Poor academic performance; low student and staff morale; prevalent discipline issues-sound familiar? In an era infatuated with achievement test scores, educators struggle to find an appropriate balance between demonstrating that students are, indeed, learning while also providing rigorous and relevant lessons which engage students’ minds and hearts. This session will inspire participants to empower students to be learners no matter where they lie on the continuum of achievement.

1. S.T.E.M.
Strategies that
Engage Minds of
High Poverty
Students
Wayne County Public Schools
Middle School Conference
March 18, 2014
Stacy Whitney, MSA
stacywhitney@wcps.org

2. http://vimeo.com/champaignschools/review/87864988/d01d7a8c8d

3. Group Activity

4. Truth
“Far earlier than we are willing to admit, we
condition children to think that their status is
set.”
Ray McNulty

5. Introduction
 The entire nation is painfully aware that a growing number of students
experiencing failure are African American (Ford, Obiakor, & Patton, 1995).
 Statistics indicate that every seven seconds of the school day an African
American student is suspended from public school. Every forty-nine seconds of
the day, an African American student drops out of school (Ford, Obiakor, &
Patton, 1995).
 A considerable measure of academic peril for these students is created by
teachers’ diverse cultural ineptness, improper attitudes, and differential
behaviors toward African American students (Nieto, 1992).

6. African American Males
Lagging in Education
 As many as 76 percent of males don’t graduate from high school
in some areas of the nation, according to the Urban Institute.
 According to the Urban Institute statistics show that African
American males are more likely than any other group to be
suspended or expelled from school, only half of all African-
American men who are 16 to 24 years old who are not in school
are working and about one-third of all young African-American
men in the U.S. population are in jail, prison or on parole or
probation.
 African American males are often categorized as at-risk in
educational systems, and they often lag behind African-American
females and their white counterparts. They are more likely than
any other group to be suspended from schools, and they are
often underrepresented in gifted educational programs or
advanced placement courses and often experience the most
challenges in higher education settings both students and
teachers according to research. (Lewis, 2006)

7. What the Research Says:
 “Strayhorn (2008) concluded in his research that
teachers have a lower expectation for the
academic achievement of Black males.
Enhanced teacher effectiveness, advanced
pedagogical practices for teaching Black males,
and being highly qualified educators do not seem
to keep a comparative number of Black males in
school and graduating. The reasons may be
numerous; however, the reality is singular in
nature. Black males are dropping out of school at
alarming rates” (Schott Foundation for Public
Education, 2010) (Bell, 2010).

8. What the Research Says:
 “Black males are often misguided and are
broken down mentally by those who lack the
capabilities and dispositions to effectively
work with them in our nation’s classroom”
(Anthony, Krissonis, and Herrington, 2007; Sen,
2006). “More than any times in America,
people who are not of the same racial or
cultural backgrounds as Black males are now
educating more of this population” (Douglas,
Lewis, Douglas, Scott, and Garrison-Wade,
2008).

9. Many more boys than girls:
 Drop out of school
 Repeat a grade
 Are color blind
 Are identified as learning disabled
 Are left-handed
 Have attention deficit disorder
 Are hyperactive
 Fail school
 Perform below grade level academically
 Are late readers
 Receive compensatory services i.e. Title 1
 Are Autistic
 Have Tourette's syndrome
 Have Asperger syndrome
 Stutter
 Have behavior problems
 Commit suicide at a rate of 4 times that of girls
1998 Crystal Springs Books

10. Avoiding Bias
Teachers must take an introspective look at their own cultural background,
understanding the effects their biases have when interacting with students.
Only then can teachers examine the backgrounds and needs of their student
population and understand their students' cultural biases as well.
 Recognize and understand the cultural differences among students from diverse
backgrounds, and treat such differences with respect.
 Intervene immediately, should a fellow student disparage a Black student's
culture or language
 Value the broad and varied experiences Black students bring to the classroom,
and promote their acceptance.
 Avoid segregating students by cultural groups, and do not allow the students to
segregate.

