by Ruby K Payne
These tend to be fairly well understood in schools because that is where the teaching tends to occur.
WHAT WOULD LESSON DESIGN LOOK LIKE WHEN THESE STRATEGIES ARE TAUGHT?
The lesson would center around what the student would do. Sometime during the lesson students would need to exhibit these five skills:
Regardless of content, if the lesson requires that in some way students do these five things, cognitive strategies would be strengthened, discipline would improve, and achievement would be enhanced.
USING EYE MOVEMENT TO FOLLOW THE LEARNING AND PROCESSING
Bandler and Grinder (1979) did a great deal of work with non-verbal cues and cognitive processing. This work is known as neuro-linguistic programming. But of particular interest to educators is the work on eye movement because it allows a teacher to begin understanding the way(s) in which a student is processing information. Criminologists use these techniques to break crimes, lawyers use them to cross-examine witnesses, and salespeople use them to enhance sales. Influencing with Integrity by Laborde (1983) is a layperson's explanation of the information. Briefly, however, the main concepts will be explained.
Think of the human face as a clock. It is as you look at the face. To begin, the face has three zones. When a person's gaze is directed in the top zone, the individual is processing visual information. When eyes are in the middle zone, the individual is processing auditory information (with one exception). When eyes are in the bottom zone, the individual is either talking to himself/ herself or processing feelings.
VISUAL
Now let's go to the next level of information. If the person being observed is right-handed, then the 2 o'clock position indicates that the individual is processing visually remembered data. Around io o'clock the individual is processing data that are visually constructed. In other words, the individual is putting together data from several sources. If the person is left-handed, then 2 o'clock is visually constructed, and io o'clock is visually remembered.
AUDITORY
If the person is right-handed, the 3 o'clock position indicates auditory remembered and 9 o'clock position indicates auditory constructed. If the individual is left-handed, then 3 o'clock is auditory constructed and 9 o'clock is auditory remembered.
FEELING/KINESTHETIC
If the individual is right-handed, the 5 o'clock position is auditory internal dialogue, and the 7 o'clock position is feelings. If the individual is left-handed, then 5 o'clock is feelings, while 7 o'clock is auditory internal dialogue.
VISUAL CONSTRUCT
If eyes are staring straight ahead and defocused, the individual is in a visualconstruct position.
How does knowing eye movement help a teacher? If a student has moved his/her eyes to a visual position, then the teacher knows that the student is trying to find the information visually. The teacher can enhance the process by asking the student, "What do you see?" If the student is processing from an auditory position, the teacher can ask, "What do you remember hearing?" And so on for the other positions. Eye movements can help the teacher identify how a student tends to store and retrieve information.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL INTERVENTIONS THAT BUILD CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS AND COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
1. Using graphic organizers (Idol and Jones, i99i, Chapter 3). Graphic organizers give students the ability to identify main concepts, assign specific labels to concepts, and sort relevant and non-relevant cues (see example below).
Example:
Example:
(For a comprehensive, research-based overview, see Idol and Jones, 1991.)
2. Identifying methods of having a systematic approach to the data/text. One way to do this is to provide students a systematic method to go through the text. Some teachers have students highlight information. Here is one example:
SELF-QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
Place the following symbols in the text where you find the answers:
Three little pigs went out into the world. The first little pig met a man carrying straw.
The little pig asked, "May I have some straw so I can build a house?"
"Yes," said the man. "You may have some straw."
The first little pig took the straw. He built a straw house. A wolf came along and knocked on the door. "Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" said the little pig.
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in," said the wolf. And he huffed. And he puffed. And he blew the house in. And he ate him up.
The second little pig met a man carrying sticks. The litt le pig asked, "May I have some sticks so I can build a house?"
"Yes," said the man. "You may have some sticks."
The second little pig took the sticks. He built a stick house. A wolf came along and knocked on the door. "Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" said the little pig.
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in," said the wolf. And he huffed. And he puffed. And he blew the house in. And he ate him up.
The third little pig met a man carrying bricks. The little pig asked, "May I have some bricks so I can build a house?"
"Yes," said the man. "You may have some bricks."
The third little pig took the bricks. He built a brick house. A wolf came along and knocked on the door. "Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" said the little pig.
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in," said the wolf.
And he huffed. And he puffed. And he huffed. And he puffed. He could not blow the brick house in. The wolf was angry. He jumped on the roof. He yelled, "little pig, I'm coming down the chimney. I'm going to eat you up!"
