Teaching Life Skills to Children and Teens with ADHD

Vincent Monastra is a clinical psychologist who specializes in ADHD. He runs a clinic where he teaches life skills classes to help these individuals become more successful. His book, Teaching Life Skills to Children and Teens with ADHD, contains a series of lesson outlines drawn from his classes. He uses three principles throughout the series to help caregivers teach and reinforce these skills:

• positive practice- requiring individuals to practice what they didn't do. If they were supposed to brush their teeth, they must do so when they are "caught" not having done so. If they were supposed to clean their room- things stop until the room is clean.
• positive punishment- requires children to do some positive action when they fail to meet the expectation. If they do not clean their room independently, they might now have to do both the room cleaning and another chore.
• time stands still- all "fun" activity stops until the positive practice and positive punishment tasks are complete.

This means that the child who was supposed to write assignments in his planner and didn't needs to call a responsible friend or check a reliable on-line source to complete the planner. Then they might need to read an article (see here or here for two examples) and explain the rationale for using a planner. They might also need to brainstorm new prompts to help them remember to do so. Until this is completed, they do not get to do anything else- no Lego, video games, cell phone social media, sports, TV,...

While I love the concept and for me, a mom who was home when the kids got home and stayed home through bedtime, I could enact such practices relatively easily. I also am very stubborn and not willing to give in to the whining of my children. Not every parent has the ability to be present to ensure these things happen not are they willing to endue the tantrums, shouting, door slamming, etc. that children sometimes resort to when they are thwarted from doing what they want. I also am crazy consistent which was immensely helpful for my son with ASD, but certainly not something many parents with their busy schedules always demonstrate.

One of the key things Dr. Monastra begins with is the importance of three things: sleep, nutrition and exercise. This is a triad that many people bring up but is, apparently, hard to enforce. Teens should get 9 hours of sleep- it could be a nap and or it could be just going to bed early. Many parents do not enforce such bedtimes because they want to spend time with their children, extracurricular schedules interfere, the children say they are not sleep ( and they truly might not be), TV and social media in the bedroom is difficult to control. Parents can put controls on cell phone use, remove TVs from bedrooms, and reduce the number of outside commitments their children engage in, but must be prepared for push back. Ultimately, to borrow a Larry Winget phrase, parents must "put on their big boy pants" and do the unpleasant parts of parenting.

From a nutrition standpoint, he emphasizes the importance of protein in the morning. It helps provide long term energy and the components for creating neurotransmitters that allow the brain to work and learn and later sleep. This means things like yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, or bacon in the morning for breakfast or a snack. My son was an incredibly fussy eater. He would not eat breakfast. Snacks at midmorning were essential for him to function effectively at school. This might be the case for other children as well. Getting children to try nonpreferred foods (for my son texture and temperature were both important elements in food, many foods would be turned down permanently if there was a violation in one of these areas) is important. We can give in and only feed children honey buns, but we are doing them no favors by taking the easy way out.

Exercise. In John Medina's Attack of the Teenage Brain (see my blogs here and here), they also talk about the critical importance of exercise to mental health of all children. Those with ADHD are especially vulnerable to the need for exercise. Some studies have shown that after aerobic exercise, children show far less hyperactivity and impulsivity in the classroom. Brains need oxygen to function properly. Students who sit all day are not getting enough oxygen to their brains. They need to get up and get moving in order to learn. One of my favorite studies showed that students who had daily PE had better academic results even if they lost "academic learning time." We need to get our kids up and moving because it helps them regulate their behavior and learn more effectively.

I completely understand why Monastra requires parents to stay with their children during class. This is not a one-sided, one and done exercise. Parents need to learn skills to help their children do better. Enduring the pain now will help children be more successful later. It is worth it.

Visible learning-attention and perception

John Hattie and Gregory Yates' book, Visible Learning and the Science of How we Learn, ends with a section called "Know Thyself." He shares how important it is for people to be self-aware in order to learn. A few standout points center on perception and attention.

"As you become skilled, your perception changes, and you cannot appreciate how inherently difficult a task is for others" (p. 235). As teachers it is important to keep in mind what a challenging thing we are asking of students- learning new things, modifying schema, reaching beyond their life experiences to untried territory. My sister had a math professor who was known for showing the first few steps of a problem and then saying, "and thus it is intuitively obvious the answer is …" The problem was that the answer was not intuitively obvious to the group. We often move too fast for our students, not giving them the processing and thought time they need to absorb material. We are driven by a pacing guide, not by learning.

Inattentional blindness- missing things right in front of your face. The more we are focused on one thing, the less we notice others. This is, in part, why cell phones are so bad for driving. Diving our attention, even with hands free mechanisms, makes us poorer drivers. Simons and Chabris explored this phenomenon with the invisible gorilla test- people were asked to watch a video and then answer questions. when they were asked to complete a task about the video, their ability to notice other details significantly was reduced. Our students think they can listen to music, watch videos and/or use social media without it impacting their ability to learn material. Much research contradicts this idea. Perhaps the videos Simons has posted could be used to showcase to students how their divided attention impairs their ability to notice and learn.

When I was in junior high I had a teacher write two words on the chalkboard- yes I am dating myself- "PAY ATTENTION." He then had us brainstorm what each word meant and recorded our responses. Ultimately he drew from us that to pay attention we had to give up something of value- the ability to do other things- and focus on what was at hand. That lesson has stayed with me all these years because of its powerful implications. Students need to learn that paying attention means just that- they need to focus on something and give up attending to others. Hattie and Yates point out "Attention is not in itself such an automatic process as you might presume. To make it work, it has to be activated, and if not the opportunity to learn slips past" (p. 286). When we fail to do this, inattentional blindness inhibits our ability to learn effectively. While some students come to us with great attentional skills, many need to be taught how to attend.

