Responses to Ruby Payne Prompt Questions

Prompt 1: Key Understandings

As a teacher leader, what are three key understandings you learned from the Payne text that you would deem appropriate for sharing with a colleague, administrator, and/or parent? Describe why these understandings were selected.

      One key understanding I would share with colleagues and administrators is that our role has to focus on finding ways to show kids in poverty that the school environment is a safe environment. They have choices and do not have to respond to conflict or frustrations in the same manner in which they respond in the neighborhood.  We must teach them the skills and rules needed to be successful in school and society because we cannot change their neighborhoods or family but we can control the school and make it a positive learning environment.

     Another key understanding I would share is that teachers and administrators must get to know the inner roots of the student in poverty.  In other words, we must know where they come from so we will know how to help them get to where we want them to go.  We must be open to finding what life is like for the kids in poverty that we work with.  More importantly, we must find support systems and resources to help them and their families. We must find ways to increase parental involvement and we must find ways to get them to understand what we need them to do to help their children. Students that do well in school have parents that are involved in their education. We must be creative and design instructional strategies that target the different levels of functioning of our students if we want them to achieve success. 

      Finally, I have a better understanding of the “three internal voices” that guide an   individual.  I understand why kids react the way they do because they perceive teachers as yelling at them since teachers tend to talk with the “parent voice”.  I learned that as teachers we have to do a better job of not getting confrontational with students.  We need to use the “adult voice” more to negotiate so students do not feel threatened. This method will in turn allow them to more receptively accept the decision of the teacher.

Prompt 2: Impact on Professional Practice

What are some things that you will implement (or have already implemented) and/or do differently regarding your interactions with children and/or adults resulting from your understandings of Payne's framework?

            I have implemented the “I statement” philosophy when interacting with students that are in trouble and do not want to admit or in some cases do not know what they did was wrong.  This process requires students to use an “adult voice” versus the defensive “child voice” to tell what they did and forces them to see their role in the situation when they want to say “I didn’t do nothing”.  This process will not allow them to tell what the other kids did so it also helps to get to the point quicker so the issue can be resolved. 

         I also started interacting with one of my speech students on a daily basis because he was   having behavioral problems in the classroom that were affecting his academic progress.  So I have established a relationship in which he and I communicate daily outside of  his therapy sessions. He must complete a behavior sheet in which he must write down why he got a demerit, who gave it to him and he must choose from a list or other choices he could have made or come up with one on his own.  Initially his parents did not see the form but I had to get them involved in the process because he continued to get into trouble on a daily basis that lead to several demerits a day that eventually lead to referrals to the office.  Now that his parents must sign his behavior sheet that tracks the number of demerits he gets his behaviors have decreased to 1or 2 a week. His teacher was           informed of the contract initially as well but did not sign it.  However, she had to be included in signing daily as well because he would not complete the form   honestly.  If he does not come to see me at the end of the day I know he did not have a good day and I must find him first thing the next day.

References

Payne, R.K. (2005). A framework for understanding poverty. (4th ed.) The Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

Prompt 3: Questions for Dr. Payne

If you had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Payne over coffee, what are two open-ended questions you would likely ask her regarding the framework?

Two questions that I would ask Dr. Payne are: 

1.      Have you seen the dynamics of poverty change since you first wrote your book because of the economic hardships that recently impacted the United States as a whole?

2.      What else could educators and schools do to help students and parents who live in poverty?