But the little pig was smart. He was smarter than the wolf. He had a big pot of hot water in the fireplace. The little pig lifted the cover. The wolf fell into the pot. The little pig lived happily ever after in his little brick house.
3. Establishing goal-setting and procedural self-talk (Marzano and Arredondo, 1986). These two activities should be part of daily instruction. The procedural self-talk can be written down and eventually will become part of the internal self-talk. Goal-setting addresses several cognitive issues.
4. Teaching conceptual frameworks as part of the content (Marzano and Arredondo, 1986). There are many ways to do this. One is by using graphic organizers. Another is to teach content in an associative way (i.e., teaching it in relationship to what students personally have experienced, rather than in a linear or hierarchical way). Another way to build conceptual frameworks is to take what they know and translate it into the new form. For example, have them write in casual register and then translate into formal register. Or, have them rewrite the story in a poverty structure. In other words, it is an opportunity for students to see the same information in more than one structure. In math, students would both draw the problem and do the problem in an equation.
5. Using a kinesthetic approach as part of the classroom environment is another intervention. For example, rather than teaching algebra strictly from equations on paper and pencil, the shop teacher and the algebra teacher would design a project that would require students to use algebra to design and complete a metalworking project. The Tech Prep program uses this approach.
6. Using rubrics that show the levels of performance so that students can begin to critique their expertise. What a well-written rubric can do for students is to allow them to evaluate their performance and learn how to improve on that performance. It allows students to begin to address the cognitive problem of not being able to plan or schedule. It allows for the cognitive strategy of future representation to be developed, because students can see ahead of time the consequences of their choices.
7. Teaching the structure of language. Project Read is one such intervention and is a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading and writing. The focus is on teaching structure and patterns so
that the student can understand the use of language in formal registers. The campuses in Goose Creek Independent School District in Texas that have implemented this program have significantly higher state test scores than those campuses that have not. For more information about Project Read, please call (800) 450-0343.
8. Teaching students to make questions (Palincsar and Brown, 1984). There is a significant relationship between the ability to ask a question syntactically and comprehension of the text. To teach students question-making, simply give them the list of question stems on page 105, and then have them use the text to come up with their own questions. Require them to prepare four answer choices as well. Also, one can use the reciprocal teaching methods designed by Palincsar and Brown.
9. Sorting relevant from irrelevant cues. Cartooning is a wonderful way to do this. Have students draw, in six frames, the main points of the text or story. See template on page 1o6.
1o. Teaching mental models. To store abstract information in the mind, mental models are used. A mental model can be a twodimensional drawing, a story, a metaphor, or an analogy.
QUESTION-MAKING STEMS
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?
If the research had to be summed up in three words, these are the three (at left) that seem to appear repeatedly. Traditionally in schools we have provided insistence, and since the mid-1970s we have added expectations as part of the discussion. It is, however, the notion of support that must be provided to students now.
What is appropriate support? I am not talking about a fuzzy-feel-good notion of support; I am talking about what girders are to a bridge. The supports these students need are cognitive strategies, appropriate relationships, coping strategies, goal-setting opportunities, and appropriate instruction both in content and discipline. The true discrimination that comes out of poverty is the lack of cognitive strategies. The lack of these unseen attributes handicaps in every aspect of life the individual who does not have them.
The Virginia State Department of Education (1993) identified the following four responses as being effective in promoting learning for at-risk students: developmental preschool programs, supplemental reading programs, reducing class size, and schoolwide projects in prevention and support. These four responses could allow for relationships, support, insistence, and development of cognitive strategies. A study of low-performance schools (in which some children achieve) looked at the external resources that students bring to the school (Anderson, Hollinger, and Conaty, 1993). What seems to be more important than involvement and coming to school by parents is whether parents provide insistence, expectations, and support at home. Perhaps we need to rethink the focus of parent training.
In conclusion, as we adapt and flex our instruction to meet the needs of these students, cognitive strategies and support need to be integrated with insistence and expectations.
INSISTENCE EXPECTATIONS SUPPORT
WHAT DOES THIS INFORMATION MEAN IN THE SCHOOL OR WORK SETTING?
? The focus in schools should be on learning.
? Instruction in the cognitive strategies should be a part of the curriculum.
a Staff development should focus on a diagnostic approach rather than a programmatic approach.
• Efforts to promote learning should pay greater heed to what is in the student's head.
• Insistence, expectations, and support need to be guiding lights in our decisions about instruction.
CHAPTER 9
Creating Relationships
Locate a resilient kid and you will also find a caring adultor several-who has guided him.
