Poor Students, Rich Teaching [Revised Edition] by Solution Tree

• Understand the urgency of poverty and how it impacts learning, engagement, and academic achievement • Build effective teacher–student relationships • Help students see content mastery as a reachable goal

• Learn how creating a positive and rich classroom culture fosters a mindset of achievement in all students Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free reproducibles in this book.

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—DEBORAH STEVENS, Director of Instructional Advocacy, Delaware State Education Association

ERIC JENSEN

• Teach students from poverty the essential coping skills they need to manage their cognitive load and focus on learning

“Poor Students, Rich Teaching is the perfect balance of research and practical application. The universal strategies Eric provides are suitable for all students but are particularly beneficial for students impacted by poverty.”

[REVISED EDITION]

Readers will:

—ROBERT D. BARR, Coauthor, Building a Culture of Hope; Dean Emeritus, Boise State University

Poor Students, Rich Teaching

Poor Students, Rich Teaching: Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From Poverty equips teachers with the mindsets necessary to make a profound and lasting difference in the lives of students growing up in poverty. This fully updated and revised edition combines two of Eric Jensen’s top-selling books— Poor Students, Rich Teaching and Poor Students, Richer Teaching—into one must-read resource. K–12 teachers gain seven high-impact mindsets that bring about change: (1) the relational mindset, (2) the achievement mindset, (3) the positivity mindset, (4) the rich classroom climate mindset, (5) the enrichment mindset, (6) the engagement mindset, and (7) the graduation mindset. Jensen provides effective, research-based instructional strategies to help teachers ensure all students, regardless of circumstance, can graduate college or career ready.

“Eric Jensen’s books are a ringing advocacy for schools’ most challenging students: the children of poverty. In this revised edition of Poor Students, Rich Teaching, he weaves together the biological and neurological foundations of learning with the gritty, day-to-day demands of classroom teaching. He is a genius; even better, he is our genius.”

POOR STUDENTS, RICH TEACHING [REVISED EDITION]

Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From Poverty

ERIC JENSEN

Copyright © 2019 by Solution Tree Press Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free reproducibles in this book. 555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404 800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700 FAX: 812.336.7790 email: info@SolutionTree.com SolutionTree.com Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Jensen, Eric, 1950 author. Title: Poor students, rich teaching : seven high-impact mindsets for students from poverty / Eric Jensen. Other titles: Poor students, richer teaching Description: Revised Edition. | Bloomington, Indiana : Solution Tree Press, [2019] | Previous edition: 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018039639 | ISBN 9781947604636 (perfect bound) Subjects: LCSH: Children with social disabilities--Education--United States. | Poor children--Education--United States. | Academic achievement--United States. Classification: LCC LC4091 .J4576 2019 | DDC 371.826/94--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc .gov/2018039639

Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO Edmund M. Ackerman, President Solution Tree Press President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife Editorial Director: Sarah Payne-Mills Art Director: Rian Anderson Managing Production Editor: Kendra Slayton Senior Production Editor: Todd Brakke Senior Editor: Amy Rubenstein Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams Cover Designer: Laura Cox Text Designer: Abigail Bowen Compositor: Laura Cox Editorial Assistant: Sarah Ludwig

Table of Contents About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART ONE WHY THE RELATIONAL MINDSET? . . . . . . 11

1 Personalize the Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Connect Everyone for Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Show Empathy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 21 27

Follow Through: Lock in the Relational Mindset. . . . . 33

PART TWO WHY THE ACHIEVEMENT MINDSET? . . . . . . 37

4 Set Gutsy Goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 5 Give Fabulous Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 6 Persist With Grit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Follow Through: Lock in the Achievement Mindset. . 61

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PART THREE WHY THE POSITIVITY MINDSET?. . . . . . . 63

7 Boost Optimism and Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 8 Build Positive Attitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 9 Change the Emotional Set Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Follow Through: Lock in the Positivity Mindset. . . . . . 93

PART FOUR WHY THE RICH CLASSROOM CLIMATE MINDSET? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

10 Engage Voice and Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 11 Set Safe Classroom Norms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 12 Foster Academic Optimism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Follow Through: Lock in the Rich Classroom Climate Mindset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

PART FIVE WHY THE ENRICHMENT MINDSET?. . . . . 125

13 Manage the Cognitive Load. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 14 Strengthen Thinking Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 15 Enhance Study Skills and Vocabulary. . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Follow Through: Lock in the Enrichment Mindset. . . 155

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s

vii

PART SIX WHY THE ENGAGEMENT MINDSET?. . . . . . 159

16 Engage for Maintenance and Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 17 Engage Students for a Deeper Buy-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 18 Engage to Build Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Follow Through: Lock in the Engagement Mindset . 183

PART SEVEN WHY THE GRADUATION MINDSET?. . . . . 185

19 Support Alternative Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Prepare for College and Careers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191 201

Follow Through: Lock in the Graduation Mindset. . . 207 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

About the Author Eric Jensen, PhD, is a former teacher from San Diego, California. Since the early 1990s, he has synthesized brain research and developed practical applications for educators. Jensen is a member of the invitation-only Society for Neuroscience and the President’s Club at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies. He cofounded SuperCamp, the first and largest brain-compatible academic enrichment program, held in fourteen countries with over sixty-five thousand graduates. He is listed as a Top 30 Global Guru in Education and does professional development internationally. Jensen has authored over thirty books, including Teaching with Poverty in Mind, Tools for Engagement, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain, Bringing the Common Core to Life in K–8 Classrooms, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, and Different Brains, Different Learners. To learn more about Eric Jensen’s teacher workshops and leadership events, visit Jensen Learning (www.jensenlearning.com).

