Eric Jensen - Poor Students, Richer Teaching: Mindsets That Raise Student Achievement (The Science Behind Students Emotional States)

POOR

STUDENTS,

RICHER

TEACHING

MINDSETS THAT RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

ERIC JENSEN

Copyright 2017 by Solution Tree Press

Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked Reproducible. Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

555 North Morton Street

Bloomington, IN 47404

800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700

FAX: 812.336.7790

email:

SolutionTree.com

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free reproducibles in this book.

Printed in the United States of America

20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jensen, Eric, 1950 author.

Title: Poor students, richer teaching : mindsets that raise student achievement / Eric Jensen.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016026186 | ISBN 9781942496519 (perfect bound)

Subjects: LCSH: Children with social disabilities--Education--United States. | Poor children--Education--United States. | Academic achievement--United States.

Classification: LCC LC4091 .J4576 2016 | DDC 371.826/94--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026186

Solution Tree

Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO

Edmund M. Ackerman, President

Solution Tree Press

President: Douglas M. Rife

Editorial Director: Tonya Maddox Cupp

Managing Production Editor: Caroline Weiss

Senior Editor: Amy Rubenstein

Copy Chief: Sarah Payne-Mills

Copy Editor: Miranda Addonizio

Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams

Text and Cover Designer: Abigail Bowen

Editorial Assistant: Jessi Finn

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to many but most importantly my wife, Diane. I am also enormously grateful for the saintly patience of Douglas Rife and the passion and expertise of Copy Chief Sarah Payne-Mills. Kudos to my colleague LeAnn Nickelsen, who also gave me fabulous help. I also appreciate the cover-design responsiveness of Rian Anderson. Finally, this book is dedicated to all U.S. teachers who work with high-poverty students with passion, courage, and a commitment to help them graduate college or career ready. Props to you pros; you make an irreplaceable difference for all of us!

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers.

Jeff Dillon

Superintendent and Elementary Principal

Wilder School District

Wilder, Idaho

Kristine Humer

Reading Resource

Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy

Chicago, Illinois

Susan Kessler

Executive Principal

Hunters Lane High School

Nashville, Tennessee

Samuel Lehman

Fifth-Grade Teacher

Terence C. Reilly School No. 7

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Carol Null

Kindergarten Teacher

Pemetic Elementary School

Southwest Harbor, Maine

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free reproducibles in this book.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Eric Jensen, PhD, is a former secondary teacher from San Diego, California. Since the early 1990s, he has synthesized brain research and developed practical applications for educators. Jensen is a member of the invitation-only Society for Neuroscience and the Presidents Club at Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He cofounded SuperCamp, the first and largest brain-compatible academic enrichment program, held in sixteen countries with over sixty-five thousand graduates.

Jensen has authored over thirty books, including Teaching With Poverty in Mind, Tools for Engagement, Engaging Students With Poverty in Mind, Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain, Bringing the Common Core to Life in K8 Classrooms, and Different Brains, Different Learners.

To learn more about Eric Jensens in-depth teacher workshops and leadership events, visit Jensen Learning (www.jensenlearning.com).

Preface

This book is about mindsets. How do I qualify to write a book about mindsets and poverty? I did my dissertation on poverty. I have worked successfully with over two hundred Title I schools in the United States. But there is something else you should know about me. This journey actually began in my early childhood. Thats when I learned firsthand about adversity and mindsets.

My mother walked out on my two sisters and me when I was two. My dad struggled to raise three children. My first stepmother (of three total) entered my life when I was six. She was violent, alcoholic, and abusive. She made my home life a living nightmare for nine years (from ages six through fifteen). She threatened me daily, and I became a survivor who focused on dodging continual abuse through hiding, staying away from the house, living with relatives, and eating dog food for snacks. And thats the G-rated version. The viewpoint I learned from my father was, Stop complaining, and focus on whats important. For me, that meant survival.

Most adults around me were dysfunctional, and my best friends also had abusive parents. Within weeks of my fathers second marriage, my oldest sister moved out to live with the neighbors. My other sister moved out of the house and lived in the garage for nine years. When things got too dangerous, my father moved my sister and me away. We lived with my grandmother for a few months (I went to a new school) and my aunt and uncle (another school), and then we lived on our own (another school). My stepmother would promise to be good, and each time we returned home, the violence would start up, and we would move out again. I went to nine schools and had 153 teachers. I was truant often and arrested twice. My daily mentality while sitting in the back of a classroom was about safety; I was asking myself, What will it be like when I go home today?

Why am I telling you this? First, I know what its like to grow up in a toxic environment. I have had a loaded, cocked gun held to my head and heard, Do what I tell you, or I will shoot. I acted out in class and got in trouble often. My K12 grades were terrible, and I finished high school with a C+ average. The odds of me succeeding in life at that stage were not good. Second, this book is personal for me, and I am hoping to make it personal for you. You must understand the mindsets of those who grow up with adversity and, more important, learn the new mindsets to help your students succeed.

The next time you have a student in your class who acts out, who is frustrated by how your class is going, remember: I was one of those students, and I took it personally when a teacher did not help me succeed. When my teachers did not help me, I just stopped putting in the effort. You see, I was in school mostly because it was the law and my friends were there. But my teachers chose to teach. They chose to be at my school. They