This book is loaded with lots of research. A good broad scoped book that could easily be used in its entirely or in part to focus a PLC for a variety of teachers.

Visible Learning and personalized learning

Around where I live there has been a move toward personalized learning using Education Element's Core Four. Two elements of the program are flexible content and student reflection. Flexible content leans heavily on student voice and choice. Reading Visible Learning and the Science of How we Learn by John Hattie and Gregory Yates has made me think about these two concepts.

Hattie and Yates point out:

Anxious students respond well to strong guidance, direct supervision and a restriction on choices. But non-anxious people respond well to almost the opposite conditions. It is also well established that in acquiring knowledge, beginners benefit from clear step-by-step instructions and an absence of problem solving tasks. On the other hand, highly knowledgeable learners may benefit from working on problems to solve and are held back by step-by-step instructions. (p. 181)

This has interesting implications for personalized learning. The CDC says that in 2012 over 8% of students had an anxiety disorder (increasing every year) with approximately 60% receiving treatment. A Pew study indicated that  70% of teens felt anxiety was a major problem among their peers. This being the case, that idea of choice is a concern. Perhaps a very limited choice of two or three might be valuable, but a list of 10 project ideas would clearly be too many. In our zeal we may make things more difficult for a large number of our kids. Balancing choice lists for anxious and not anxious students may mean separate lists.

This also has implications on our students by ability level. More knowledgeable students benefit from problem solving approaches but our struggling learners do not. We need to adjust presentation of information to fit the knowledge level of our students. The use of pre-assessments could determine who would benefit from problem solving and who needs a more direct approach. We need to be flexible, but it may not be the students themselves who are best able to determine what the best learning approach would be.

Self-reflection seems like an innately useful skill. Socrates admonished people to know thyself. If you have ever asked a student how they did on something, the typical response is ok. Many studies identify self-assessments as poor indicators of ability or success (p. 231). The top quartile of students tend to underestimate achievement and difficulty of a task and everyone else overestimates their ability- often grossly (p. 233). This means that blanket self-reflection tasks are likely to be poor measures. In order to make self-reflection valuable, we need to make it far more objective and pointed. For example, if we want students to self-reflect on their ability to utilize a strategy to solve a word problem we probably do not want to ask "Can you solve the problem on your own?" We probably want them to attempt the problem, compare with a correct example and then answer a series of questions:

• Did you dissect the question- (circle the numbers, underline what you need to find,...)?
• Did you write the correct number problem?
• Were you able to solve the number problem correctly?(This might be broken into the steps to solve the particular problem.)
• Did you check your answer?
• Did you write your answer in a sentence?

This allows students to see where they made a mistake. It could be followed up with if you did not get the correct number problem, go to station number one. If you missed a step in solving the problem, go to station number two. If you made a math error, go to station number three. If you completed all the steps correctly, go to station number four. Each station could have an activity to work on the troublesome skill. Itemizing the self-reflection allows for more accurate understanding of the success of the learning level.

We need to be very careful with personalized learning so that we do not hinder progress of students. Personalized learning has had very mixed results. I suspect part may be relate to choice availability for anxious and non-anxious students and students with varying knowledge levels as well as a poor ability to self-reflect. We need to apply this well-researched information in the arena of how we teach, especially as it applies to the "fad of the day" as is so often the case in education.

Visual Learning and the science of how we learn part 1

I am about a third of the way through John Hattie and Gregory Yates' book Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn. Two main principles have stuck out as important: cognitive load and prior knowledge. They are interesting, in part, because in today's schools we seem to be minimizing their impact on student achievement.

"A major determinant of knowledge acquisition will be what the mind already knows" (p. 114). When the CCSS emerged, the reading people suggested that teachers should not work at actively activating prior knowledge and that through close reading all would be revealed. You might be able to learn it through close reading of a passage that you know little about, but we do not have to make ourselves work that hard. Teach strategies to help students approach a text by pulling what they know from their background. If they know nothing, the passage will be meaningless. (I keep thinking about a book my son brought home in kindergarten to read. It was about a bunny doing lots of different dances- fox trot, waltz, rumba, etc. Oddly, my son who had little knowledge about dancing, did not really get the book, even though he could read it. His vocabulary was not up to the task of comprehension.) Hattie points out that "prior knowledge effects readily outweigh the effects due to IQ or … 'learning styles'"(p. 114). We need to develop a foundation on which to build information. If you do not have a tree, it is hard to hang ornaments. Sometimes this means we need to watch a video clip, hear a story, go on a field trip, work with realia,  read an easier passage first or preview vocabulary to help understand what we are going to try to learn. Using these strategies helps us to get the information into our heads in a meaningful way. We get things into long term memory by linking to things that are similar and retrieve them based on how they are different. Without a system to encode, we will struggle to meaningfully interact with the material.

