Sharon and Steve Metcalfe

1. Rural Poverty
Instruction
Ideas for Teacher Education
Sharon & Stephen Metcalfe
Mount Vernon Nazarene University
Sharon: sharon.metcalfe@mvnu.edu
Stephen: stephen.metcalfe@mvnu.edu

2. Views of Poverty
Poverty Policies = “Programs for people
in the inner city.”
• „Deserving Poor‟ versus „Underclass‟

3. Urban/Rural Sociological Differences
(Natchigal, 1982)
Rural Urban
• Personal/Tightly • Impersonal/loosely
linked coupled
• Generalists • Specialists
• Homogenous • Heterogeneous
• Traditional Values • Liberal Values
• Lower/smaller density • Greater/Larger density
• Seasonal orientation • Time-clock orientation

4. Views of „Rural‟
„Less populated version‟ of urban & suburban America.
(Natchigal. 1982)
“People Left Behind” living beneath „normal‟ standards:
hicks – backward – uncultured – illiterate‟ – provincial
„A place where The Good Life can still be lived.‟
Mayberry/Green Acres
„Where city folks go to play, relax, escape.‟ (Sinagatullin, 2009)

5. Rural Poor Demographics
(Duncan, 1992)
• 30% of the U.S. population lives in
rural areas.
• 40% of ALL poverty is rural.
• 80% of rural poor are White.
*Most non-white rural families are poor.

6. Rural Poverty Demographics
(Duncan, 1992)
1. Typically working poor.
65% of rural poor families have 1+ person employed.
Rural Poverty „American Dream‟:
“Steady job that allows me to make my way
without owing anybody anything.”
2. Typically two-parent families.
3. Higher percent are elderly.

7. SES „Cultures‟
Two Lenses: (Neuman, 2009)
– ‘Culture of Achievement’: middle
class routines/language fostering
– ‘Culture of Material Hardship’:
Learned approaches to living
without adequate resources (coping)

8. SES „Cultures‟
Two Lenses of „Cultural Capital‟
(Bourdieu as cited in Holyfield, 2002, p. 53)
– ‘Aesthetic Taste’: middle class codes
and guides to ‘proper behavior’
– ‘Taste of Necessity’: adaptation and
acceptance of ‘the necessary’

9. Being Poor in the Country
(Holyfield, 2002)
• Harder being poor in the country.
• Harder escaping from poverty in the
country.

10. Being Poor in the Country
(Holyfield, 2002)
• Poverty hides easier in the country.
– Typically single-car families.
– Lack of transportation isolates families.
Isolation promotes „invisibility‟.

11. Rural Poor
Educational Attainment
(Holyfield, 2002)
• Rural Poor Adults:
44.5%= Less than a high school education
32.8% = High school diploma only
22.7% = Any schooling beyond high school
→77.3% = HS diploma or less

12. Rural Poor Educational Needs
• Language reflects acquired information.
(Anastasiow & Hanes, 1976)
– Product of both ethnicity and SES
„Poor English‟ Spoken by the economically poor.
– Structurally less „sophisticated‟.
– Often interpreted as „less intelligent‟.
– Historical link to discrimination.

13. Rural Poor Cultural Tools
• Teachers assume „Language of School‟
Children of poverty „translate‟ school English.
Reflects higher cognitive activity.

14. Poverty & Brain Development
(Jensen, 2009b)
Environment impacts development.
Poverty is an adverse environment.
• Affects these areas of life:
• Physical-Emotional-Psychological health;
Linguistic development; Medical coverage;
Social opportunities; Career options;
Financial opportunities

15. Poverty and the Brain (Jensen, 2009b)
• Poverty: chronic mind/body condition.
– Chronic instability adds chronic stress.
• Poverty impacts the brain for the worse.
– Impulsivity
– Poor short-term memory development
– Greater instance of depression
• Physical brain structures of people in poverty
are different than those who aren‟t.
Good News: The Brain can Change.

