Teaching wi!

Pove"y in Mind : Action Steps

Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids Brains and What Schools Can Do
About It. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

1. Embracing the Mind-Set of Change:

If we want our students to change, we must change ourselves and the environments students
spend time in every day. (Jensen 2009)
Whether they are changing for better or worse depends heavily on the quality of the staff at your
school. (Jensen 2009)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Change Staff Members Mind-Sets

Invest in Staff
Support Ongoing collaboration
Encourage Staff Dialogue
Gather Quality Data

2.Schoolwide Success Factors:

Support of the Whole Child, Hard Data, Accountability, Relationship Building, Enrichment MindSet (Jensen 2009)
a. Survey student and parent needs, develop community partnerships
b. Gather, analyze, and share data, then develop plans to apply the data
c. Increase teachers control and authority, value teachers, redesign staffing
roles
d. Build relationships among staff, students, and student-staff relationships
e. Create a strong environmental message, a staff-wide enrichment mind-set, always look for
one more enrichment edge

3.Classroom Level Success Factors:

Standards-Based Curriculum and Instruction, Hope Building, Arts, Athletics, and Advanced
Placement, Retooling of the Operating System, Engaging Instruction (Jensen 2009)
a. Turn standards into meaningful units, Pre-assess to determine students background
knowledge, Adjust your lesson plans
b. Inventory students and staff, monitor results
c. Implement a strong arts program, step up the activity, implement an advanced
placement curriculum
d. Use a comprehensive 360-degree assessment, develop and implement a targeted plan,
enrich students operating systems
e. Find, recruit, and train the best staff you can find, gather information from students,
communicate the evidence and make a plan, add a strategy each week and monitor
progress.