Preface This revised and combined edition of Poor Students, Rich Teaching and Poor Students, Richer Teaching represents an updated, best-of look at the seven high-impact mindsets necessary to reach students from poverty and help them succeed. How do I qualify to write a book about mindsets and poverty? I did my dissertation on poverty. I have worked successfully with over two hundred Title I schools in the United States. But there is something else you should know about me. This journey actually began in my early childhood. That’s when I learned firsthand about adversity and mindsets. You see, my mother walked out on my two sisters and me when I was two. My dad struggled to raise three children. He worked during the day, went to night school, and had busy weekends with the National Guard. My first stepmother (of three total) entered my life when I was six. She was violent, alcoholic, and abusive. She made my home life a living nightmare for nine years (from ages six through fifteen). She threatened me daily, and I became a survivor who focused on dodging continual abuse through hiding, staying away from the house, living with relatives, and eating dog food for snacks. No adult in my early life taught me or role-modeled healthy social or emotional skills. I was terrible as a student, both behaviorally and academically. Moving around was the norm, not the exception; I went to three elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools. At one count, I had 153 teachers. And this is the G-rated version. The viewpoint I learned from my father was, “Stop complaining, and focus on what’s important.” For me, that meant survival. I am telling you this because I know what it’s like to grow up in a toxic environment. I have had a loaded, cocked gun held to my head and heard, “Do what I tell you, or I will shoot.” I acted out in class and got in trouble often. My K–12 grades were poor, and I finished high school with a C+ average. The odds of me succeeding in life at that stage were not good. So how did I find a way to succeed? First, I was born with white privilege. I did not experience daily additional stressors from racism, gender inequality, or classism. Second, I was lucky. At age thirty, I started meeting amazing adult role models and, for years, I made them a part of my life. I started to learn what success in life was really about. xi

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This book is personal for me, and I am hoping to make it personal for you. You must make a choice to understand the mindsets of those who grow up with adversity and, more important, make a choice to learn the new mindsets to help your students succeed. Ultimately, that’s what this book is about: choice. Everyone gets knocked down; for some, it is more often and more traumatic than others. The next time you have a student in your class who acts out, who is frustrated by how your class is going, remember: I was one of those students, and I took it personally when a teacher did not help me succeed. When my teachers did not help me, I just stopped putting in the effort. On the flip side, when teachers cared about and helped me, I worked hard and had a good attitude. Although my own K–12 experience was not good overall, a few good teachers were different, and slowly, I began to get glimpses of hope. Their mindsets were different. I felt the impact of relationships and good teaching. Many of your students are in school mostly because it’s the law and their friends are there. It was that way for me. But my teachers chose to teach. They chose to be at my school. They chose the subject and grade levels. On top of that, they were being paid to help me graduate. The choices you make do matter. These choices come from a teaching mindset focused on student success, and that’s what this book is about. I know you are likely to be underpaid, underappreciated, and undersupported, but you still have to make choices every day of your life. Your students need you. So, will you help them graduate? The easy way out is to say, “No, I don’t have a choice. You wouldn’t believe my monthly expenses and how small my paycheck is. You don’t know how hard it is just to get by.” Yes, I do know hard it is to get by. I’ve lived on oatmeal and potatoes in a rented laundry room for two years, just to get by. I have been a caretaker and a hotel maid, and I went bankrupt. But I never complained or took a handout or an unemployment check. You always have a choice. You can choose to get better at your daily work practices, you can make smart decisions, and you can build your skill sets and help students graduate. If you don’t know how to do your job well, it can be painfully hard. But in this book, I’ll introduce new mindsets and show you how to teach differently. You’ll start loving your job again. By the way, I’m not telling you the path of changing mindsets is easy; I’m telling you that it can be done, it’s worth doing, and you can do it. I promise this resource will be part of your success. Let’s get started!

Introduction This book’s major theme is developing greater awareness and action to engage students with a different mindset. It is also about something that many poor students are not getting: rich teaching. Here, the word rich means full, bountiful, and better than ever. Teachers can make a difference in students’ lives with richer teaching. Every student that you help graduate means one less dropout, which means one less student at risk for entering the juvenile justice system, depending on welfare, or going to prison (Latif, Choudhary, & Hammayun, 2015). It’s also one more voice that will contribute to our culture and world, making it a better place. You can ensure all students, regardless of background, graduate college and career ready. All of us have narratives in our head about teaching. Teachers who struggle with poor students often have mentalities that reinforce scarcity, blame, and negativity. For example, a teacher may say, “Last year, I just couldn’t make any progress with Jason. You know, those students just don’t get any parental support, so what can I do?” Notice how the teacher ends with a story about why he or she couldn’t make progress. In this book, you will discover the rich strategies that high-performing teachers use to alter the course of these destructive narratives and help students succeed through richer and more abundant teaching. Year after year, your K–12 Title I school culture either reinforces hopelessness and assumptions that the deck is simply stacked against you or it fosters optimistic possibilities and successes with uplifting narratives. I could fill this book with stories of real high-poverty schools that are succeeding, as I have done in other books. Yet, how many schools would you need to read about before you say, “OK, that’s enough. I believe it”? I hope reading this book helps to reframe any negative narratives you struggle to carry. Yes, poverty is a big problem. But committed teachers and whole schools across the country are finding that equity is the solution. This book is all about fostering equity for all by fostering the same success mindsets for all students. Where equality at school gives all students the same treatment, equity gives all students access to the same opportunities. Here are two examples, from two different grade levels.