My least favorite part of teaching is unteaching- taking some misconception that a student has and replacing that knowledge with the truth. It takes twice as long to actively unlearn as to learn. This is prior knowledge showcasing its power. I would way rather build the foundation than have to tear down someone else's work. We need to be very careful with what we teach. You can actually subtract a bigger number from a smaller number, in spite of what our first grade teachers tell us. You just get a negative number. Contrary to what the movie Ice Age portrays, glacial movement is really slow and the density of animals on glaciers is really low. Veins are not blue, nor is deoxygenated blood. The Sun is not closer to the Earth during summer than winter. Columbus landed in the Caribbean and never knew he had not landed in the East Indies. Need I go on?

Cognitive load is the level of effort the brain is asked to engage in. The brain can only do so much. This is why prior knowledge is so important. When you have something learned to an automatic level, it loads the brain in a limited manner. When you are working with new things, problem solving, or doing higher level thinking, your cognitive load is high. So we need to be careful not to overload students' cognitive capacity at any one time or they will be unable to function with any level of efficiency. When it comes to inquiry learning the "additional load imposed by the need to explore and find thigs out can detract from our capacity to assimilate the information" (p. 78). That is why inquiry approaches require so much time and scaffolding- "the effort involved [in problem solving] detract from the overall knowledge building process and can make further less likely" (p. 152).  Lecture can be powerful because, done right, it presents small chunks of information in a meaningful framework so that students can learn it. The more a student knows, the more they can "discover" on their own. While short term memory can hold 7 pieces of information, working memory can only operate or use 2-4 pieces of new information, it can use more items if they are from long term memory (p. 146).

We know that students with ASD struggle with generalization. Perhaps cognitive load explains a great deal of this. They are less adept at processing sensory information so their working memory is overloaded. Consequently they cannot generalize from the problem solving involved in socialization. This leads one to conclude that explicit learning needs to be used to take a skill to the automatic level before it is combined with other skills.

When we teach, we need to aware of these two concepts because they determine what a student will get out of instruction. They require careful and thoughtful building from the student's individual place, not the curriculum's place.

Emotional Intelligence

More than two decades ago Daniel Goleman wrote Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ. Since then there have been an assortment of character education and affective learning programs scattered through the education universe. Today's focus on whole child learning, social emotional programing, restorative justice, trauma informed education and mindfulness continue the trend. In the intervening decades we have learned even more about neuroscience and yet, we still struggle with implementing these skills into the classroom even though we know they have positive impact.

I managed to get an audiobook version from 2005. Again I struggled with listening to deep content. In part because I was driving for most of the book and in part because maintaining listening attention and focus without taking notes is extremely challenging. When I listen to a deep text, I am constantly reminded of how students should follow along, annotate and take notes when they listen to texts from which we hope they will learn.

Goleman focuses on five main elements of emotional intelligence:

1. self-awareness
2. self-regulation
3. motivation
4. empathy 
5. social skills.

The part that I found fascinating was the application chapters. He talks about the role of the family in developing emotional sophistication, trauma and how it impacts emotions and self-regulation, and the role of temperament. He discusses how emotional skills improve health by virtue of improved immune systems.

Being bathed in the world of Autism, I see the parallels between the challenges of emotional intelligence and the struggles of those on the spectrum. 

• Self-awareness- people on the spectrum tend to have weak emotional vocabularies and abilities to identify emotions they feel. They tend to use few levels of emotions, which may result in wild swings in mood.
• self-regulation- if you do not know how you feel, you will struggle with managing yourself. 
• motivation- being able to engage in long-term planning and follow through is difficult for many children. People on the spectrum often find time difficult- my son is rigid about everyone following timelines. He needs to organize his life on the clock. Changing his schedule is getting easier, but still presents a challenge.
• empathy- if you cannot recognize your own feelings, doing so in others is nearly impossible. Thomas the Train is remarkably successful with youngsters on the spectrum because the facial expressions are so clear. The program can be used in therapeutic settings to help youngsters.
• social skills- the entire pragmatic, social language is the core of the disorder. Developing these skills is essential to productive futures.

The part that resonated most with me was the chapters on training the skills. In schools we have started to put this in the forefront but our schools of education, where teachers learn their craft, do not require training in developing emotional intelligence in students. He identifies a variety of programs that have been used to help develop skills, emphasized the role of having a long term coherent programs that empirically are effective. He criticizes the drug prevention program reliance on DARE as popular but ineffective and stresses the importance of locating successful programs and implementing them in developmentally appropriate ways.

This should be a baseline reading for all teachers. It provides the rationale for any other social-emotional program that a district choses to implement. It points the way for deeper and more intense programing to help our children become successful. In today's world where people are increasingly isolated, where attention to anything beyond a sound byte is monumentally challenging, where technology is taking the place of interactions, we need to focus on emotional aptitude more than ever.

Neuroworld

In my previous post I talked about Donna Volpitta's book on resilience. Here children's book, Neuroworld: A Guide for teaching the Brain Science of Resilience, is meant to explain to children four sections of the brain: cortex, limbic system, amyglada and prefrontal cortex, that influence our decision making and behavior. She relates each region to a bug and explains the role it plays and how they interact with each other.

region	information
Cortex (ant)	·         Involved in planning and working hard ·         Influenced by adequate rest, nutrition and exercise ·         Social skills, focus and routines
Limbic system (grasshopper)	·         Early to develop ·         Emotions ·         Short term survival and rewards
Amygdala (glowworm)	·         Part of limbic system on alert for threats ·         Being alert and looking for threats
Prefrontal cortex (dragonfly)	·         Can override the limbic system Last part of the brain to develop ·         Conscious choices ·         Executive function

The book is meant to be shared with children to introduce them to concepts about self-control and help them on the way to being more successful with their emotions. Children would need multiple exposures to the text to understand the concepts. Exploring these concepts with calm children will help them to be more responsive to scripting that encourages them to take charge of their emotions and behavior. An interesting approach to metacognition.

