Reflections on Poverty and its Affect... Presentation

Katherine Barney
MEd, Curriculum and Instruction
Reading Specialist, MRT
ESL, G/T

Feedback Reflections

Date April 10, 2007
Location: Patterson Elementary Library
Number of participants: 9 the full hour 3 additional latecomers
Checklist on question stems will be collected April 20, 2007
Person
Comments from attendees
My reflections on each comment
1
Enjoyed presentation. It was too short.
Suggest spending more time on the Behavior Related to Poverty and
Intervention table. (p 47 of workbook).
Suggest 3 hours for presentation with more time spent on question stems.
My first thought when reviewing feedback on my pre and post survey was that I did not provide a survey for rating me as a presenter. Instead I asked them to respond in writing on the back of survey. Luckily they did respond, but I do not have data. However I do have results on whether their awareness of this population went up.

2
Good handout. I will use this right away. This information is useful for teaching many students in our district. I would like more information on this topic and more strategies for teaching this student population. Time allowed was to short.
This comment reflects the desire teachers have to reach this population. The concern from my last review by my colleagues that people would not be interested does not seem to be an issue. The information this person wants would be best given in a book study group and/or over several staff development sessions.
3
Good presentation. Not enough time to cover all material thoroughly.

I will be dividing this professional development into 3 one hour sessions and extend by providing activities that provide more practice with strategies.

4
Would like more information about Hidden Rules and how it applies to student/teacher relationship.
I think that by combining hidden rules and Behavior Related to Poverty I would have plenty to work with for 1- 0ne hour session.

5
No comment
I think this was the person who left early. The next day she verbally told me that she was very interested and would like to attend another session on the topic.

6
Principal- I really learned a lot from the hidden rules chart- you may want to have more specific examples ready to present with each item on the chart.
Overall valuable information, well structured. Good Job.
Look into adding a video clip from The Lookout movie once out on DVD. There is a section when brother has to plan the rescue of his brother. Question Stem activities needs more examples.
I like the idea of giving examples to go along with the Hidden Rules Chart.
A video clip would be an excellent addition. Another person suggested this idea with a clip from another movie. I am not familiar with The Lookout. I’ll have to check it out. To help the teachers that attended the session I am going to make student ready question stem sheets so that they can easily apply the strategy. I will go over the strategy again with teachers because this is where I ran out of time. Great feedback from my boss!
7
Great information. I really changed my thinking about poverty when we went over the different resources we need and how we can impoverished in other areas that are just necessary as money.
This person focused in on the section where I discussed resources (p 8 of workbook). First I read a story from Ruby Payne’s workbook about a young gang leader who was raising his 5-year-old nephew because his brother was shot and killed. Then we went through the resources chart to see what this young man had available to him to help. It also causes the reader to understand the priorities of these families.

8
No comment
She did fill out survey.

9
No comment
She did fill out survey. Later Ann discussed what I had discussed and that she had found the Behavior Related to Poverty and
Intervention table very helpful. She plans to use some of the suggestions with her students.
10
Three people came in the last 20 minutes after finishing their tutoring sessions.
These people were disappointed that they missed the presentation and asked for the handouts. I am going to go over the packet next week during our team meetings for those who are interested.






Survey Reflection

While responding to the statements below keep in mind that the students being referred to are from poverty level environments.

Rate1 through 5 from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree.

Pre Average Post Average

3.5 Poverty is mainly defined by a lack of financial resources. (p. 7) 4.5

1.5 I understand what motivates people of poverty. 4.5

3.0 I am comfortable with my teaching strategies for struggling readers. I need to spend more time on this.

4.0 With strong academic support students of poverty can achieve proficient 4.0
literacy skills. I need to spend more time on this.

5.0 When students respond inappropriately to the teacher or in social 5.0
situations it’s more effective to teach appropriate responses than to focus on
discipline. (p. 35)

1.5 I am familiar with the 5 registers or aspects of language. (p. 27) 4.5

3.0 The registers of language play an important role in how we communicate 5.0
with students.

2.0 Students in poverty have an I.Q. of 9 points lower than the average I didn’t get to thisstudent. (p. 87)

2.0 I understand the differences in values between poverty, middle, and the 4.0
wealthy and can apply that knowledge to my teaching approach.

1.0 The different levels of social class do not impact basic learning styles or 3.0
student ability. I need to spend more time on this.

Conclusion:
Using feedback from the people who attended the professional development is very helpful for planning future presentations. I received several good ideas for future presentations on this topic and the interest was very high. I feel that collaboration during professional development is essential to creating effective presentations. Therefore, when I ever I need to present a new topic I will try to have a practice run at least in front of one colleague.