A Framework for
Understanding Poverty, by
Ruby Payne
Chapters 7-9
By: Ashley Rampino,
Christina Giorgetti,
Eileen Smith,
Natalia Pierre,
Samantha Grauna
Chapter 7:
Discipline
Discipline


When it comes to
poverty, discipline is
about penance and
forgiveness, not
necessarily change
What helps students from
poverty survive on the
streets could be what
keeps them from surviving
in school

Many of the behaviors
exhibited in school are
what is necessary to
survive outside of school
Structure and Choice in
Discipline

Meeting disciplinary standards is all about
balancing structure and choice.


We must first make clear what expected
behaviors are and then emphasize to our
students that it is their choice whether they
will abide by the behaviors.
First model, then guide them from
dependence to independence in making the
decisions
Behavior Analysis

The Teacher:

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Find the reason behind the student behavior.
In the cases of discipline with a student of
poverty, many behaviors are directly linked to
their environment and home life.
The Student:


Should analyze his/her own actions
Becomes accountable for behavior and
makes them think of other ways to solve their
problem
The Language of Negotiation

Many children in
poverty have to
function as their own
parent. They may
parent themselves or
other younger
siblings. Sometimes
they even parent the
adult in the
household.
Three Voices

There are 3 voices inside everyone’s head:
1. The Child Voice
* Is playful, spontaneous and curious
2. The Adult Voice
*Provides the language of negotiation and
allows issues to be examined in a nonthreatening way.
3. The Parent Voice
* Can be very loving and supportive
depending on the situation. This voice also
tends to be authoritative and directive.
The Child Voice
Defensive, victimized, emotional, whining, losing
attitude, strongly negative non-verbal.






Quit picking on me.
You don’t love me.
You want me to
leave.
Nobody likes (loves)
me.
I hate you.
You’re ugly.





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You make me sick,
It’s your fault.
Don’t blame me.
She, he, _______ did it.
You make me mad.
You made me do it.
The Parent Voice
Judgmental, evaluative, win-lose mentality,
demanding, punitive, sometimes threatening.




You shouldn’t (should)
do that.
It’s wrong (right) to do
_______.
That’s stupid, immature,
out of line, ridiculous.
Life’s not fair. Get busy.




You are good, bad,
worthless, beautiful (any
judgmental, evaluative
comment).
You do as I say.
If you weren’t so ____,
this wouldn’t happen to
you.
Why can’t you be like
_______?
The Adult Voice
Non-judgmental, free of negative non-verbal, factual, often
in question format, attitude of win-win.



In what ways could this
be resolved?
What factors will be
used to determine the
effectiveness, quality of
_______?
I would like to
recommend _____.



What are choices in this
situation?
I am comfortable
(uncomfortable) with
_________.
Options that could be
considered are
_________.
Metaphor Stories

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
A metaphor story helps an individual voice
issues that affect subsequent actions. It does
not contain any proper names in it.
Situation: A child goes to the nurse’s office two
or three times a week. There is nothing wrong
with her yet she keeps going.
Adult decides to tell the student a story about a
girl similar to her and asks for her help in doing
so.
Example Story:


“Once upon a time there was a girl who went to the
nurse’s office. Why did the girl go to the nurse’s office?
(Because she thought there was something wrong with
her.) So the girl went to the nurse’s office because she
thought there was something wrong with her. Did the
nurse find anything wrong with her? (No, the nurse did
not.) So the nurse did not find anything wrong with her,
yet the girl kept going to the nurse. Why did the girl keep
going to the nurse? (Because she thought there was
something wrong with her.) So the girl thought something
was wrong with her. Why did the girl think there was
something wrong with her? (She saw a TV show and…)”
The story continues until the problem is solved and ends
on a positive note… “So she went to the doctor, and he
gave her tests and found that she was OK.”
A Metaphor Story:

Used one on one
when there is a need
to understand the
existing behavior and
motivate the student
to implement the
appropriate
behavior.
Teaching Hidden Rules

Example:

A student from poverty laughs when he/she is
disciplined:
 “Do you use the same rules to play all computer
games? No, you don’t because you would lose. The
same is true at school. There are street rules and there
are school rules. Each set of rules helps you be
successful where you are. So, at school, laughing
when being disciplined is not a choice. It doesn’t help
you be successful. It only buys you more trouble. Keep
a straight face and look sorry, even if you don’t feel
that way.”
Chapter 8:

Instruction & Improving Achievement
Traditional Notions of
Intelligence:
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The Bell Curve purports that individuals in
poverty have on the average an IQ of nine
points lower than individuals in the middle
class.
Payne suggests that this might be a credible
argument if IQ tests were measured on ability, but it
is actually measured on acquired information.
The questions on the handout are the type of questions asked
on an IQ test, but the content of these questions is the only
difference. This shows the point that the information on IQ test
is only based on acquired knowledge.
The tests we use in many areas of school are not about ability
or intelligence, but are based on acquired knowledge.
Differentiating Between
Teaching and Learning



In order to learn, an individual needs to have certain cognitive
skills and a structure inside his/her head to accept learning.
Research on learning must be addressed to work successfully
with students from poverty.
The four elements of a learning structure:
 Cognitive Strategies: more basic than concepts;
fundamental ways of processing information and are the
infrastructure of the mind.
 Concepts: store information and allow for retrieval.
 Skills: includes the processing of content (reading, writing,
computing).
 Content: “what” of learning; the information used to make
sense of daily life.
Many students in poverty are coming to school without
concepts or cognitive strategies. As teachers, we need to
build learning structures inside our students.
Cognitive Strategies:

