&Teaching with Poverty in Mind by Eric
Jensen
Solorio Assignment for Tuesday, July 17th
1. How do acute and chronic stressors affect low-SES
students' behavior and academic performance at your school? What can you do at
your school and in your classroom to alleviate the devastating effects of
chronic stress in students.
2. We have
learned that the correlations between socioeconomic status and cognitive
development can be significant. What effects of poverty on cognitive
development have you observed in your own school? Think of some ways you and
your colleagues can build low-SES students' core skills, assess their greatest
areas of need, and provide hope and support.
3. How
have health and safety issues influenced low-SES students' academic achievement
at your school?
Acute and chronic stressors affect low-SES students' behavior and academic performance in many ways as these students have and are experiencing a multitude of serious risk factors on a daily basis. I will address this by emphasizing empathy while instilling high expectations. Because art is a safe outlet for expression, I will provide opportunities for my students to vent while still producing high quality work.
ReplyDeleteStudents of low SES are often not exposed to daily education starting from birth, therefore by the time they get to school at age 4/5, these students are already 4/5 years behind their middle/high ses counterparts. It is our job to break down learning tasks to simple chunks that can be taught, for example how to hold scissors and cut paper, and teach (and reteach) that information until the goal has been reached. There is no such thing as a small accomplishment... and all accomplishments should be celebrated!
Examples include chronic exposure to pesticide and other neurotoxic agents, poor nutrition and medical care, teen pregnancy and drug use, as well as an unsupportive home life. We can help our students by exposing them to the opposite environment and expect that they succeed in this environment. Our school must also provide resources for our students to seek help for whatever need they may have outside of the school's capabilities.
Alexis:
DeleteI think you illuminate several key elements of our turnaround that will provide the stable education foundation our students require. The idea of empathy with adherence to high expectations is key, and I really like that you point out the importance of celebrating each step along the way - rather than berating students for the things they DON'T know. This seems like common sense to us, but I have been in numerous school settings where students are NOT held to high expectations, or the expectations are high but the teachers constantly belittle and humiliate students as an effort to get them to achieve.
Laura
1. Poverty is stressful. The constant shortage of money, dangerous or unhealthy living situations, the perception of inferiority in the classroom, and the overall feeling of not being in control of there life all contribute to the higher chronic stress levels in low SES students. At Stagg I feel that coaches and teachers that show they care will make a huge difference in there lives.
ReplyDelete2. I'v seen low SES children tend to have underdeveloped language skills, have difficulty forming memories from single exposures to a skill, and are less able to hold and change information during a period of time. I feel that we need to approach learning in a new way that is a step ladder for success and will help the students retain knowledge.
3. In the PE classroom I am all about changing the health of my students. they need to know what are the right choices to make and how to go about them in the situation they are in. Some ideas i have are posters around the school promoting healthy eating and staying away from drugs.
How do acute and chronic stressors affect low-SES students' behavior and academic performance at your school? What can you do at your school and in your classroom to alleviate the devastating effects of chronic stress in students.
ReplyDeleteStudents who face acute and chronic stressors tend to lack crucial social skills and areas of their brain are affected that control brain development. In many ways these stressors stunt the academic and emotional growth of children and can cause significant problems. Since our students (for the most part) are coming to us with many of these stressors we need to make certain that they do not feel them while in our classroom. Our classroom first and foremost must be a safe place for the students, if it is not then there is no way we can hope to effectively teach them. We must also address the social deficiencies that they have, and this is where PBIS will be helpful. Helping the students know that we care about them completely not just academically will be important.
We also need to be certain we do not let them wallow in learned helplessness. Making sure we give the students tools to learn and PERSEVERE will be vital to any teaching that we do.
1. The chronic stressors our students experience affect their behavior and academic performance in many ways, large and small. I believe the most important to consider is the impact of our students' limited repertoire of emotional and behavioral responses. It will be important to plan effective ways to directly teach and model the responses we want our students to show to maximize their joy in learning and minimize disruptions to the classroom environment. By incorporating activities that allow students to practice and internalize strategies for dealing with conflict, anger and frustration, we will help them to achieve to their greatest potential.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFYI
ReplyDeleteFeel free to reply to any of posts left be the team. You can engage in a conversation if you like. You guys are REALLY putting a ton of time and thought into this. It's going to pay off!