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1. In elementary school, many teachers have a deficit mindset, thinking that students from low-income families don’t have the smarts for higher-level cognitive thinking. That’s a big mistake. Many successful K–5 schools offer computer coding at school. There are dozens of free apps that teach coding starting at a first-grade level (which builds processing speed, memory, thinking, and decision making) in a fun, game-like format. This is an easy way to offer equal access to the opportunities that students from middle- and upper-class families get. Considering the booming job market that needs coders, that’s nearly criminal to not teach coding. 2. Many secondary schools use programs to build college readiness. But some school leaders have decided that their students from poverty are not qualified, leaving many students without the resources that quality programs provide. That’s not equity. There are many secondary schools that do put 100 percent of their students in this program. They may need to provide some additional tutoring, but the mission is the same—success for all. Yes, your mindset does matter, and it matters a lot. The measuring stick is equity. My advocacy is for teachers like you. I’ll do anything to help you grow and succeed. I see teachers as the single most critical factor in helping the United States survive and thrive. Regardless of what our policy makers do, we all need tough, gritty teachers who are willing to make hard choices to help students from poverty succeed. To kick things off, we’ll take a quick tour of how I’ve organized this book and then support the need for its mindsets and strategies with a look at the new normal as it pertains to poverty, its effect on students, and why you can change their futures for the better.

About This Book This book combines and updates the best of two books—Poor Students, Rich Teaching and Poor Students, Richer Teaching. For this edition, I included the most critical knowledge from each of the seven high-impact mindsets in both of those books so that you’ll have access to one effective and research-driven resource that contains all the tools you need to improve your teaching mindsets and help all your students in need to graduate. Even if you have been successful before, my promise is that through this book, you’ll become a richer teacher. To complement this book, I’ve also written a companion book, The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching (Jensen, 2019), which offers a condensed version of this content, but in place of the detailed research content on why these strategies are effective, the handbook adds in a host of reproducible tools for nearly every strategy that you can use to support and shape your evolving mindsets. To change students’ lives, you will have to change before any worthwhile change shows up in your students. I’m not telling you the path of change is easy; I’m telling you that it can be done, and you can do it.

Introduction

This book’s major theme is developing the most powerful tool for change: mindset. A mindset is a way of thinking about something. As Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck (2008) explains, people (broadly) think about intelligence in two ways: (1) either you have it or you don’t (the fixed mindset), or (2) you can grow and change (the growth mindset). In the areas of intelligence and competency, you may have more of a fixed mindset (stuck in place) or a growth mindset (capable of changing). Those with a fixed mindset believe intelligence and competency are a rigid unchangeable quality. Those with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and competency can develop over time as the brain changes and grows. This book broadens and deepens the mindset theme to many new areas of student and teacher behaviors that you’ll find highly relevant. It continues in seven parts, each highlighting a specific mindset, its supporting research, and some easy-to-implement and highly effective strategies you can use immediately. Here are the seven parts. • Part one: The relational mindset—Chapters 1 through 3 explore the relational mindset and begin to discover why the types of relationships teachers have (or don’t have) with students are one of the biggest reasons why students graduate or drop out. Everything you do starts with building relationships with your students. • Part two: The achievement mindset—Chapters 4 through 6 teach you about powerful success builders with the achievement mindset. Students from poverty can and do love to learn, when you give them the right tools. • Part three: The positivity mindset—Chapters 7 through 9 home in on your students’ emotions and attitudes. Each chapter focuses on building an attitude of academic hope and optimism in both your students and yourself. If you’ve ever put a mental limitation on any student (don’t worry, we all have), these chapters are must-reads. Your new, rock-solid positivity mindset will help your students soar. • Part four: The rich classroom climate mindset—Chapters 10 through 12 offer strategies to take all that positivity you’ve generated and use it to create an energetic, high-performing class culture, using the rich classroom climate mindset. You’ll learn the secrets that highperforming teachers use to build an amazing classroom climate. • Part five: The enrichment mindset—Chapters 13 through 15 focus on building breakthrough cognitive capacity in students. A big problem for students from poverty is their mental bandwidth, often known as cognitive load. Here, you’ll see the clear, scientific evidence that shows, without a molecule of doubt, that you can ensure your