The Resilience Formula

I was fortunate enough to attend NYS PTA's Summer Leadership Conference where I participated in a couple of highly informative workshops. I was inspired to purchase some reading material and have started going through it. Donna M. Volpitta, a former teacher and neuroscience researcher, spoke about the interactions within the brain that help govern behavior. The book she co-authored with Joel D. Haber, The Resilience Formual: A Guide to Proactive Not Reactive Parenting, is a text for parents, especially those of young children, to help them understand how the brain governs behavior and how scripting  can be used to circumvent challenges and teach prosocial behavior.

Early in the book she describes resilience "as the ability to respond postively to adverse sitruations, typically those that arise to such proportions as natural disasters, war, or crippling accidents" (p. 18). Since none of us want to contemplate the rare occurences of such large scale disasters, she also includes a broader definition of "encompassing a person's ability to cope with any stress or adversity" (p. 18), Truly this is what we want for our children- to successfully mange the day to day challenges of our life. My favorite definition of self-esteem is around the ability to have resilience- to cope with the ups and downs of our lives. We all have them. We all must respond to them. We all handle some better than others. Wouldn't we all like to have strategies to handle them better than we do?

Scripting is the process of providing the language required to help someone manage a situation. I remember an actor who played a thoughtful and loving father on TV say how he was a great TV dad becuase someone wrote it for him and he would love to have someone do that in real life when he was challenged by his own children. I suspect learning the scripts for his show probably helped him handle his kids because he was able to see a best case senario. As kids get older the scripting we must use is not in the heat of the moment, but outside it. The authors share that the three big themes of prosocial interation are

1. how to actively include people
2. how to share objects
3. how to make compromises

We might help script how to make a phone call to invite a friend to a play date, how to include a sibling in an activity, how to share a game system or toy or how to negotiate getting the car or which treat to have. Teaching children, especially from a young age to  do the following:
     Child (whines): I want to play with Davie.
     Adult: Say, "Davie, can I play with you?"
     Child: Davie, can I play with you?
     Davie: Sure
It gives them the words that they do not yet have to achieve the ends they want. It takes time and the demand that the entire request be repeated to create the neuro pathways to establish and maintain the pattern.

As a parent of a child on the spectrum, the prosocial chapter was particularly meaningful. It reminds me of Social Thinking lite. Teaching these scripts is what we did to try and develop pragmatic skills in my child with a particular weakness. It is, however, a skill that all children can benefit from.

The book is an easy read. It's advice is straigh-forward. A great gift for a new parent who does not want their child to be living in their basement when the child is 30. More information may be found at the Center for Resilinect Leadership.

The 360 Leader

I have read many things by John C. Maxwell and enjoyed his practical, easy to read style that is loaded with examples and stories that emphasize his points.  His The 360° Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization was mentioned at a conference workshop I attended, so I went out and tracked down a copy. It did not disappoint. The book is broken into 6 sections: myths, challenges, principles to lead up, across and down, and the value of the middle leader. Maxwell contends that to be a 360° leader, you must lead up to your boss, across to your peers and down to your team. It is not an easy job, but he sets out 300 pages of advice to help you be successful.

A consistent theme of Maxwell's is the critical importance of people and their development. He stressess over and over in many ways that more leaders enhance an organization and developing leadership in people is the role of every leader. This reminds me of something from The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell where he talks about the higher up in an organization you go, the more your work is on mentoring people and the less on the business of the organization. Good leaders are about the influence they have in an organization, not titles. Influence grows from competence and confidence.

One of the first concepts Maxwell tackles is that leadership can and should come from everywhere in the in the organization. "The key to succeeding is to learn to deal with the tension of whatever position you are in, overcome its obstacles, and make the most of its advantages and opportunities. If you do that, you can succeed from anywhere in the organization" (p. 33). This is true of students- if they can overcome their personal and academic challenges, they will be successful. It is also true for any of the PTA groups I have been a part of- when someone rises to overcome the problems, they, and the organization, become better.

The quote I want to share with my son is "Maturity does not come with age. It begins with the acceptance of responsibility" (p. 62). When he steps up and does what needs to be done, he is acting mature. When he dodges or is dragged into facing a responsibility, he is not there yet. This adulting is often seen by children as being able to do what you want, when you want. Unfortunately that element is tempered by responsibilites that have you completing tasks you would rather not, when it is not fun.

I have often been cited as pushing and challenging those above me who lead. I ask questions and look for better ways to do things. "Leaders push boundaries" (p. 111) becasue they want to make improvements. Acceptance of the status quo is not going to drive an organization to success. I am currently reading Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom in which he frequently talks about times when he disagreed with the majority and after debate ended up supporting the viewpoint the group adopted whether or not he whole heartedly agreed. Maxwell would agree- discuss and debate, accept the will of the group and accept that you will sometime fail. For leaders to grow they must have the opportunity to stretch and sometimes not make it. "Leaders who tend to the people ususally build up the people and the business" (p. 218).

In schools I have advocated for times of homogenous grouping. This is not a popular concept- often labeled tracking. It is true that individuals in the lower end of the group benefit from being grouped with more able peers. The problem is that high potential students do not academically grow when placed with lower level students. They grow and learn when with their high potential peers. Maxwell points out this principle when he says, "people function at peak capacity when they have someone else pushing them" (p. 172). If you want to be a star athlete, you want to be on the best team so that the players will challenge you to improve your skills. Finding people with more leadership skills than you to hang aound, will allow some of their skills to be adopted by you.