11. Avoiding Bias Cont…
 Expand students' capacity to appreciate and deal with the differences in others,
and help students to perceive self in a multi-cultural perspective.
 Demand the same level of excellence from all students.
 Have high expectations for all students; positive expectations increase student
achievement.
 Many black students speak Ebonics; these differences in dialect must only be
perceived as language variances, and not as a set back. These students should
be accepted with a positive attitude and aided in the mastery of Standard
American English.
 Students should be judged based on current situations and circumstances, not
on previous mistakes.
 There exist congruencies between a student's learning style and the teacher's
teaching style.

12. Classroom Strategies
 Display flexibility in the context of a
structured learning environment.
 Learn as much about minority students
as other students.
 Respond fully to the comments of all
student, especially minority and female
students.
 Lead a classroom discussion on
stereotyping ( minority and gender) and
the consequence of stereotyping.
 Involve the minority students who are not
participating in classroom discussions.
 Especially monitor achievement of
minority students on a regular basis.
 Follow-up on students expressing interest
in enrolling in advanced courses. ( Some
minority students often do not follow
through due to anxiety or outside
discouragement. To teach minority
students equally well, you must
understand how their cultural
background may influence their
classroom interactions.
 Permit students to bring life experiences
into the learning environment. ( All
students, especially minority students tend
to perform best when content is related
to previous experience.)
 Devise exercises and activities that foster
success on the part of all students,
especially including minority and female
students.
 Institute some activities without grade
assessment, which can help students,
(including minority students) overcome
initial anxiety.
 Recognize effort as well as
accomplishment, especially for minority
and female students.
 Use computers for more than drill
exercises for all students, especially
minority students. (Access to computer
technology for creative activities
increases motivation and awareness of
useful applications).
 Be a classroom activist. Take on different
roles for different cultural backgrounds
and to vary your methods of instruction to
ensure that you address all students.
 Use the student's culture to help the
student to create meaning and
understand the world.

13. Make Some Learning
Competitive
Here are some concepts to consider about competition:
 Because boys have more testosterone than girls, they have more of a
biological disposition to compete.
 Competition helps boys determine pecking order, which is important to
them when interacting socially.
 Boys are having increasingly fewer opportunities to experience
competition because many schools have eliminated competitive sports-
like dodge ball-from gym class, and because school populations have
grown so large that many boys who want to play on school teams can’t
due to the limited number of positions.
 The lack of competitive learning experiences in school sports makes the
use of competitive academic formats even more important.
 Competition engages boys in learning and gives them incentive to
achieve.
 When boys are engaged in learning, they learn more and behave better.
Making Minds Matter, LLC
www.makingmindsmatter.com

14. Tips to Keep in Mind When Teaching Boys
 Use good visuals to reinforce
auditory presentations.
 Provide additional wait
time/think time to process
information, especially when
presented auditorly.
 Incorporate a good deal of
manipulative, regalia and
models in your instruction.
Legitimize touching the material.
 Provide frequent talk breaks to
foster processing as well as
preventative way to decrease
classroom disruptions.
 Don’t routinely take away
recess as a punishment for boys,
use only as last resort.
 Always incorporate
tactile/kinesthetic opportunities
when teaching boys.
 Use color and novelty in your
instruction as a way to wake up
the brain and enhance learning.
 Keep in mind boys need extra
time for task completion.
 Boys in general tend to mature at
a slower rate than girls; therefore,
may not be ready for their
assigned program/grade
placement.
 South Paw alert! Be aware that
left-handed boys suffer learning
disabilities 10 times more the rate
of the righties.
 Keep in mind that boys are less
accurate at “reading” faces than
girls. This can affect your ability to
discipline nonverbally.
 Remember that girls tend to
“whisper”, while boys tend to
“shout”
 Boys make up 80-90% of discipline
referrals.
 When possible place some boys
with a male teacher. (role model
(coaches)