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students build cognitive capacity in the form of memory, thinking skills, vocabulary, and study skills. • Part six: The engagement mindset—Chapters 16 through 18 dig into student involvement in a new way with the engagement mindset. You’ll gain quick, easy, and practical strategies for maintenance and stress, for buy-in, and to build community. • Part seven: The graduation mindset—Chapters 19 and 20 help you focus on the gold medal in teaching: students who graduate job or college ready. Each chapter centers on school factors absolutely proven to support graduation. You’ll learn the science of why these factors can be such powerful achievement boosters, and you’ll discover a wide range of positive alternatives to what your students are doing at school. Each part ends with a Follow Through section that asks you to consider your personal narrative in light of what you’ve read about the featured mindset and reflect on how you can use the mindset to improve your teaching practices. There’s much more for you to learn, but these seven mindsets and the accompanying strategies will make a world of difference if you implement them well. That’s my promise. This book ends with an epilogue that offers a quick-read summary of the book and offers organization tools for immediate application. On this book’s website (visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction) you’ll be able to access three appendices with useful resources to support your implementation of the book’s tools, some tips on the important process of running your own brain, and a guide to rich lesson planning. This powerful book is packed with real science and real teachers using powerful strategies, and it absolutely will support you in making fresh, smart choices in teaching. As you read it, it will be up to you to pause and reflect often. Any single chapter can make a difference in your work. Ask yourself not, “Have I heard of this before?” but instead, “Do I already do this as a daily practice?” and “Do I do this well enough to get the results I want or need?” The fact is that all of us can get better. This book can take you down that path. Before we get into part one and all seven mindsets for change, let’s briefly look just a little deeper at the research that supports them and why you can believe in them.

About the New Normal Books for educators typically just tell teachers what to do. This one is different because I explain why the suggestions in this book are relevant, important, and most of all, urgent. If you grew up in the United States, I know first-hand how many changes you’ve seen in your lifetime. If you live in another country, no doubt you have seen disruptive change as

Introduction

well. Many of the changes you must learn to regard as the new normal. We typically say something is normal meaning it’s just fine and pay less attention because we often take it for granted. We also say things are normal as if that is a good thing. But now I invite you to see the new normal as a threat to your job and your future. Poverty and mindsets (the topics of this book) play a big part in this new normal. This is no doomsday scenario. It is about what has already happened. You must understand this before you walk into your classroom again. At one school I was working with, a teacher shared some pretty serious frustrations. As she spoke, her eyes moistened, “You want us to do this and that, plus you say it might be hard—and it might even take months or years! For starters, do you even know how much we are being asked to do these days? Do you know how little support we get from leadership? How do we even know these things you suggest are possible? And, really, why should we even bother? After all, things will change again in a few years, and there’ll be some new flavor of the month that we all have to jump on board with again!” She was nearly in tears, and her pain was obvious. When teachers tell me, “Our jobs have changed,” they’re right. When teachers tell me, “Students aren’t like they used to be,” they’re right. When staff tell me, “The whole profession has changed,” they’re right. Lastly, when teachers like you tell me how frustrating their jobs are, I’m on your side. I’ve been a teacher. I work with teachers, and I know the profession well. So, let’s use that. Let’s drill down and learn some of the most relevant changes affecting your classroom when we talk about students from poverty. We’ll examine the hard evidence of the new normal, what the resulting poverty means to you, and how poverty may affect your students.

Poverty and Hard Evidence of the New Normal Poverty in the United States is getting worse, not better. The new normal is this: we now have a majority of students in public schools who qualify as poor based on school data (Suitts, 2015). In the five most populated states (California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New York), 48 percent or more of public school students are in poverty (Suitts, 2015). Pause and wrap your head around this. But it gets worse. In 2016, two out of three student dropouts were from lowincome families. Across the country, the graduation gap between the poor and nonpoor ranged from 3 percent to 24 percent. Nationwide, although many states have closed the graduation gap, almost one third of all states have seen increases in the gap (DePaoli, Bridgeland, Atwell, & Balfanz, 2018). This new normal is a mindset game changer for everyone, especially educators. The trend is not our friend. Also part of the new normal is the disappearing middle class. Gone are many goodpaying jobs that required a high school diploma and hard work (manufacturing, mining, automobiles, oil and gas, and more). Technology (robots, automated software and

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websites, and smartphones) has replaced people for many of those jobs. Trucking is the most popular job in twenty-nine states (Bui, 2015). But around the world, multiple manufacturers are actively developing, testing, and deploying automated trucks, so those trucking jobs may be eliminated as soon as 2030 (Campbell, 2018). Imagine the disruption this will cause: the number-one job in over half the states will be automated (Bui, 2015). Often, poverty occurs when the cost-of-living increase does not keep pace with inflation, and real wages for the middle class and poor go down. Real middle-class annual wages (adjusted for inflation) have declined dramatically, from $57,000 a year in 2000 to just under $52,000 in 2014 (Economic Policy Institute, 2014). That means the average U.S. household has lost nearly 10 percent in wages to inflation since 2000. Even for the declining middle class, life has gotten harder and 2018 brings few signs of positive change (Drum, 2018). This is the new normal, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not alone. Roughly 76 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, with essentially zero savings (Bankrate, 2012). The number of people on food stamps has doubled between 2008 and 2014 (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, 2016). About half of all children born in 2015 will be on food stamps at some point in their lives (Rank & Hirschl, 2015).

Percent of American Workers

Over half (51 percent) of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year. The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year (Social Security Online, 2016). See figure I.1 for a breakdown of the new normal workforce. 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 0

Poverty Boundary ď&#x192;°

38 percent earn less than $20,000 per year

51 percent earn less than $30,000 per year

62 percent earn less than $40,000 per year

Source: Social Security Online, 2016.

Figure I.1: The new normal workforce in America.

71 percent earn less than $50,000 per year

Introduction

Let me summarize this for you. From 2000 to 2014, the share of adults living in middleincome households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas. Think about that; in almost 90 percent of the United States’ metro areas, the middle class is shrinking (Pew Research Center, 2016). However, understanding all this is only where our battle begins. We must understand what poverty is in real terms.

