts (e.g. auditory cues, printed, tactile cues)

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Getting Attention in Class safety Begin with complete emotional and physical safety in the classroom. Anything less reinforces the brain’s vigilance for threats and that reduces curiosity about the content. natural drives Engage the brains’ natural drives for survival, bonding, meaning and status. rotating strategies Use rotating strategies to prevent desensitization – keep things fresh! © 2010 AdvancED

Building Attentional Skills Fast “writes” practice Design, building or fine-motor handiwork with extended processes Well-coached sports Extreme high interest reading Playing a musical instrument “What’s different?” activities

Building Attentional Skills Partner and teamwork on rapid, detailed learning projects Theater, drama or dance lessons Specialized computer programs that focus on skill-building (or games like Play Attention, etc.)

More Long-term Attentional Skills Games such as the card game SET, puzzle games like Rush Hour and Quirkle and the Nintendo DS titles Picross and Big Brain Academy. Detailed design, building, project or fine motor processes. Well-coached sports or recess with games (e.g. relays, hospcotch, etc.) © 2010 AdvancED

Attention E-x-t-e-n-d-e-r-s Prediction because it fuels curiosity and engagement. Current event tie – could be from their neighborhood, sports, show biz or global Advertising hooks mean that you create a quick promotion or sales pitch for upcoming content. Use a You Tube video to spark interest. Object and props can be used as either a tie-in for the lesson or by asking students to make the link. © 2010 AdvancED

Building long-term attentional skills Extreme high interest re_____ content. Partner and teamwork intera________. Music, drama or dance l____________. Specialized c__________ programs that focused on skill-building. Focused w_______ skills. © 2010 AdvancED

How to Increase Student Perception of Control 1.Student contribute to rules/discipline 2.Mentoring others 3.Project learning 4.Self-assessment 5.Class jobs 6.Student council 7.Choices (content, social conditions or process) 8.Run the basic school functions

Working Memory Working memory is the driver of cognition. It’s required for problem solving, language, math, prediction and every higher order processing. Research shows that kids in poverty have weaker working memory. Working memory is a teachable skill. Give students practice in this daily.

Dopamine is well- known to support working memory and other executive functions in over 100 studies. You can stimulate dopamine in the classroom by 1.Reward pre_______ 2.Cel______________ 3.Unpredicted su____ 4.Brisk gross m______ activity 5. No__________ © 2010 AdvancED

Building Working Memory Scientific, research- based online games can build working memory. Go to © 2010 AdvancED

Solutions to Working Memory Limitations 1.Use the “pause” technique. Every few minutes, pause to let content sink in. 2.Chunk content into smaller chunks to aid understanding, then review. 3.Prime the learning to create an attentional bias to the content. 4.Do a fast physical activity first to activate frontal lobe uppers like dopamine and norepinephrine. 39 (Bower 1987), (Di Vesta et al. 1979) and (Stahl 1994).

Strategies for Working Memory 1.Call-response songs 2.Games (Simon Says, cards, etc.) 3.Clapping repeats 4.Repeat the directions 5.Partner/group practice w/# add-ons 6.Repeat prior effort, then add a sound, word, or sentence 7.Partner, buddy or teacher speaks, student writes the content

Skills Matter, But What Affect Will Ensure Academic Success? 1.Hope to fuel long-term effort (they must feel the end point is possible) 2. Growth mindset (belief that the process is possible and desirable)

Hope mobilizes our resources. When we believe that success is possible, we try harder and we explore more options. We focus on results, not excuses. We work with, not against the teacher. The Value of Hope

Key Factors that Foster Hope 1.Supportive Rel______ 2.Skill-b_____________ 3.Pos____R_____ models 4.Af_______ by Authorities 5.Setting and getting ______ 6.Compelling personalized v____ 7.Perception that it’s getting b______ 8.Faith and pictures of those who m___ i__ 9.Do ser_____ wo_____ as a class

How to Fuel the “Growth Mindset” Affirm effort, not talent. (“I like how your hard work paid off!”) Teach students that the brain is malleable; it can change through efforts and IQ is not fixed. Tell and assign success stories about those who overcame obstacles through effort and strategy, not through genetics or family connections.

How to Fuel the “Growth Mindset” Reward the making and correcting of mistakes as much as the end product. When students get it right the first time, say, “That’s too bad. We didn’t match up the work with your level. Maybe next time we can get a better match so you can learn new things.”

GNL Grateful? (hope) Newly Learned/Progress? (growth mindset) Looking forward? (optimism) © 2010 AdvancED

Physical Activity is Critical MAKE DAILY EXERCISE a PRIORITY Why? No other strategy will BOTH reduce the devastating effects of chronic stress AND raise production of new brain cells AND… increase attentional, sequencing and memory skills AND boost fun!

Why Arts? Arts support the development of critical neurobiological systems for ALL subject areas. How does this happen? Arts build the needed academic subskills like attention, sequencing, processing and memory PLUS the growth mindset.

Instruction Strategies 1.Make more relevancy connections. Do not “dumb down” content. 2.Provide the skills needed and constant background knowledge 3.Build vocabulary with writing and speaking in every class and daily word building.

The Research Says School climate matters Building positive attitudes is critical Engagement is a must Relationships matter Teaching “how to” skills is essential Staff that collaborate to do these things, over time, will succeed

Bottom Line Kids from poverty are different. Brains adapt to suboptimal conditions. But brains can and do change everyday. You can facilitate that change. For others to change, you must change. It takes focused, smarter actions. Those from poverty can graduate. It will take a 100% “no excuses” mindset.

Let’s Brainstorm! © 2010 AdvancED