We are ALL Special!: Understanding Poverty #2

Before I jump into my book reflection....despite reading work related books, I'm still on summer vacation. ?The TV is definitely on (not always just in the background) while I read and blog. ?Today I discovered I really enjoy "Melissa and Joey"! ?It reminds me of some of my favorite shows from growing up: ?Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Brotherly Love, plus the show is pretty humorous!

Also, head over to?Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans. ?Katie has a super cute blog and is having an awesome giveaway because she reached 250 followers! ?Congrats Katie:)

A Framework for Understanding Poverty?by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D

Chapter 2 - Reflection

People in different socioeconomic statuses speak in different ways. ?This effects the way students write, the way parents communicate with parents, and how difficult it is for people living in poverty to get a job, because they speak in a different way than people in the middle class or those of wealth. Payne explains how this works in chapter 2 and gives examples of the different ways people in poverty talk vs. people in middle class.

What this means to teachers...

- We need to be more sensitive to the parents trying to communicate with us. ?

- We need to directly teach students how to talk and write in a more formal form of English.

- We need to accept the way they already talk and write as one form of communication.

This year I had two specific students who would write the way they talk. ?They would leave out words, write "swimmin" instead of "swimming", writing one long sentence (that should have been 5), etc. ?I tried very hard to work on editing with these students, and after several weeks they began picking up on some common editing mistakes on their own. ?However, I never acknowledged the way they were writing as "a real form of communication". ?I wish I had spent more time expressing that that is one way of writing and speaking, but at school and when working people try to use a more formal way of speaking and writing. ?Note to self....

Now it's your turn! ?

How do you work to improve students grammar in their writing or conversations without belittling the way they talk?

How do you incorporate students' informal/home version of language at school?

Any other thoughts about how verbal communication affects our students and our relationships with their parents?

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