In the section on leading down, Maxwell cites a card he found on his father's desk.
"#1 Build people up by encouragement.
#2 Give people credit by acknowledgement.
#3 Give people recognition by gratitude."   (p. 227)
I try very hard to acknowledge the accomplishments of my teams with written notes- handwritten, not email- whenever possible. I know that some of them treasure these notes. Having read a book about thank you notes, I developed a simple formula: Thank the person, by name, for their specific contribution (person/attendance first, tangibles second), explain how the contibution led to the success of the organization/activity, and share how you would like to continue to work together in the future. Three specific sentences can be highly effective. This is not the thank you I have often received: "Thank you for your help at the conference. You helped us run a successful conference." I have penned notes like: "Dear Lynn, Thank you so much for running the Reflections program this year. I know that you spent many hours putting to gether the celebration that was attended by over fifty artists and their family members. Your willingness to step up and run this even truly helps out students be recognized for their work. I hope we can count on your help next year as well." As Maxwell suggests, we should "see and lead people as they can be not as the are" by treating them as a 10 (p. 227).

In order to lead, you need to slow down. He aptly points out the example of a parent teaching a child a skill. It is slower and perhaps less well done when the child is learning the skill, but with practice, the child will become proficient at the activity. I remember the first time baking cut out sugar cookies with my daughter went faster rather than slower. It was a powerful high. Teaching leadership skills is like that. It takes practice and mentoring and time, but at the end it is worth it.

In customer suggestions and reviews, negatives about with a small number of positives ever taken in. In leadership roles, the reverse is true. People will spout their wins to the leader and the world, but hold back on the challenges. When people start avoiding the leader who is doing his best to be accessible and visible, something is wrong. It is the wise leader who recognizes the problem. The wiser one goes to his boss with possible solutions before stuff hits the fan.

Another link I found to teaching is in his advice for leading down- "Experience alone isn't a good enough teacher-- evaluated experience is" (p. 235). When students practice and work they need feedback in order to improve. The student I had who was conviced she needed to skip a line on the vertical axis before countin up had misinterpreted something along the road and being graded on the problem was not improving her skill. Like many students she often just looked at the grade on a paper. I needed to sit with her while she graphed and stop her in her numbering and explain the proper procedure. Growing leadership is like this. Some people need very specific guidance and others can learn it incidentily.

Trauma senstive schools for adolescents

Working in a high poverty school has had me thinking about the root of the challenge for my kids. I do not feel that poverty is the underlying cause. It is trauma. One type of trauma is poverty and the various forms of insecurity that accompany it- primarily food and housing. Many of my students are children living with only one parent or a guardian. Many live in houses where abuse is or was occurring. Many are exposed to substance abuse or are now using themselves. Many have untreated medical or dental problems, especially mental health. These kids need extensive support to help them engage in the learning process. Susan E. Craig's book, Trauma-Sensitive Schools for the Adolescent Years: Promoting Resiliency and Healing, Grades 6-12, tackles this concern head on.

Craig defines trauma as "exposure to experiences that exceed one's capacity to cope" (p. 8). Once a first trauma has occurred subsequent resiliency is impaired and individuals are more easily traumatized again. The author acknowledges the link between trauma and disengagement, something I see in the classroom. Trauma limits the "ability to use higher-order thinking to regulate subcortical brain activity" (p 7). She recommends acknowledging the academic challenge and then actively working to counter the fear response of fight or flight. The strategies she recommends to deal with this impaired brain include promoting integration of new and old information, fostering collaboration and perspective taking.

This work takes time. The brain has been impacted by trauma and needs to develop new patterns of use. New dendrites need to be built and reinforced so that old, dysfunctional to learning patterns are overwritten. It relies on the development of relationships with often relationship shy young people. Clear and precise language  needs to be used to talk about strategies that will be successful in school for solving challenges. From an instructional standpoint, she recommends using differentiated instruction and dialogic teaching.

She recommends teaching and reinforcing strategies for stress management. We cannot eliminate stress from anyone's life. A little stress is good- it pushes us to be mindful, study or be careful. Too much is a problem. When students approach unhealthy stress levels they need productive ways to deal- visualization, yoga, and deep breathing are examples. Each person needs to find their method. For my son, deep breathing was a nonstarter. We could sometimes prompt him to refocus on relaxing topics. He learned to have a book handy when it was likely he was going to have to wait. Each individual needs their own tool box of stress management.

Trauma exposed people tend to focus on the negative rather than the successes. They need the adults in their lives to celebrate and help them recognize their successes and opportunities. Many people exposed to trauma see the future as a black hole. We need to help them imagine a future of possibilities. We need to help them plan for positives rather than wallow in their problems and past.

Disrupting Poverty part 2

Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett's book, Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices, begins with a discussion of poverty and it's impact on children. The first comment that hit me was their insistence that "labeling students 'poor' can provide an excuse for holding low expectations" (p 23). It struck me that we do this with many subgroups- students with disabilities, English language learners, poor kids, children of single parent households... We use that yardstick to define how far they can go and excuse their behaviors and performance. Unfortunately some kids are given a raw deal. If we use those situations to excuse their performance or behavior, we are limiting them. It sucks, but sometimes you have to work harder than your peers to achieve the same. Your boss doesn't care if you had an argument with your wife before getting to work late. We cannot excuse the kid who is chronically tardy because his life has some terrible thing in it. We need to figure out how to get him to class on time. Ignoring it merely teaches that it is ok to not meet the standards and that is a road that leads to perpetuating low success.