16. Common Poverty Risk Factors
1. Emotional and social challenges
2. Acute and chronic stressors
3. Cognitive lags
4. Health and safety issues
Common teacher complaints about low
SES students:
Chronic tardiness, Lack of motivation,
Inappropriate behavior, Absenteeism

17. Poverty in Your Classroom
Disadvantage responds much like disability.
(Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2010)
• Poor school-readiness skills lead low SES
children to exhibit classroom behaviors that
may be unproductive-to-seriously disruptive.
(Howard, Dresser, & Dunklee, 2009, p. 29)

18. Poverty in Your Classroom
Students from poverty are more likely to have
challenges or real-world concerns with:
Organizational skills/supplies Transportation
Reading Readiness Skills Parental support
Prioritizing academics Short-term memory
Emotional/social regulation Medical/health issues
(Jensen, 2009b)

19. Poverty in Your Classroom
Poverty-Related Deficits:
Lack of a Present Tense orientation (Payne, 2006)
– No planning = no prediction
– „No prediction‟ impedes cause/effect skills
– Cause/effect identifies consequences.
– Consequence ID improves impulsivity control.
– Impulsivity control prevents TROUBLE

20. „Poverty is Diversity‟
• Focus on how your students in poverty learn.
• Attend to what your students bring to the
learning setting.
• Diagnostic , not a „programmatic‟ approach.
‘What’s going on here?’

21. Rural-Specific Education
(Schaft & Jackson, 2010)
3 foci:
• Identity – Restructuring, affirming locality
• Place – What does education have to say
about the local experience?
• Community – Linking education & investment in
local over global interests.

22. Strategies for Teaching Students
in Poverty
1. Build positive relationships with
students and families.
2. Conduct frequent formative assessment.
3. Integrate learning experiences and
instruction.
4. Create a positive climate for instruction
(level the playing field). (Howard, Dresser, & Dunklee, 2009)

23. 1. Positive Relationships
• Model respect – Low SES students need context,
background, or skills.
– Always say please and thank you
– Avoid directives
– Avoid sarcasm
– Take responsibility for mistakes and make
amends
– Be consistent and fair

24. 1. Positive Relationships
Provide hope; build supportive relationships
• Promote student status
• Embed social skills
– Basic meet-and-greet skills
– Turn-taking skills
– Teach/Remind students to use courtesy words.

25. 1. Positive Relationships
Learn your students’ needs
– Academic tutoring/counseling; Reading materials
– Career, mental health counseling
– Child care for teen parents
– Life skills classes (finances, health, housing)
– Medical and psychological care; Dental care;
Access to medications
– Arrangements for when students stay after school

26. 1. Positive Relationships
Empower students
– Take time to teach HOW to act differently
– Role-model problem solving strategies
– Introduce „Responsibility‟ and „Making Restitution‟
– Conflict resolution/Anger management skills
– Goal setting
– Stress reduction techniques
(recognize the signs of chronic stress)

27. 1. Positive Relationships
Include parents, provide support and outreach
– Schedule times convenient for parents who work
different shifts/group conferences for siblings.
– Encourage and organize carpooling or taxis.
• Be inclusive
– Our school, Our classroom
– Acknowledge students for small productive things
– Celebrate effort as well as achievement

28. 2. Formative and Summative
Assessments
• Frequent assessment:
– Informs instruction
– Helps identify what students do well
– Identifies sources of difficulties
– Assesses prior knowledge
– Provides corrective feedback, continuous
improvement

29. 3. Integrate Learning Experiences
• Link what is known to new learning.
• Tie content to students‟ real-life.
• Engage students.

30. 3. Integrate Learning Experiences
Teach, Model, Practice Core Skills
– Attention
– Sort-and long-term memory
– Sequencing and processing
– Problem-solving
– Perseverance; applying skills in long term
– Hopefulness and self-esteem
– Social skills

31. 3. Integrate Learning Experiences
• Teach Language Arts in all instruction.
(Anastasiow & Hanes, 1976)
– Cycle-of-failure potential increases without
mastery of middle-class English.
– Decode language the teacher uses and match it.
Train for ‘the culture of commerce’.
(Delpit, 1995)

32. 3. Integrate Learning Experiences
• No more than 50% of instructional time for new
content.
– Brain works best with time to absorb new learning.
• Learn, discuss, take a walk. Encourage processing.
• Add new strategies regularly, monitor progress
• Provide specific, customized, monitored, skill-
building activities (30-90 min/day)
• Increase arts activities, physical activity.
“Brain aerobics”

33. 3. Integrate Learning Experiences
CHAMPS
Champion‟s Mind Set
Hopeful Effort
Attentional Skills Never assume intact
cognitive strategies.
Memory
Processing Skills
Sequencing Skills

34. 4. Positive Climate for Instruction
• Create a User-Friendly classroom.
• Create a democratic learning environment.
• Positive feedback early and often.
• Provide verbal and nonverbal cues.
• Deepen staff understanding, empathy, and
cultural knowledge/relevance of instruction to
local identity and community. (Woodrum, 2011)

35. 4. Positive Climate for Instruction
• Structure time effectively.
• Be flexible - culturally and academically.
• Sense of humor.
• Celebrate successes.
• Augment nutrition: healthy snacks, water.
• Before/after school homework clubs,
transportation.