What More Poverty Means for Teachers Saying that someone is from poverty tells us nothing about the family. Is it fragmented or intact, caring or careless? We don’t know because, on the surface, all poverty means is having a low socioeconomic status, but it does not define the individual. My own definition is less focused on federal standards for annual income. Instead, I focus on the common effects of poverty via an aggregate of risk factors. Here’s how I define poverty in this book: poverty is a chronic condition resulting from an aggregate of adverse social and economic risk factors. Working with students from poverty means you’ll need to deeply understand what is going on around you. In short, many poor students are different because many of their experiences are wiring their brains differently. The brain’s neurons are designed by nature to reflect their environment, not to automatically rise above it. Chronic exposure to poverty affects the areas of the brain responsible for memory, impulse regulation, visuospatial actions, language, cognitive capacity, and conflict (Noble, Norman, & Farah, 2005). Evidence suggests the brains of children from poverty are more likely to differ via four primary types of experiences: (1) health issues from poor diet and exposure to toxins and pollutants, (2) chronic stress, (3) weaker cognitive skills, and (4) impaired socioemotional relationships (Evans & Kantrowitz, 2002). Although not every single child from a household with a low socioeconomic status will experience all of these factors, the majority will. This means that you’ll see behaviors that show the effects of toxins (poor memory and distractibility) or chronic stress (learned helplessness, apathy, hypervigilance, and in-your-face aggressiveness). In a classroom, you’ll also see the results of less exposure to cognitive skills (deficient vocabulary, poor reading skills, and weak working memory) and impaired socioemotional skills (poor manners, misbehaviors, or emotional overreactions). Indeed, there is a powerful connection between emotion and cognition: When we educators fail to appreciate the importance of students’ emotions, we fail to appreciate a critical force in students’ learning. One could argue, in fact, that we fail to appreciate the very reason that students learn at all. (Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007, p. 9)

Teachers who do not know what these behaviors really are may inappropriately judge a student as lazy, unwilling to follow directions, a poor listener, low achieving, and antisocial. This may foster classroom friction, a huge achievement gap, annoyed students,

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and even dropouts. And worse yet, the teacher may blame the behavior on the student. Conversely, when students feel a connection with their teachers and feel respect and trust, they behave and learn better. Student-teacher relationships have a strong effect on student achievement and are easily in the top 10 percent of all factors (Hattie, 2009). Relationships between students and teachers are more important to students who don’t have a loving parent at home. For comparison, teacher subject-matter knowledge is in the bottom 10 percent of all factors (Hattie, 2009). Students care more about whether their teachers care than what their teachers know.

The Brain’s Changing Design As an educator who works with schools all over the United States, I’ve heard just about every story there is about why students from poverty supposedly can’t succeed. In rural Kentucky, I hear about coal mine closings that are causing student hopelessness. In New Mexico, I hear about how a lack of jobs fosters low expectations in students. In Hawaii, I hear about the beach culture that supposedly makes students more interested in surfing than learning. These, and many like them, are the devastating community-driven narratives that are killing the chances for student success. Likewise, you may know someone who has the impression that people don’t change. In other words, some people spread lies like, “A student who is a troublemaker at age eight will always be one.” This is also an example of a toxic mindset. Do you see the pattern? The fact is, humans can and do change. One of the more relevant properties in the human brain when it comes to teaching students is neuroplasticity. This property allows the human brain to make new connections, develop whole new networks, and even remap itself so that more (or less) physical space in the brain is used for a particular task. For example, there are changes in brain activation specifically associated with the practice of high-level cognitive skills (Mackey, Singley, Wendelken, & Bunge, 2015). Even just two hours of cognitive training shows changes in the brain (Hofstetter, Tavor, Moryosef, & Assaf, 2013). When people don’t change, it is often because others have given up on them, their daily environment is toxic, or others are using an ineffective strategy that doesn’t help. Often, teachers feel helpless to help students if there is a lack of support at home, but the truth is the classroom teacher is still the single most significant contributor to student achievement; the effect is greater than that of parents, peers, entire schools, or poverty (Hanushek, 2005; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004). Research also shows that above-average teachers (those who get one and a half years or more of student gains per school year) can completely erase the academic effects of poverty in five years (Hanushek, 2005). The stories at your school that are told and retold shape students’ expectations. When the stories are upbeat, affirming, and hopeful, the students and staff reinforce a positive message. In successful schools, staff members try to redefine their new normal. Mindsets

Introduction

matter a great deal, especially when addressing poverty. This book will help you identify the useful and powerful mindsets that can accelerate positive change to alter the future for your students. Before we dig in, there is one last thing you should know about the strategies that enforce these mindsets. In most sports, the team that scores the most points (or goals, runs, and so on) wins. This scoring system is simple and easily understood. In our profession, the scoring system that decides a winning classroom strategy is called the effect size. This number is simply the size of the impact on student learning. In short, it tells you how much something matters. The mathematics on it is simple: it is a standardized measure of the relative size of the gain (or loss) in student achievement caused by an intervention (versus a control) (Olejnik & Algina, 2000). See figure I.2.