I have long thought we tend to ignore the factors that contribute to low performance in school because as teachers we have little control over them.

• material resources: not having the internet or a computer to do assignments, limited clothing and food resources, crowded spaces, childcare concerns are areas that schools are trying to impact through free/reduced lunches and breakfast, wrap around school care, and clothing closets.
• health and well-being- poverty increases problems, starting with poor prenatal care and moving to inadequate access to doctors. I will never forget the 7 year old I worked with. The local dental school provided free check ups and care for all the kids in the school. This young kid needed two root canals and five cavities filled. How could he be expected to learn?
• Food insecurity- yes, we have lunch and breakfast programs but that is only 5 days a week during the school year. 42.2 million people lived in households with food insecurity in 2016 (p. 37). If you are hungry, it is hard to learn. Moreover, chronic stress causes other issues for people.
• neurocognitive and neurobehavioral development- Poverty contributes to problems with executive function- issues in areas such as self-regulation, working memory, focusing, and prioritizing. Chronic stress cause the brain to reshape as a result of bombardment by cortisol. While the brain is plastic and can learn new tricks, we are often ill-equipped to teach these skills. Further, they can seem irrelevant to someone living the life, reducing motivation to learn them. "When people are preoccupied with the reality of living with severely limited financial resources, the impairment in their cognitive functioning compares to a 13 point drop in IQ" (p 99). It is a functioning issue that is nearly a standard deviation.
• housing instability- this leads to fear, stress, inability to keep stuff  like school supplies and clean clothes, health and hygiene concerns. Schools can provide showers and laundry facilities. Being open before and after school can reduce these stressors.
• Family stress and trauma- I think we are only beginning to see the tip of the iceberg on this one. We need to find ways to reduce the stress so that we can increase their capacity to learn.
• Neighborhood risk factors- unsafe places outside, resource poor neighborhoods, gang presences all add up to problems. They are linked to delinquency, drug use, conduct disorders and teenage pregnancy.
• Interrupted scheduling- students who change schools often have easy to identify problems. What about the kid who travels between different households with different rules and resources. Child care responsibilities interfere with schooling.
• language and literacy development- well established differences in vocabulary between high and low income children. They have less background knowledge and less vocabulary, reduced access to books and people using sophisticated language with them. This is an exponential difference that seems to only expand as children age.
• social and cultural capital- less access to informal networks that share how to interact successfully with school. "Middle class and low income parents behave differently when visiting their children's classrooms" (p 147). Low income parents are more hesitant and less likely to advocate for their children.  Upper and middle class families are spending more than ever on enrichment for their kids- camps, instruments, lessons, tutoring, college career planning, and SAT prep are all examples of opportunities that children in poverty miss out on.

This list is hard to face and deal with. It takes a community to address. We need to establish and maintain safety nets to help these poor communities. Welfare and food stamps help, as do food pantries and clothing closets. We need medical services to be accessible, increased availability of low income housing, and childcare.

So what can teachers do?

• Build caring relationships and advocating for students.
• Hold high expectations and provide needed support.
• Commit to equity-- not equality
• Accept professional responsibility for learning.
• Have the courage and will to take action.

I have written about some of these strategies in my ramblings about poverty here, here and here.

Disrupting Poverty pt1- high expectations

I picked up Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett's new book, Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices because I am trying to figure out how to best reach the kids I am working with, many of whom are in poverty. Their earlier book, Turning High Poverty Schools into High Performing Schools, I read and blogged about earlier this year (see here and here). They propose a system of integrated components to promote success with students living in poverty: building caring relationships, holding high expectations, committing to equity, accepting professional accountability, and having the courage to take action.

Holding high expectations and providing needed support. When Jamie Escalante challenged his students to pass the AP calculus exam, he offered summer, weekend, before and after school support. He took a group of poor Hispanic kids from the hood and helped them succeed on a very challenging exam, in spite of the naysayers. It took extraordinary effort. He needed to convince the students that this was a worthwhile goal and he needed them to put more effort into school than they ever had before. This well known story is held up as an example of what can be done. In reality, we know that not all teachers are as charismatic as Escalante. Not all schools would allow a teacher to work so many extra hours. Not all teachers would be willing to do so. Not all students could attend classes that were not supported with bussing. Despite all this, we can make a difference. Our students living with poverty can be successful.

Budge and Parrett point out that "the greater the risk factors in a student's life, the more high expectations matter to the student's life chances" (p 78). Our neediest need us to push them the most. That can be a lonely and hard road. People think you are ignoring the needs of the kids and expecting too much of them. You are not being sympathetic with their needs. But they matter more. When we hold low behavioral expectations because someone's life is a mess they learn that they should not be expected to rise to the challenge. My single mother is a druggy who does not provide consistent food or a place to sleep, therefore I cannot be  expected to treat others with respect. No way. Your life sucks. I get it. You need to work harder to get over it. I will help you by providing time and space to get your homework done, materials for classes and food for your stomach. I will reteach what you miss because of attendance concerns. I will not allow you to disrespect me, show up habitually tardy, or abandon your work. If we do anything less we are buying into their broken dreams. Students used to low-cognitive demand instruction become acclimated to it and resist anything else. If I want you to have an opportunity to rise above, the crap outside cannot allow you to sink to crap.