Reuven Feuerstein believed that
between the environmental stimulus and
the response should be mediation


(ex: the intervention of an adult).
Mediation consists of three things:
 Identification of the stimulus
 Assignment of meaning
 Identification of a strategy
Cognitive Strategies cont…

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Mediation builds cognitive strategies, which give
individuals the ability to plan, systematically go
through data, etc.
Feuerstein identified the missing links that occur in
the mind when mediation had not occurred.
Some examples of Missing Links:
 “Mediated focusing”- Ability to focus attention
and see objects in detail.
 “Mediated scheduling”- Based on routine. Ability
to schedule and plan ahead.
 Missing links/mediations result in cognitive issues
What are these Cognitive
Issues?




Blurred and sweeping perceptions and the lack of a
systematic method of exploration- students have no
consistent way of getting information.
 In a new setting, the student will rapidly go from
object to object.
Impaired verbal tools- they do not have the
vocabulary to deal with the cognitive tasks.
 Students who rely on casual register do not use
or have many prepositions in their speech.
Impaired spatial orientation- inability to orient
objects or people in space.
Impaired temporal orientation- inability to organize
and measure in time.
Cognitive Strategies That Must
Be Built

Feuerstein identified 3 stages in the learning process:



Input Strategies: “quantity and quality of the data
gathered.”
 Use planning behaviors, orient data in time,
explore data systematically, etc.
Elaboration Strategies: “use of the data.”
 Identify and define the problem, compare
data, summarize data.
Output Strategies: “communication of the data.”
 Communicate clearly the labels and process,
control impulsive behavior.
Using Eye Movement
to Follow the Learning
Process

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Eye movement allows a teacher to begin understanding
the ways in which a student is processing information.
The teacher is able to determine the type of information
the student is trying to process by observing the position
they have moved their eyes to.
Eye movements help teachers identify how a student tends
to store and receive information.
The Face is Divided into Three Zones

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Top Zone: When a
person’s gaze is directed
at the top zone, they are
processing visual
information.
Middle Zone: When a
person’s gaze is in the
middle zone they are
processing auditory
information.
Bottom Zone: When a
person’s gaze is at the
bottom zone the person is
either talking to
themselves or processing
feelings.
The Face as a Clock…
The Face as a Clock

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Visual

Right handed person – the 2 o’clock position indicates that the individual is
processing visually remembered data. The 10 o’clock position indicates
that they are processing data that is visually constructed (data put
together from several sources).

Left handed person – positions are reversed – 2 o’clock is visually
constructed and 10’oclock is visually remembered data
Auditory

Right handed person – the 3 o’clock position indicates auditory
remembered information and the 9 o’clock indicates auditory constructed
information.

Left handed person – positions are reversed.
Feeling/Kinesthetic

Right handed person – the 5 o’clock position is auditory internal dialogue
and the 7 o’clock position is feelings.

Left handed person — positions are reversed.
Instructional Interventions that Build
Conceptual Frameworks and Cognitive
Strategies:
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Graphic Organizers
Goal Setting and
Procedural Self-talk
Kinesthetic Approaches
Rubrics
Teaching students to make
questions
Systematic approaches to
the data/ text:


highlighting information
using symbols to identify the
five W questions.
Instructional Interventions that Build
Conceptual Frameworks and Cognitive
Strategies (cont.)

Teaching conceptual frameworks as a part of the
content
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Teaching the structure of language

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teaching students to understand formal register
Sorting relevant and irrelevant clues

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emphasis on relating content to personal experience
take what they know and translate it into the new form
cartooning helps students identify the main points of a text
Teaching Mental Models

drawings, a story, a metaphor, or an analogy
Chapter 9:
Creating Relationships
*Key to achievement for
students in poverty is in
creating strong relationships

Relationships
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Significant motivator because in
poverty, relationships (and
entertainment) are valued
2 Research Sources
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Science Field Research
Stephen Covey’s personal
effectiveness work
Importance of Relationships
>> Prior to Research: “Newtonian Approach”
Dissecting teaching into parts--energies focus on
achievement and effective teaching strategies
>> Now: Most Important Part of teaching =
establishing relationships
Ex: 9x out of 10 students from poverty who have
successfully made it into middle class attribute his/her
success to a meaningful relationship
>>>> A teacher, counselor, or coach-- Us!
Covey’s (1989)
“Emotional Bank Account”
In all relationships we make deposits to
and withdrawals from the other individual



Payne adapted Covey’s chart from, The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People, with regards to students from
poverty.
By understanding deposits that are valued by students
from poverty, the relationship is stronger.
How can we create and build relationships in schools?

Through support systems, caring about students, and by
promoting student achievement, by being role models,
and by insisting upon successful behaviors for school.
Payne’s Adaptive Emotional Bank Account
for Individuals in Poverty
What does this information mean in
the school setting?
>Main Points Revisited:
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Students from poverty need to have at least two
sets of behaviors from which to choose-- street &
school/work settings
Discipline should be seen and used as a form of
instruction
Instruction in the cognitive strategies should be a
part of the curriculum
Insistence, expectations, and support need to be
guiding lights in our decisions about instruction
People in poverty’s primary motivation for their
success will be in their relationships.
Find ways to establish natural connections that will
enable you to build a lasting relationship with all of
your students