Your goal:

0.00–0.25 Minor effects

0.25–0.50 Useful positive effects

0.50–0.75 Moderate to strong; 1 to 1.5 years of progress

0.75–2.00 Strong to powerful effects from 1.5 to 4.0 years of progress

Source: Vacha-Haase & Thompson, 2004.

Figure I.2: Effect sizes made practical. Researchers simply measure the difference between doing something and doing nothing. Ideally, one uses an experimental group (using a new strategy) and a control group (using an existing norm). The strongest analysis includes large sample sizes and multiple studies with varied population demographics. Then, you know your data are very, very solid. This is important to you, and I connect many of the strategies in this book to their expected effect size, so please lean in and read closely. This is all about your teaching. Effect sizes are a common research-based way to measure the impact of a strategy or factor. While any intervention could have a negative effect size, most classroom interventions (teacher strategies) are positive. Classroom interventions typically have effect

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sizes between 0.25 and 0.75 with a mean of about 0.40 (Hattie, 2009). One full year’s worth of academic gains has a 0.50 effect size, and two years’ worth of gains have a 1.00 effect size. This means that effect sizes above 0.50 are just the baseline for students in poverty. Teachers have to help students catch up from starting school one to three years behind their classmates, and it takes good instructional practices for effect sizes to be well above 0.50. To ensure students from poverty graduate, you’ll want to teach in ways that give them one and a half years’ worth of gains (or more) in each school year. What if, by just replacing one strategy you already use (for example, saying “Good job!” to a student) with another (a far more effective one, like “Your steady, daily studying really paid off. That’s going to help you graduate on time!”), you could get five to ten times the positive effect on student achievement? I show you how to do that in this book. Think about the impact you can have every single workday by switching out less effective strategies with more effective strategies. In fact, I’m going to invite you to slowly replace those things you do that are sort of effective with strategies that are ridiculously effective. If you want even more support in effecting this change, with real tools you can access and use to implement these strategies, I provide them in The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching (Jensen, 2019). Yes, I am on a mission to help you become so effective that it changes the course of history for your students. With this goal in mind, and a wealth of strategies at your disposal, it’s time for you to take stock and reflect on your own mindset.

You Are Your Mindset Preparing to Change Your Mindset Which Is Your Mindset? “Parents, schools, policies, and laws are all changing. Why can’t things be like they used to be?”

“Change is a constant, especially in education, and it’s only going to accelerate. I will grow and change myself.”

An amazing journey is about to begin. Are you game?

WHY THE RELATIONAL MINDSET? In this part, we begin with building the narrative of relationships as the core underpinning of high-performance teaching with students from poverty. Sometimes we find it easy to connect with students who share our own background, but it becomes much more challenging with students who don’t; yet it’s essential to build relationships with those students before any real learning can happen. If you’re not connecting by giving respect, listening, and showing empathy, you risk losing your students. When students lose interest in school, they will most likely find somewhere else to invest their energy and may make poorer choices. Some will get their respect and connections through peers and sports, others through drugs or even gangs. All of us are in this together. When your students succeed, you succeed. There is no us (teachers) and them (students). Maintaining an erroneous narrative of separation will ruin your chances of success in teaching. The relational mindset says, “We are all connected in this life together. Always connect first as a person (and an ally) and second as a teacher.”

PART ONE

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The relational mindset says, “We are all connected in this life together. Always connect first as a person (and an ally) and second as a teacher.”

Your students will care about academics as soon as you care about them.

A Hard Look at the Evidence The Commission on Children at Risk (2003), a panel of thirty-three doctors, research scientists, and mental health and youth service professionals, concludes that the need to connect is hardwired. Separation is an illusion; in fact, we are mathematically connected to anyone within just six relationships (Todd & Anderson, 2009). See figure P1.1. 6 4

2 3 YOU

Figure P1.1: Interdependency builds connections. As infants, we need to connect so critically with another human (for food, safety, clothes, shelter, and interaction) that we’ll bond with nearly any caregiver, regardless of quality (Moriceau & Sullivan, 2005). Students also want their teachers (that’s you) to

Do not confuse this mindset with me telling you that it is impossible to succeed with every student unless each likes or respects you. Some students (those from strong, intact families) come from such stability at home that they need less relationship time at school. When a student has an emotionally stable family, good friends, and positive relatives, the need for relational stability at school is less. However, those students are increasingly becoming the exception. You may know teachers with a mindset of, “I wasn’t hired to be their parent; I was hired for the content I know.” However, the more you think you are separate from your students, the worse the relationships. The more students feel separate from you, the greater the problems you’ll have with them and the greater the likelihood they’ll achieve less. Instead, ask yourself, “How can I show my students I care about their home life as well as their classroom life?”

Why the Relational Mindset?

offer more inclusion to integrate their personal experiences into the lessons and facilitate more interactive discussions and team-building activities (Chung-Do et al., 2013).

