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Authors: Ruby K. Payne
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ways to deal with those issues. For example, one elementary school divided all of its sixth-graders into groups of eight. Then school officials took these students and met with them for four weeks, twice a week over lunch, to discuss the issues they would face the next year when they went on to junior high school. Another school has a similar group of students meet who are physically aggressive; the discussion centers around ways to lessen the aggression at school. Advisory groups are yet another way to address issues of support.
5. Schoolwide scheduling that puts students in subgroups by skill for reading and math can be a way of providing support. One concern with heterogeneous grouping is the difficulty for the teacher to address all of the diverse instructional needs in the classroom simultaneously. One elementary school scheduled the hour for math at the same time in grades i through 3, as well as 4 through 6. Students were then pretested and moved to the appropriate group for that particular unit of instruction. Within two years, the math scores in that building made a considerable gain.
6. Parent training and contact through video is invaluable, particularly in poor communities. One pattern in poor communities is that virtually everyone has a VCR or DVD player because of the value placed on entertainment. A principal in Illinois who had 95% of his parents on welfare started a very successful program of parental education and contact through videos. Each teacher in the building made a 15-minute videotape. During that 15 minutes, the teacher made a personal introduction, gave an overview of the instruction for the year, identified the expectations of the class, and encouraged the parents to visit or call. Five copies of each video were made and during the first month of school each student could take a copy home and have an adult view the video. This was very successful for several reasons: (1) Parents who were not literate could understand, (2) it provided a kinesthetic view and feel for what kind of teacher the child had, (3) the parent was not dependent on transportation to have a contact with the school, and (4) it prevented unnecessary miscommunications early in the year. It is a low-cost intervention, and other short videos could be made for parents about school rules, appropriate discipline, etc.
7. The direct-teaching of classroom survival skills makes a difference, according to the research. What are classroom survival skills? Many of these skills are referred to as study skills, but there are also the cognitive strategies that are discussed in Chapter 8 on Instruction. These include such simple hidden rules as how to stay in your seat, how to participate appropriately, where to put your things, etc.
8. Requiring daily goal-setting and procedural self-talk would move many of these students light years ahead. In the beginning, goalsetting would focus on what a student wants to accomplish by the end of each day and by the end of the week. Goals would be in writing. At the end of the day, five minutes would need to be taken with the class to see if the goals were met or not. Procedural self-talk would begin in the written form; most students likely would need assistance. Procedural self-talk has value only when tied to a specific task. Procedures vary with tasks.
9. Team interventions are a way to provide support to students. This happens when all the teachers of a student meet with the parent(s) to make a plan for helping that student be more successful. This works as long as the intervention with the parent(s) is positive and supportive.
DEBRIEFING THE LAKEITHA CASE STUDY
One of LaKeitha's issues is simply time. She doesn't have any extra time. One of the things the teacher can have LaKeitha do is identify when, given her schedule, she can get things done. The teacher needs to provide flexibility for her to finish her assignments (maybe an extra day) and be flexible about the interruptions that will be a part
5. Schoolwide scheduling that puts students in subgroups by skill for reading and math can be a way of providing support. One concern with heterogeneous grouping is the difficulty for the teacher to address all of the diverse instructional needs in the classroom simultaneously. One elementary school scheduled the hour for math at the same time in grades i through 3, as well as 4 through 6. Students were then pretested and moved to the appropriate group for that particular unit of instruction. Within two years, the math scores in that building made a considerable gain.
6. Parent training and contact through video is invaluable, particularly in poor communities. One pattern in poor communities is that virtually everyone has a VCR or DVD player because of the value placed on entertainment. A principal in Illinois who had 95% of his parents on welfare started a very successful program of parental education and contact through videos. Each teacher in the building made a 15-minute videotape. During that 15 minutes, the teacher made a personal introduction, gave an overview of the instruction for the year, identified the expectations of the class, and encouraged the parents to visit or call. Five copies of each video were made and during the first month of school each student could take a copy home and have an adult view the video. This was very successful for several reasons: (1) Parents who were not literate could understand, (2) it provided a kinesthetic view and feel for what kind of teacher the child had, (3) the parent was not dependent on transportation to have a contact with the school, and (4) it prevented unnecessary miscommunications early in the year. It is a low-cost intervention, and other short videos could be made for parents about school rules, appropriate discipline, etc.
7. The direct-teaching of classroom survival skills makes a difference, according to the research. What are classroom survival skills? Many of these skills are referred to as study skills, but there are also the cognitive strategies that are discussed in Chapter 8 on Instruction. These include such simple hidden rules as how to stay in your seat, how to participate appropriately, where to put your things, etc.
8. Requiring daily goal-setting and procedural self-talk would move many of these students light years ahead. In the beginning, goalsetting would focus on what a student wants to accomplish by the end of each day and by the end of the week. Goals would be in writing. At the end of the day, five minutes would need to be taken with the class to see if the goals were met or not. Procedural self-talk would begin in the written form; most students likely would need assistance. Procedural self-talk has value only when tied to a specific task. Procedures vary with tasks.
9. Team interventions are a way to provide support to students. This happens when all the teachers of a student meet with the parent(s) to make a plan for helping that student be more successful. This works as long as the intervention with the parent(s) is positive and supportive.
DEBRIEFING THE LAKEITHA CASE STUDY
One of LaKeitha's issues is simply time. She doesn't have any extra time. One of the things the teacher can have LaKeitha do is identify when, given her schedule, she can get things done. The teacher needs to provide flexibility for her to finish her assignments (maybe an extra day) and be flexible about the interruptions that will be a part
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