© S TEFANIE FELIX
In middle-class families, children
hear about 26 million words during
that same time period. In upper-income families, they hear a staggering
46 million words by age 4—three
times as many as their lower-income
counterparts (Hart & Risley, 1995). In
fact, toddlers from middle- and upper-income families actually used more
words in talking to their parents than
low-SES mothers used in talking to
their own children (Bracey, 2006). This
language difference is not subtle; it’s a
mind-boggling, jaw-dropping cognitive
chasm.
A child’s vocabulary is part of the
brain’s tool kit for learning, memory,
and cognition. Words help children
represent, manipulate, and reframe
information. Kids from low-income
families are less likely to know the
words a teacher uses in class or the
words that appear in reading material.
When children aren’t familiar with
words, they don’t want to read, often
tune out, or feel like school is not for
them. Also, many students don’t want
to risk looking stupid (especially to their
peers), so they won’t participate in class.
What You Can Do
Vocabulary building must form a key
part of enrichment experiences for students, and teachers must be relentless
about introducing and using new
words. Include vocabulary building in
engagement activities, such as by creating “trading card” activities, in which
students write a vocabulary word on
one side of a 3 x 5 card and a sentence
using the word correctly on the other.
Students can do a “class mixer” and
test other students; they give the new
word to their partner, and their partner
has to use it in a sentence. Teachers
can also draw cards from a bowl and
ask the class to use the new word in a
sentence.
Teachers can incorporate vocabulary
practice into daily rituals. For example,
the teacher posts a word for the day and
when either the teacher or a student
uses it—and another student is first to
point it out—that student gets a simple
privilege. Classroom teams or cooperative groups should present a word
for the day to the whole class every day,
with teachers reinforcing those words
for days and weeks afterward.
Teachers must be
relentless about
introducing and using
new vocabulary words.
Difference 3: Effort
Uninformed teachers may think that
poor children slouch, slump, and show
little effort because they are—or their
parents are—lazy. Yet research suggests
that parents from poor families work as
much as parents of middle- or upper-class families do (Economic Policy
Institute, 2002). There’s no “inherited
laziness” passed down from parents.
One reason many students seem
unmotivated is because of lack of hope
and optimism. Low socioeconomic
status and the accompanying financial
hardships are correlated with depressive
symptoms (Butterworth, Olesen, &
Leach, 2012). Moreover, the passive “I
give up” posture may actually be learned
helplessness, shown for decades in the
research as a symptom of a stress disorder and depression. Research from
60 high-poverty schools tells us that the
primary factor in student motivation