Among elementary students, more so for boys than girls, kindergarten teachers’ relationships were significantly correlated with academic outcomes through middle school. In fact, teacher-student relationships are a significant predictor of student achievement even when prior levels of relationships and academic ability are taken into account (Hamre & Pianta, 2001). In addressing relationships with students from poverty, remember that a good adult relationship significantly destresses the student (Miller-Lewis et al., 2014). When students are less stressed, you get better behaviors, better cognition, and more emotional flexibility. When teachers offer strong instructional and emotional support, students from lowincome families perform equal to their higher-income peers (Hamre & Pianta, 2005). In fact, by the end of first grade, those so-called at-risk students are learning, have achievement scores, and are behaving like their nonpoor peers. By contrast, students in poverty in less-supportive classrooms have lower achievement and more conflict with teachers (Hamre & Pianta, 2005). Pause for a second and consider that high support from you can actually bring all your students to middle- and upper-income academic performance. In fact, at every grade level, students who feel affinity for the teacher tend to engage more. This is especially true at the secondary level where students often experience feeling disconnected (Pianta, Hamre, & Allen, 2012). And, when researchers look over a period of years, students with highly supportive teachers with low levels of conflict obtain higher scores on measures of academics and behavioral adjustment than do students whose relationships with teachers are poor (Hamre & Pianta, 2006). As you might guess, the effect size on student achievement from effective relationships is stronger for behaviorally and academically higher-risk students and for students of color than for low-risk learners (Hughes, Luo, Kwok, & Loyd, 2008; Liew, Chen, & Hughes, 2010). In the classroom, relationships influence engagement in multiple ways. First, quality interactions within a relationship provide instruction, correction, modeling, and support for students, forming the basis of a teacher-student relationship (Hughes & Kwok, 2006). Second, a positive teacher-student relationship enhances students’ sense of classroom

Effective teacher-student relationships contribute to student achievement, and this contribution varies depending on students’ socioeconomic status and grade level. The research tells us that relationships mean more to students who have instability at home than to students who have a stable, two-parent foundation (Allen, McElhaney, Kuperminc, & Jodl, 2004). Among all students, good relationships have a 0.72 effect size, which makes them an exceptionally significant and strong effect size catalyst (Hattie, 2009). Among secondary students, the effect size is an even larger 0.87 (Marzano, 2003).

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security and increases their willingness to engage in the classroom (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Third, evidence shows that quality relationships can help students achieve more through greater connected engagement (Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, & Oort, 2011). Another study reveals that students’ positive or negative classroom relationships are equal to IQ or school achievement test scores in predicting if a student will drop out (Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe, & Carlson, 2000).

A Look Ahead The next three chapters offer the following strategies to help you build relationships with your students that will get them onboard emotionally and socially. 1. Personalize the learning. 2. Connect everyone for success. 3. Show empathy. In these chapters, you’ll see how relationships offer the emotional environment through which all course content flows. There is no classroom content without some sort of context, even if the context is a digital device. Let’s dig in.

Reread that last sentence. If you really want to keep students in school, build relationships! Daily, ask yourself powerful questions such as, “When other teachers successfully build quality relationships, how do they do it?” “In what ways can I connect with students that will make a difference for them?” and “How can I help students feel more safe, respected, and connected?”

CHAPTER 1

In a large, noisy crowd, what’s the one word (besides “Fire!”) that gets your attention? It’s your own name. We perk up and listen when we hear our name because we have been conditioned, over a lifetime, to respond to something directed to us, at us, and about us. Personalization in your classroom works because our brain cares about our identity (Eichenlaub, Ruby, & Morlet, 2012). In short, your kids do not want a new pair of shoes; they want shoes that fit them. This is a way to frame equity from the conversation to action steps. This chapter is all about fostering teacher-student relationships by creating a culture of personalization. To get personal in this context means connecting in a personal way so that your teaching gets students to perk up and pay attention to that which is relevant: themselves. In this chapter, you will engage with the following four strategies. • Learn students’ names. • Create a Me Bag. • Share an everyday problem. • Share progress on goals. This is a powerful chapter, and it lays the groundwork that makes the other mindsets in this book effective; as you read it, reflect on what you already do. Maybe it will also inspire you to add something new.

Learn Students’ Names To create a culture of personalization starting on day one, learn every student’s name. You don’t need to be a memory champ to do this. You 15

PERSONALIZE THE LEARNING

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just need to care and take the time to set up the learning process, then practice, just like the students in your class. When you use a student’s name, be sure to smile and make eye contact. Many times, a simple handshake or other appropriate connection will show a lot to your students (you care).

Ensuring students know each other’s names is also a useful way to build relationships between peers, because strong social glue builds valuable respect, familiarity, and trust. That can break down barriers and reduce cliques in class. These memory tools will build the confidence and social glue to foster cognitive capacity (for attention, short-, and long-term memory). Additionally, during group work, invite

There are many smart ways to remember names and faces. First, put your brain in a curious state. Say to yourself, “OK, what is this student’s name? Is it ?” That primes the brain to care and to listen better. Then, when you hear the name, use it! Use it under different circumstances such as standing, sitting, when giving a compliment, or standing at the door. Here are some strategies for learning names. • Introductions: At the start of the school year, have students say their first names every time they speak. Do this for the first thirty class days (if you have thirty students, or twenty days if you have twenty students). • Desk nametags: Have students create desk nametags from single index cards or cardstock (fold the paper in half horizontally). Have a box for each class of nametags and ask students to pick them up and return them to the box each period. The hard (but good) part is after two weeks, you pick out each name and try to place it on the right student’s desk. • Checks: When students are writing, ask yourself quietly, “What’s his or her name?” Try to answer it first, then walk over, and check out your answer by looking at the student’s name on a paper or asking. • Self quizzes: As students enter the class, greet them by name, or ask them to give you a prompt or cue to trigger their name. Tell students they can’t enter your classroom until you say their names correctly. Then, use their names as you make eye contact and give a compliment. (“Eric, good to see you today.”) • Returns: When you return papers or assignments in the first three to four weeks, use names as you give the paper back to the student (“Loved your perfect spelling, Kenisha”). • Interviews: Give students two to three minutes in pairs to interview each other and discover something that no one can forget. Each pair stands, then asks students to introduce each other, allowing about one minute per pair.