36. Seven „Odds-Changing‟
Instructional Principles
(Neuman, 2009)
1. Target your neediest students.
2. Earlier is better.
3. Coordinate services.
4. Focus on „compensatory instruction‟.
5. Use the highest qualified instructors available.
6. Don‟t dilute any instruction – quality matters.
7. Always hold high standards and accountability.

37. References
• Anastasiow, N. J., & Hanes, M. L. (1976). Language patterns of poverty
children. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
• Bishop, B. (2010). Poverty highest in rural America: Rising in recession.
Daily Yonder. Retrieved from http://www.dailyyonder.com/poverty-
highest-rural-america-rising-recession/2010/12/21/3098
• Conger, R. D., & Donnellan, M. B. in Crane, D. R., & Heaton, T. B., Eds.
(2008). Handbook of families and poverty. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
• Coombs, P. H., & Ahmed, M. (1974). Attacking rural poverty: How
nonformal education can help. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins
University Press.
• Delpit, L. D. (1995). Other people’s children. New York, NY: New Press.

38. References (continued)
• DiFazio, W. (2006) Ordinary people: A little food and cold storage.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University.
• Duncan, C. M. (1992) Rural poverty in America. Westport, CT:
Auburn House.
• Hansen, N. M. (1970). Rural poverty and the urban crisis.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
• Holyfield, L. (2002). Moving up and out: Poverty, education, and the
single parent family Philadelphia, PA: Temple University.
• Howard, T., Dresser, S. G., & Dunklee, D. R. (2009). Poverty is not a
learning disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
• Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind, (2nd ed.).
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
• Jensen, E. (2009a). Super teaching: Over 100 practical strategies, (4th
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

39. References (continued)
• Jensen, E. (2009b). Teaching with poverty in mind. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
• Leone, B. (1999) Poverty: Opposing views. San Diego, CA:
Greenhaven Press.
• Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
• Nachtigal, P. M. (1982). Rural education: In search of a better way.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Neuman, S. B. (2009) Changing the odds for children at risk: Seven
essential principles of educational programs that break the cycle
of poverty. Westport, CT: Praeger.
• O'Connor, A. (2001). Poverty knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University.

40. References (continued)
• O‟Hare, W. P. (2009). The forgotten fifth: Child poverty in rural
America. Carsey Institute, University of New Hampshire, Vol. 10.
Retrieved from
http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/Report-OHare-
ForgottenFifth.pdf.
• Payne, R.K. (2003). A framework for understanding poverty, (3rd ed.).
Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.
• Pilisuk, M., & Pilisuk, P. (1971). Poor Americans: How the white poor
live. New York, NY: Aldine Publishing.
• Provasnik, S., Kewal-Ramani, A. Coleman, M. M., Gilbertson, L.,
Herring, W., & Xie, Q. (2007). Status of education in rural
America. National Center For Educational Statistics, Institute of
Education Sciences. Washington D.C.: US Dept. of Education.

41. References (continued)
• Sinagatullin, I. M. (2009). Teaching is more than pedagogical
practice: Thirty-three strategies for dealing with contemporary
students. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
• Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2010) The new science of teaching and
learning: Using the best of mind, brain, and education science in
the classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in
our times. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• US Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2004) Rural
poverty at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/
publications /rdrr100/rdrr100.pdf.
• Watras, J. (2002). The foundations of educational curriculum and
diversity: 1565 to the present. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

42. References (continued)
• Wilson, Z. (2011). Speak your piece: Rural education reform.
Daily Yonder. Retrieved from http://www.dailyyonder.
com/speak-your-piece-rural-educationreform/2011/08/22
/3487.
• Woodrum, A. (2011). Rural education for the twenty-first
century: Identity, place, and community in a globalizing
world. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26(5).
Retrieved from http://jrre.psu.edu/articles/26-5.pdf.