- Invincible Kids, U.S. News & World Report
he key to achievement for students from poverty is in creating relationships with them. Because poverty is about relationships as well as entertainment, the most significant motivator for these students is relationships.
The question becomes, How does a formal institution create relationships? Two sources provide some answers to this question. These sources are (i) the recent research in the field of science and (2) the work Stephen Covey has done with personal effectiveness.
Margaret Wheatley, in her book Leadership and the New Science (1992), states quite clearly:
Scientists in many different disciplines are questioning whether we can adequately explain how the world works by using the machine imagery created in the 17th century, most notably by Sir Isaac Newton. In the machine model, one must understand parts. Things can be taken apart, dissected literally or representationally ... and then put back together without any significant loss ... The Newtonian model of the world is characterized by materialism and reductionism-a focus on things rather than relationships ... The quantum view of reality strikes against most of our notions of reality. Even to scientists, it is admittedly bizarre. But it is a world where relationship is the key determiner of what is observed and of how particles manifest themselves ... Many scientists now work with the concept offields-invisible forces that structure space or behavior (pp. 8-13).
Wheatley goes on to say that, in the new science of quantum physics, physical reality is not just tangible, it is also intangible. Fields are invisible, yet:
[They are the] substance of the universe ... In organizations, which is the more important influence on behavior-the system or the individual? The quantum world answered that question: It depends ... What is critical is the relationship created between the person and the setting. That relationship will always be different, will always evoke different potentialities. It all depends on the players and the moment (pp. 34-35).
Teachers and administrators have always known that relationships, often referred to as "politics," make a great deal of difference-sometimes all of the difference-in what could or could not happen in a building. But since 198o we have concentrated our energies in schools on "achievement" and "effective teaching strategies." We used the Newtonian approach to teaching, dissecting it into parts. Yet the most important part of learning seems to be related to relationship, if we listen to the data and the potent realities in the research emerging from the disciplines of biology and physics.
When students who have been in poverty (and have successfully made it into middle class) are asked how they made the journey, the answer nine times out of to has to do with a relationship-a teacher, counselor, or coach who made a suggestion or took an interest in them as individuals.
Covey (1989) uses the notion of an emotional bank account to convey the crucial aspects of relationships. He indicates that in all relationships one makes deposits to and withdrawals from the other individual in that relationship. The chart on the next page lists some of these deposits and withdrawals.
The first step to creating relationships with students and adults is to make the deposits that are the basis of relationships. Relationships always begin as one individual to another. First and foremost in all relationships with students is the relationship between each teacher and student, then between each student and each administrator, and finally, among all of the players, including student-to-student relationships.
What, then, is meant by relationship? (Should students become my personal friends? Should I go out with them?) A successful relationship occurs when emotional deposits are made to the student, emotional withdrawals are avoided, and students are respected. Are there boundaries to the relationship? Absolutely-and that is what is meant by clarifying expectations. But to honor students as human beings worthy of respect and care is to establish a relationship that will provide for enhanced learning.
What are the deposits and withdrawals with regard to students and adults from poverty? (See chart on next page.) By understanding deposits that are valued by students from poverty, the relationship is stronger.
How does an organization or school create-and build-relationships? Through support systems, through caring about students, by promoting student achievement, by being role models, by insisting upon successful behaviors for school. Support systems are simply networks of relationships.
Will c
reating healthy relationships with students make all students successful? No. But if we make a difference for 5% more of our students the first year and 5% more each year thereafter, we will have progressed considerably from where we are right now.
Adapted from Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
In the final analysis, as one looks back on a teaching career, it is the relationships one remembers.
WHAT DOES THIS INFORMATION MEAN IN THE SCHOOL OR WORK SETTING?
For students and adults from poverty, the primary motivation for their success will be in their relationships.
If your school or work setting presently affords few opportunities for building relationships, find ways to establish natural connections that will enable this vital resource to take root and grow.
Conclusion
ne of the topics as yet untouched is the need to grieve and go through the grieving process as one teaches or works with the poor. The Kubler-Ross stages in the grieving process are anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. As one meets and works with a particular family or individual, there is such frustration and, ultimately, grieving because many situations are so embedded as to seem hopeless. It's like dealing with the legendary octopus; each time a tentacle is removed, another appears. Particularly for the adults, so many choices have been made that virtually preclude any resolution that would be acceptable from an educated perspective. Yet the role of the educator or social worker or employer is not to save the individual, but rather to offer a support system, role models, and opportunities to learn, which will increase the likelihood of the person's success. Ultimately, the choice always belongs to the individual.