Week 1: "Poverty Is A Learning Barrier"- Stephanie Esposito

Chapters 1&2

Creative Connector:

“Those who work in low socioeconomic status (SES) schools know that the tasks that face our teachers include teaching ESL students academic skills, supporting their English proficiency, helping them adjust to the school setting, and fostering their adaptation to the American culture” (Howard, Dresser, & Dunklee, 2009, p.6). As teachers we must find ways of communicating with our students and their guardians. While doing my undergrad, my first practicum placement was in an urban elementary school in downtown Syracuse. My placement was in a first grade classroom. The greater majority of students were Hispanic/Latino and English Language Learners. Because the students were in the early stages of learning the English language, it was very difficult for me to help them because they were trying to speak to me in Spanish, and unfortunately I learned French. It was very frustrating for me to try to connect with the students.  I started to pick up on words and began writing them down so I could remember them. I also had a friend that was a TESOL major and she taught me several things about Spanish that I could learn to prepare myself better.

“Lack of participation wasn’t necessarily due to lack of concern or commitment; poorer parents just had less time and flexibility to meet parent involvement commitments” (Howard et al., 2009, p.10). My first student teaching placement was in a rural school district that had a lot of students coming from low SES families. It was the very first parent-teacher conferences of the school year and it was startling to see how many parents did not show. It is understandable that these parents either had to work or had other things going on in life, but there was very little or no attempt to reschedule.

“Many teachers do not understand the effects of poverty on school readiness and, as a result, accept the inevitability of impending failure for children of poverty- these teachers exhibit deficit perception” (Howard et al., 2009, p.10). I think this statement is important because as teacher we need to understand that we cannot follow the same timeline year after year with different students. First we must know who our students are and what they bring to the classroom. Our curriculum must be “…connected to the experiences, values, knowledge, and needs of the students” in order of it to be meaningful to them.