Personalize the Learning

students to always address each other by name. When students pair up with a new partner, ask them to introduce themselves to others with eye contact, a greeting, and a handshake.

Create a Me Bag

If you teach at the secondary level, and you think it’s still a bit weird to use this activity with older students, consider that Leslie Ross (2012), a secondary teacher at a highpoverty school in Greensboro, North Carolina, defies tradition and uses the Me Bag activity with all her ninth-grade students (versus using it for only lower elementary). She typically gets among the highest test scores in the district. I find that the Me Bag activity breaks down walls, especially with teens who think, “No one understands me except my friends.” When adolescents find out that others have had a pretty rough life, or at least major obstacles to overcome, they soften and barriers come down. Share something good, bad, and maybe silly (or embarrassing) that happened to you. Ultimately, it’s about being real; students need and appreciate your honesty and genuineness.

Share an Everyday Problem In the preface of this book, I shared my own early life story. I did not do this to engender sympathy or blame; the story is just a part of my early life. In fact, I am often hesitant to share it because I am afraid of how people will receive it. Will someone think I’m a jerk or desperate for attention? I don’t know. But I do know that when I talk about adversity, it seems to allow others permission to share their story too, and that makes it worth sharing. Whether you want to be a role model or not, you are a role model. Give students what they need so badly—a real-world model of how to live as an adult. You can think of this as a way to extend the work you began with the Me Bag activity. That means about once a week, share a piece of your world, something that presents a challenge or problem that you had, maybe something you experienced over the weekend. A short, three-minute slice of a teacher’s life can do wonders for fostering the relational mindset. Your story gives students a tiny window into your adult world, especially when you can turn it into a learning opportunity for them to learn to solve real-world problems, which

Another way to build a culture of personalization is to use variations of the Me Bag activity during the first week of school. This is a great activity for all K–12 students because most students want to know some personal things about their teacher. First, you’ll model the process for your own students. Start with a paper bag that has small objects or items you collect about yourself: photos, receipts, ticket stubs, a favorite snack, keys, or mementos that help tell a story about yourself. Share those objects and stories in about seven to ten minutes.

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After you call on many volunteers (thanking them for their effort), you should share the rest of the story. How did you decide what to do about the problem, and what did you learn from the results? Even if you can’t connect this exercise directly to an ongoing lesson, it is not a waste of time; it is an investment in your students that will pay off later since you’re role-modeling three things for your class. Yes, adults do have problems, and how they deal with them can be useful. Just because a problem is tough, big, or stressful doesn’t mean it is unsolvable. Finally, it is a chance for you to share the process of problem solving. You share your values, your attitude, and the procedures it takes to be a success.

Share Progress on Goals The last tool for creating a culture of personalization is sharing your personal goals. Many teachers struggle to find a separation between their personal and teacher lives. However, all students, especially those from poverty, love the idea of goals. Setting personal goals and sharing them with your students is an effective way to foster the relational mindset. Post your personal goal in the classroom (since you are asking students to do the same), and share your progress all year (or semester) long. In addition, you’ll also post your class goal too. (You’ll learn more about setting gutsy class goals in chapter 4, page 43.) Sample goals include: • Participating in community projects • Starting healthier eating and exercise habits • Completing a teaching improvement list

• Running a 5K • Mentoring someone • Growing a garden • Learning a skill or sport • Helping change the culture at your school

Along the way, share your key milestones and celebrations and how you overcame. When you share all the micro steps forward and the nearly predictable setbacks you experience, students will see that mistakes are OK and make way for improvement. Your

is often something you can connect directly to the learning topic you intend to cover in your lesson. After you present your story, give students a minute to brainstorm how they would approach it. Then, call on students to give their thoughts, and don’t judge their answers. Keep a modest, positive spirit, and say, “I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you, Marcus” or “I appreciate the brainstorming you did. Thank you! Now, let’s grab a few more ideas.” I always thank students for their participation but never criticize, judge, or evaluate their efforts. I realize they’re a fraction of my age and are unlikely to have the same coping skills.

Personalize the Learning

journey over the course of the year will be a drama akin to must-see TV. In short, as you make progress through obstacles, students can see themselves succeeding and as contributors to your growth. If you don’t have any goals, it’s time to start. It benefits you as well, and your students want a teacher that has kept learning and growing. This is an exciting way to influence students.

• Learn how creating a positive and rich classroom culture fosters a mindset of achievement in all students Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free reproducibles in this book.

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—DEBORAH STEVENS, Director of Instructional Advocacy, Delaware State Education Association

ERIC JENSEN

• Teach students from poverty the essential coping skills they need to manage their cognitive load and focus on learning

[REVISED EDITION]

Readers will:

—ROBERT D. BARR, Coauthor, Building a Culture of Hope; Dean Emeritus, Boise State University

Poor Students, Rich Teaching

POOR STUDENTS, RICH TEACHING [REVISED EDITION]

Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From Poverty

ERIC JENSEN