We need to constantly provide students with the idea that they are in charge. "Time is just a picture. Now you can change that frame every second" (p 85). We need to empower them, not let bad choices lead to a cycle of disempowerment. If we accept bad behavior because it is all this poor child can pull together at this time, we are giving permission to act that way anything goes wrong. That is not a recipe for success in life.

The authors point out research that indicates severely limited financial resources can reduce functioning by a full 13 IQ points (p 99). We want to provide as much social support as we can to mitigate the challenge that nearly a full standard deviation drop in IQ score amounts to. We need to provide the social supports that will allow these kids to live in a world with as much cognitive support as they can garner- medical services need to be available, housing and food insecurity need to be avoided. We cannot say "you poor thing" we need to say "here is the support to help you make it through." It is too easy to make excuses for poor behavior and success. That trap will not help our kids. They need warm demanders who share the view that yes, that sucks. What can we do about it to help you move on.

leading and managing a differentiated classroom

Carol Ann Tomlinson is the leading expert on differentiation in the classroom, although by now she has been joined by many others on this path. I think about my journey: As a special education teacher, the ideal is the individualized program for each student. In reality this is rarely achieved because of the numbers of students that teachers work with, theories on what is appropriate, curricular mandates and working conditions that run counter to individualized instruction. As a parent of a pair of difficult to educate children- one a child with ASD and above average intelligence but significant behavioral challenges and the other a gifted child- I saw how the lip service of differentiation did not occur in practice. Focus on the students who struggled to achieve meant that the ability was often used as a tutor or a concern that I should not have. As a teacher working amidst the new buzz word- personalized learning- I see the challenge of implementing the idea. Several of the components of differentiation and personalized learning are in conflict with our current program whose other elements do not change such as age based progression through the grades, inflexible pacing guides, single element grading practices, and limited access to supports to develop individual programs. As I read Tomlinson and Marcia B. Imbeau's book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, I was struck by the measured approach they took. My current district wants to go from no personalized learning to fully implemented, every day all day personalized learning in a year and a half. The adoption rate is as preposterous as the all children will be grade level readers by 2014 goal of NCLB. Their suggestion is to take one or two ideas, try them, refine them and keep going. It is not a rapid transformation, but a slow evolution. Their book provides a rationale for differentiating and a rich panoply of ideas on how to arrange the environment and manage the space so that you can lead the ship. Acknowledging that people need implementation suggestions from anecdotes like their situation, they present a large variety of ideas and stories from across the grade levels and subject selections.

Below is a chart slightly modified from page 18 that showcases some ways to differentiate assignments.

	Readiness	Interest	Learning profile
Content	·         Materials at varied readability levels- Newsela.com, hi-lo textbooks ·         Spelling assigned by proficiency ·         Alternate presentation methods- auditory, reading, video ·         Targeted small group instruction ·         Front loading vocabulary; reteach vocabulary ·         Highlighted texts ·         Websites and programs that vary the content and pace based on student progress	·         Range of material that apply key ideas and skills to a variety of real-world situations ·         Teacher presentations designed to link to student interests	·         Varied teaching modes (verbal, visual, rhythmic, practical) ·         Video or audio notes for students who learn better with repeated listening ·         Podcasts or video lessons to see the material presented again or a different way
Process	·         Tiered activities ·         Mini-workshops ·         Flexible use of time ·         Learning contracts varied homework assignments- three assignments: create a poster showing the character, fill in a worksheet about the character or write a paragraph ·         RAFT options ·         Video record the answers, Voicethread.com- to present without writing ·         Choice boards	·         Expert groups ·         Interest centers ·         Supplemental materials based on student interests ·         Jigsaw ·         Independent studies ·         Interest-based application options ·         RAFT	·         Choice of working conditions (alone, partner, group) ·         RAFT options ·         Blogs and vlogs to share ideas
product	·         Tiered products ·         Personal goal-setting ·         Varied resource options ·         Check-in requirements based on student independence ·         Providing samples of good student work at varied levels of complexity	·         Use of student interest in designing projects ·         Design a Day options ·         Use of contemporary technology for student expression	·         Complex instruction ·         Varied forms for expressing key content ·         Varied working arrangements ·         Varied modes of expressing learning

The authors stress the value of collaboration to create a differentiated classroom. This could be across grade level or subject matter teams or with specialists to divide the workload up. Starting a leveled or personalized or differentiated program takes time. Using the human resources to develop the program is efficient and effective- but it requires administrative acknowledgement and support so that co-planning time is available.

While differentiation is an important goal, it will not happen without heaps of support. Simply putting an expectation out there is not enough. It requires rethinking our approach to education in general and systematic changes beyond the four walls of the classroom. To truly enable this approach, mindsets need to change. It can be done. It takes time and effort.

Motivating Students Who Don't Care

Allen N. Mendler, of Discipline with Dignity fame, went on to present workshops. I ran across a book which I believe would have been given out at such a program, Motivating Students who Don't Care. This challenge has certainly been around for over thirty years- I remember peers in school who fell into this category. I remember a college professor asking us to contemplate how small children came to kindergarten excited to learn and curious about everything became 6th graders going through the motions. Over the past couple of decades that I have taught, the number of disengaged students has increased.

