The Role of Poverty on Vocabulary Development

30 million.  That's 687 times the number of seats in Citizens Bank Park.  The number of miles of 60 round trips to the moon.  With 30 million dollars, you could buy Buckingham Palace and everything inside...twice.  A 30 million word difference between professional and welfare families is a staggering statistic, and that's only in the first four years of a child's life.  I can see why Hart and Risley's study is considered one of the most important when it comes to early vocabulary development related to socio-economic status.

I feel that it's necessary to start this blog post off by saying that this topic is something that I am pretty much completely unfamiliar with.  With the exception of a field experience totaling 10 days in The School District of Philadelphia during my sophomore year of college, I have only been exposed to middle class suburban public school education, both personally and professionally.  Throughout my entire life, I felt privileged to grow up, and now work, in a district that is known for its quality education, above average standardized test scores, and high number of college graduates.  However, after reading the articles assigned for this section, I almost feel like I'm missing something, some crucial experience.  Don't get me wrong...I absolutely love where I work and feel as though it is the perfect place for me to be.  But I sometimes wonder how different my outlook would be if I had more experience teaching in a less privileged area.

Now, I have to say when I was completing my field experience in Philadelphia, I felt completely out of place walking through the halls, and even dreaded going sometimes.  However, I really enjoyed working one-on-one with the students there to prepare them for the PSSAs.  In particular, there is one student that I worked with that I remember very well.  I think I remember him so well because I was amazed at the background knowledge he didn't have.  When we read a passage about a trip to a farm together, he had no idea what many of the animals looked like or what noises they made; things that I would (incorrectly) assume that every child knew.  When I questioned him further, I discovered he had never been to a farm or a zoo.  When I overheard him having conversations with his third grade peers back in the classroom, I was shocked at some of the background knowledge he did have.  It included some things I probably didn't learn until high school, and certainly not things that eight and nine year old children should know!

Even though it's not exactly the information we want students to come to school with, I do think that this is an example of how every student has some sort of background knowledge.  One thing that I've learned from the readings and our discussions about them is that teachers need to identify the strengths that a student has, and put them to use somehow.  In the case that students don't have the necessary prior knowledge, it is our responsibility to create it.  In my own classroom, I use videos, whole-group discussions, and text-previewing in order to do so prior to reading.  Even if students don't have specific knowledge on the topic, they generally can make a connection to something we discuss or see in a video or text.

What's interesting about my caseload is that, while I have a few students that receive free/reduced lunch, many of them come from homes where parents work to support their families.  Despite that, they still seem to be missing some basic words from their vocabulary that most seventh graders already know.  I don't know that there's a 30 million word gap, but there is definitely something left to be desired when it comes to their use of language.  It makes me wonder what the real root of vocabulary development is.  It seems to me that much of what causes the lack of development in students who live below the poverty line is the shortage of varied life experiences.  As I mentioned above, many of these students have never been to a farm, the beach, or any historical sites; and most likely, their parents haven't either.  However, if that's the case for those students, what about my students who have had those types of experiences, and yet still lack the vocabulary?

I don't know what the answer is.  What I do know is that all children, not just those in a low socio-economic environment at home, need to be exposed to a variety of sophisticated language that can be used in a multitude of situations.  If we promote that from a very early age, perhaps we can begin breaking down the 30 million word gap, no matter the type of home a child comes to us from.

The Role of Informational Texts in the Classroom

Immigrants, natural disasters, child labor, invasive species...these are just some of the topics that I get to teach about in my classroom with the program that I use.  The majority of the different workshops that are taught in my class throughout the year include three non-fiction, high-interest, ability appropriate readings, with plenty of supplemental texts and materials.  In addition, the instructional software that my students participate in include all informational topics with a variety of segments.  They are broken down into five major categories:  People and Cultures, Science and Math, History and Geography, Literature and the Arts, and Your World and Beyond.  They include more specific topics, like cool careers, extreme sports, innovative artists, interesting laws in America, and true adventure stories.  On top of the readings I teach and the software my students work on, my classroom library is also filled with leveled books, at least half of them being non-fiction.  There's books on everything from famous musical artists and athletes to the story of the Donner Party from 1846-1847.  (If you don't know the story, check it out.  It's crazy!)  In my own personal experience, it isn't hard to get students excited about informational text when everything is tailored to them.  I have been extremely lucky to have such a positive experience, where students show a desire to read and learn, and more importantly, get to have a choice in the matter!  That, in itself, is appealing to them.

However, the experience for my struggling readers in science and social studies classes is the polar opposite.   The texts and worksheets used are written on a seventh grade level, at which they are not currently reading.  They also don't seem to be written to engage and wholly immerse students' in the information.  I constantly have to convince my class to think of social studies as a story when they're reading about ancient cultures.  Still, they find it uninteresting and difficult.  However, if I read the sections aloud to them, they are much more engaged and retain much more of the information.  The same thing happens with science class.  If they have to learn information by reading and highlighting a worksheet on their own, one of two things happens; they don't do it, or they do it and lack any understanding of what it actually means.  So often, I ask students who come to see me in the morning if they've completed their homework from the previous night, and if they reply yes, inevitably, the next sentence that follows is, "It was so hard!" or "I didn't understand it!" or "Why is science/social studies so confusing?"  I have found that when I take time during 8th period study hall to read aloud and discuss the information, they grasp concepts much more solidly.  However, this doesn't help when my students have to read and comprehend something on their own, without any assistance or discussion.  PSSAs are coming up at the end of this month, and I dread this time for my students.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't have confidence in my teaching or my students...it's just that they start out 7th grade so far below grade level.  As I've mentioned before, my students begin the year anywhere from a second grade to a fifth grade reading level.  Even if they've closed the gap by a year and a half by March, they still won't be up to par.  It's fighting a losing battle, and I can see why some of my students give up on the tests before they even begin.

On top of the discrepancy between grade level and ability with my caseload, generally speaking, my class has little to no idea how to actually read a textbook.  While reading Duke's article, I found myself wondering how much of this is because they weren't exposed to it at a young age.  I also questioned if they were exposed to it, were they taught to read it?  Just yesterday, a student who was working on homework after school with me was reading his history textbook.  On a page in the middle of a section was an insert about reading physical maps, with a information, a map of the elevation of Greece, and questions to practice this skill.  The student turned to me and said, "Do I need to read this?"  He didn't take the time to look at it before asking.  He just knew it wasn't directly a part of the section that was for homework, so he took the opportunity to flip through it.  I can imagine that his thought process was, "Great!  One less page I have to read!"

While our history textbook seems to be pretty kid-friendly, and relatively easy to follow, the science textbook is another story.  They have a ton of information, diagrams, and points written in the margins.  Though the colors are bright, and the writing is not too difficult, the set-up of it is hard to follow.  For a student with little experience with textbooks and how to read them, it must be confusing to know where to look first on a page!  For my caseload of students, at least, I would have to call it an inconsiderate text, as Alexander and Jetton defined it.  My students definitely expend too much cognitive effort trying to figure out where to start, and most likely end up just ignoring the pictures and diagrams, as well as the information in the margins.

As you can see, I have a completely mixed experience with informational text in my classroom.  It is something I try to help my students through each and every day, teaching different strategies, as well as assisting them through it when necessary.  I have certainly seen an improvement in their abilities and confidence working with non-fiction in my classroom, which is what I try to focus on.