The American Dream

1. The American Dream Every child has the opportunity for prosperity, success, and upward social mobility that can be achieved through hard work.

2. By the Numbers - One Year in Oregon: Although the number of children in foster care in Oregon declined, the state continues to place more children in foster care than most other states in the nation. 67,885 Reports of child abuse and neglect - one report every eight minutes. 11,090 Children who were found to be victims of child abuse or neglect 5545 Victims of abuse and neglect younger than 6 10,500 Children abused by family - usually a parent 54,000 Children without health insurance 13,000 Kids were in foster care at least one day 8500 Kids in foster care on any given day 13,5000 Children with at least one parent in prison 1104 Cases of child sexual abuse 1:4 Girls who have been sexually molested 1:10 Boys who have been sexually molested Up to 25% Children living with a mentally ill parent

4. Molested Molested Foster Home Partial Year Free/Reduced Partial Year Free/Reduced Homeless Extreme Adversity Extreme Adversity Molested Molested Free/Reduced Partial Year Free/Reduced Free/Reduced Free/Reduced Drug or Alcohol Extreme Adversity Extreme Adversity Free/Reduced Molested Homeless Partial Year Partial Year Foster Home Free/Reduced Molested Free/Reduced Free/Reduced Free/Reduced Drug or Alcohol Free/Reduced Molested Free/Reduced Foster Home Homeless Free/Reduced Extreme Adversity

5. Seven Engagement Factors Health and Nutrition Vocabulary Effort and Energy Mind-Set Cognitive Capacity Relationships Stress Level Many students are not ready to learn, and it is our job to engage them.

6. Creating a highly engaging classroom can help compensate for behavioral and cognitive issues resulting from poor nutrition. Health and Nutrition

7. Health and Nutrition Creating a highly engaging classroom can help compensate for behavioral and cognitive issues resulting from poor nutrition. “What can we do?” • Be aware of nutritional issues for students and the effect on brain development, cognitive abilityand behavior. • Be a connection to services to assist families. • Create an engaging classroom.

8. Vocabulary is the brain’s toolkit for learning, memory, and cognition. Words help children represent, manipulate and reframe information. Vocabulary

9. Talking to Infants: The Cumulative Effects of Mother’s Speech on Vocabulary of 2-Year-Olds High levels of mother’s speech to infant 800-900 Words Size of Vocabulary in Total Words Low levels of mother’s speech to infant 100-200 Words Age of Child (months)

10. Daily Parent-Child Interactions

11. Toddlersfrom middle and upper income families use more words talking to their parents than low income mothers use talking to their children. Vocabulary “What can we do?” • Purposefully build vocabulary daily, and in context. • Build academic vocabulary • Expose students to experiences and discuss the experience with appropriate vocabulary. • Be aware or the vocabulary discrepancies in your classroom and scaffold for those with lower vocabulary so they don’t tune out the conversation because they don’t understand many of the words.

12. Teachers are more likely to attribute disengagement of middle income students as “not reaching potential,” while attributing the same behavior for low income students to “laziness.” Effort and Energy

13. A student who is not putting in effort is essentially telling you that your teaching is not engaging. Give that same kid an engaging teacher, and a whole new student will emerge. Effort and Energy “What can we do?” • Help students see a viable reason for the “academic game.” • Affirm, challenge, and encourage. • Learn about student lives and connect with them. • Use engaging strategies to draw students into the lesson.

14. Mindset is a crucial internal attitude about learning. It is a strong predicative factor of academic achievement. Mind-Set

15. When students have a positive attitude about their own learning capacity, and when the teacher focuses on growth and change, student engagement increases. Mind-Set “What can we do?” • Teachers need to be knowledgeable about Mind-set and how to change a student’s mindset from fixed to growth. • Teach students about their brain and how dendrites grow with new learning. • Use the student’s knowledge of their brain to encourage perseverance • Highlight small successes.

16. Children of poverty are more likely to have low working memory, short attention spans, high levels of distractibility, and difficulty in generating new solutions. Cognitive Capacity

17. Children of poverty are more likely to have low working memory, short attention spans, high levels of distractibility, and difficulty in generating new solutions. Cognitive Capacity “What can we do?” The mind that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally affected by positive, enriching effects. • Build attention skills • Teach problem solving and critical thinking • Train working memory • Develop processing speed • Foster self-control

18. Why do difficult students work for some teachers and not others? Because they think the teacher cares. Relationships

19. Parent / Child Interactions: Low Income Families 1 positive : 2 negatives Middle to High Income Families 6 positives : 1 negative Relationships “What can we do?” • Students of poverty want to know who their teacher really is. • They want the teacher to connect to their world. • Need stronger relationships to increase trust. • Won’t / don’t learn from people they don’t like or don’t trust.

20. Acute stress is likely to lead to “in-your-face” behaviors. Chronic stress can lead to detachments and hopelessness. Stress Level

21. Stress exerts a relentless, insidious influence on children’s physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive functioning; areas that affect brain development, academic success, and social competence. Stress Level “What can we do?” • Realize stress has a physiological effect on students. • Teach and practice coping skills. • Give students some level of control over their school lives. • Teach stress relieving techniques.

22. +TeacherActions= Likelihood of Success

24. Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind Single sheet summary of high-leverage practices for classroom teachers.

25. Def: Engagement Engagement |enˈgājmənt| (1) attracted to the work (2) persist in their work despite challengesand obstacles (3) take pride in the accomplishment

26. Engaging Topic Connection to Student Lives Games Novelty Technology Movement Hands On Talking With Each Other Building or Constructing Integration to Other Subjects Attracted to the work?

27. Persistin their work despite challengesand obstacles.

28. Take pride in the accomplishment.

29. Contact Information Kathy Helgeson Kathy@RogueEd.com www.RogueEd.com 541-601-2453