This book sums up the reason students are unmotivated:

• values: Our culture values possessions over personality. This has led to incredible rates of bankruptcy, people who cannot afford to retire or pay an unexpected expense and keeping up with the Jones's mentality. Our kids see themselves as equivalent the version of the iPhone they have or the sneakers they wear. Parents, guilty over their divorce or having to work or desperate to provide for their kids all the things they wanted as a child, give material things to their children without attaching expectations. (Yes, I know that this is a gross overgeneralization.) Mendler suggests changing the culture is hard, so this aspect is one to leave alone.
• avoiding looking stupid- This is classic. As kids grow toward adolescence, they become increasingly motivated by their peers. They do not want to be seen as dumb. It is better to fail because you did not try than to fail because you're dumb.
• power and control- Many kids exert their independence through control. They need to be in charge of their destiny.
• depression- Kids with mental illness have huge uphill battles before them. Currently we have seen giant rises in anxiety among students. Unfortunately many of these kids are undiagnosed. Many parents do not believe their child could have such a disorder, that disorders are weaknesses or reflections of bad parenting; they refuse to acknowledge what they see. Kids do not receive appropriate treatment until their disease has progressed to the stage they are completely unable to function. Drugs  combined with CBT treatment can be very successful in addressing these concerns. If we could provide access to quality mental health care, we could improve the lives of our kids tremendously.

Competence and autonomy are the two areas that teachers can intervene most effectively.

The author goes on to explain teachers need to be motivated by some principles. This includes that all students can learn, given the proper tools for success, learning is risk-taking so the class must be psychologically safe, and basic needs of belonging, competence, and control motivate learning. My favorite one, however is this: "High self-esteem should not be a goal, but rather a result that comes with the mastery of challenging tasks" (7). (When I went to college self-esteem was a huge topic that focused on the flip side of this idea- self esteem is necessary to master any skill.)

So how do we provide competence and autonomy? He offers five suggestions:

• emphasize effort- Carol Dweck's idea of a growth mindset. Build on mistakes. Allow redos and revisions. Grade achievement separate from effort. Encourage and recognize small growth (daily learning targets). Show courtesy. Reframe unmotivated behavior, successive approximations, or glass half full thinking: You did three problems. What did you learn that would help you accomplish the other seven? Make small asks first. Write down goals- contracts. Give a reason- even if it is not a good one. Celebrate markers and endings.
• create hope- Show how achievement benefits their lives- in high school this is the next month. Make connections with their lives. Ensure adequacy of basic skills- if they can't read, provide supports to develop the skill. Create challenges that can be mastered. Acknowledge your mistakes. Help students develop goals. Help students get and stay organized. Collect supplies, communal supplies- no one need feel embarrassment over not having something to write with or write on. Show proof that mastery matters- again make a connection to their lives. Focus on success; celebrate accomplishment. Focus on the learning process- you don't know it yet, but you have learned the first three steps; what can I do to help you learn? Give before you get- marketing idea of giving kids something to get their attention. Demand more than you expect- start tougher then ease up. Make homework a bonus- too many kids don't do it because they do not have the tools and resources to do it- provide points that can be traded in for something desirable. Encourage and support positive affirmations.
• respecting power- Challenge refusals respectfully- "I know I hassle you about doing your work, it is because I respect and care about you too much to accept less than your best." Involve students in developing the rules, procedures and consequences. Defer to student power: "We both know you have the power to use appropriate language. Thanks for using it." Ask for (and respect) an opinion. Teach a lesson- directly give them the power to prepare and teach something, with acknowledgement that if they fail to step up you will be ready to do so. Give responsibility to direct and enforce- in groups allow a student to be the leader of the group, or in class a student to give the directions. Privacy, eye-contact, proximity for corrections. Call home to problem solve, with the student. Show students they already have what it takes- catch 'em being good. Use short term gains- behavior management to get over the hump and then move forward. Offer real choices.
• building relationships- Emphasize and affirm the student: "You'll have to leave the room if that doesn't stop. I hope you make the choice to stay because you are an important member of this class." Be open to student feedback. Send notes to students. Use humor. Offer genuine compliments. Two minute intervention- talk with the student, not about school, for two minutes a day for 10 consecutive days. Host lunch to ask for change. Host a five minute focus group- what is not working and how can we fix it? Build a kindness train. Show yourself at their age (maybe that you have a life today with pictures of you then and now). Share stories from when you were their age.
• expressing enthusiasm- Dave Burgess is who I think of with this. His teach like a pirate book embodies this idea. Love what you do. Let the kids know that you love being their teacher. Share your love of your subject. Be a life long learner and lighthearted. Arouse interest early- hook them with interest. Judy Willis talks about the brain and its need for novelty and emotion. If we can get them at the beginning, we have a chance to keep them for the period. Encourage drama as a way to express understanding. Be what you are teaching- costumes, props, and dramatic approaches capture interest. Use music, natural disasters and sports- whatever the kids are interested in. Teach through food- harder now with the wellness plans and rules about what you can bring in and serve, but it can be done. Have special theme days- PJ day, silly hair day, mismatched sock day all bring novelty and connections into the setting. Brains eat this up.

We may need to do more of them or do them with more intensity. We know these things lead to great teaching. We just need to do them more.

A great little book- easy to read, full of practical advice. My favorite anecdote is from a teacher whose student asked the all too common, When are we going to use this question. Her answer was write down everything you will do in the future and I will check off the times when you will use this. A little tongue in cheek, but it is an answer that might work once or twice for a group. Promoting that idea of learning for the sake of learning is always a good idea.