15. Marzano’s Nine Instructional
Strategies
 Identifying Similarities and Differences
 Summarizing and Note Taking
 Reinforcing Effort and Providing
Recognition
 Homework and Practice
 Nonlinguistic Representations
 Cooperative Learning
 Setting Objectives and Providing
Feedback
 Generating and Testing Hypotheses
 Cues, Questions, and Advance
Organizers

16. Best Practices for Teaching
African American Males
 http://youtu.be/DeUFhei81wg

17. Switching Gears

18. We think sometimes that poverty is only
being hungry, naked, and homeless. The
poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and
uncared for is the greatest poverty. We
must start in our own homes to remedy
this kind of poverty.
Mother Teresa

19. Our daily life experiences and how weget information
shape the ways in which werelate to one another, our
expectations, and howwe experience the world. The
context in which we are born and grow up shapes our
view of what is possible, defines, our values, and
creates ourworldview. People from poverty,
especially thoseborn into generational poverty,live
in a different reality than middle-class children.

20. Focuses of Those in
Poverty
•Where will we sleep tonight?
•What will we eat?
•Can we find a way to keep our heat and lights turned on?
•Whose car got towed?
•Whose license got suspended for no insurance?
•Do people like me?
•Can I trust people outside my inner circle?
The MAJOR focus is on making it through the day. They are taught to
make do with what they have?

21. Appearance
People in poverty describe a world where
they felt their value as human beings was
judged by their appearance.
I hated school. No one like me. Everyone
could tell I was poor by my ragged
clothes, horrible shoes, and free lunch
tickets.
--Julie

22. Inadequate Housing
Limited employment opportunities and poverty income
levels affected the stability of individual’s housing
experiences. Most often, the housing situation adds to
their feelings of being “ashamed” and increased their
perception that their family was “different’ and they did
not belong.
I could never bring anyone home to our dump. I never
wanted anyone to know it was my home.
--Zach
I went to a friend’s house once. She had bowls that
matched. I always wanted bowls that weren’t Golden
Soft margarine containers.
--Kathy
We lived in a car most of the time. I tried so hard to hide
that, but kids found out, and they could be vicious.” --
Megan

23. Food is Seen as a Status
Symbol
Like housing, food is not only a necessity to the people in
poverty, but also has gained additional importance by
becoming an important status symbol that they also
associate with their own worth and belonging.
I had cold pancake sandwiches for lunch. They were just
awful. I just wanted what the other kids had.
--Joyce
I worried about my shoes and my lunch. Both always
embarrassed me. It was such a thrill to have the treats
that other kids had, like Twinkies.”
--Diane

24. Life Is Out of Control
Individuals from poverty do not feel they are in
control of their lives. They have described feelings
of inner shame and humiliation because of their
poverty. Most go on reacting to the events in their
lives rather than having opportunities to shape or
choose their futures.
Life just happens. No one makes plans. When you
are poor, it’s like life has spun out of control and
there is nothing you can do.
--Joann

25. The Meaning of Money
People in poverty reported that not having money to get
the basic necessities contributed to their feelings of
“hopelessness.” When asked what money meant to
them and their family, many associated money with
safety, security, and choice.
If you have money, your problems don’t seem as big. You
can get help and solve them before everything is out of
hand.
--Phil
Money can open doors. The doors may not be sealed, but
they are hard to get into if you don’t have money.
--Larry

26. Health
People in generational poverty have little or
no medical care. In addition to lack of
medical care, they rarely have the money
to purchase prescriptions, or if they did
get their prescriptions filled, they had on
many occasions share medicines—
including antibiotics—with other family
members and friends. Access to dental
and vision care is even harder, and simply
impossible in most cases.

27.  1 - According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately
one out of every six Americans is now living in
poverty. The number of Americans living in poverty is
now at a level not seen since the 1960s.
 2 - When you add in the number of low income
Americans it is even more sobering. According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans
are either "poor" or "low income".
 3 - Today, approximately 20 percent of all children in
the United States are living in poverty. Incredibly, a
higher percentage of children is living in poverty in
America today than was the case back in 1975.

28.  4 - It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57
percent of all children in the United States are currently
living in homes that are either considered to be either
"low income" or impoverished.
 5 - Poverty is the worst in our inner cities. At this point,
29.2 percent of all African-American households with
children are dealing with food insecurity.
 6 - According to a recently released report, 60 percent
of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
 7 - The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in
the United States has grown to 2.8 million. That number
has increased by 130 percent since 1996.

29.  8 - For the first time ever, more than a million public school
students in the United States are homeless. That number has
risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.
 9 - Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of
the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent
since the last recession began.
 10 - One university study estimates that child poverty costs the
U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.
 11 - At this point, approximately one out of every three children
in the U.S. lives in a home without a father.
 12 - Families that have a head of household under the age of 30
have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
 13 - Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that
spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That
represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

30.  14 - About 40 percent of all unemployed workers in
America have been out of work for at least half a year.
 15 - At this point, one out of every four American workers
has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.
 16 - There has been an explosion in the number of
"working poor" Americans in recent years. Today, about
one out of every four workers in the United States brings
home wages that are at or below the poverty level.
 17 - Right now, more than 100 million Americans are
enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the
federal government. And that does not even include
Social Security or Medicare.

31.  18 - An all-time record 47.79 million Americans are now on food
stamps. Back when Barack Obama first took office, that number
was only sitting at about 32 million.
 19 - The number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the
entire population of Spain.
 20 - According to one calculation, the number of Americans on
food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska,
Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii,
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont,
West Virginia, and Wyoming."
 21 - Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was
on food stamps. Today, close to one out of every six Americans
is on food stamps. Even more shocking is the act that more than
one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in
the food stamp program.

32. http://youtu.be/o1vLqX2ANV4

33. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/page
s/frontline/poor-kids

34. Strategies for Teaching
Children of Poverty
 Build Relationships
 Understand and Control Stress
 Develop a Growth Mindset
 Build Executive Function
 Boost Engagement
Eric Jensen

35. More Strategies
 Create Engaging Classrooms
 Respect Individual Intelligences
 Explore and Explain
 Differentiate
 Movement
 Allow Students to Work in Groups
 Allow Students Time to Reflect
 Communicate High Expectations
Dr. Carol White

36. Understanding children in poverty and getting an
insight on the world of poverty should be the
building blocks in our attempts to serve children in
poverty. As a teacher, you need to be armed
with the facts that shatter myths about poverty,
face the realities of social class, explore and
understand the barriers to success that in poverty
are facing, and learn about the unique strengths
and characteristics of people who live in poverty.
The main goal for helping people in poverty is to
help them see the possibilities for success, believe
in their worth, and let them know they have
something to offer.

39. References
 Bell, E. E. (2010a). Letters and Lessons for Teachers. Raleigh, NC: All About Children.
 Bell, E. E. (2010b). Understanding African American Males. Retrieved from ERIC database.
 (ED511010)
 Bell, E. E. (2009). Impact of self-self-esteem and identification with academics on the
academic achievement of African American students. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved
from http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/266/
 Costello, Bill, 2007. “Making Minds Matter, LLC” www.mindsmakingmatter.com.
 Lewis, Chance, 2006. “African American males lagging in education.” www.google.com.
 Maxwell, Bill, 2004. “On Campus, grim statistics for African-American men”.
 Michael, Robin, 2009. “Young African American men at Bancroft Middle School and San
Leandro High explore “What is blackness?”
 Richardson, Jeanita, 2002. “African American Males in School and Society: Practices and
Policies for Effective Education.”
 Bridgie Alexis Ford, Festus E Obiakor, and James M. Patton , 1995. “Effective Education of
African American Exceptional Learners- New Perspectives.”
 Herbert Grossman (1995). “Teaching In A Diverse Society.” Allyn & Bacon
A Simon and Schuster Company Needham Heights, MA
 www.education.com
 www.greatgroupgames.com

40. “If”
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you're outclassed, you are:
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can."
— Walter D. Wintle