EDL 711
Pete Prichard
Prompt 2
Wright State University

Prompt 2: Impact on Professional Practice
What are some things that you will implement (or have already implemented) and/or do differently regarding your interactions with children and/or adults resulting from your understandings of Payne's framework?

My entire instructional career has been in adult education teaching those who come from generational or situational poverty environments. During my first assignment I noticed a few things where I needed to make adjustments in the classroom. Ruby Payne’s book reaffirmed much of what I learned and also reaffirmed the adjustments I made.

1. Most of the time the students I taught always respected education, but they were afraid of advancing their own education due to past negative experiences. This inhibited many of them from reaching their fullest potential in the classroom and in some cases life. In order to remedy this I personalized my instruction by lecturing almost the whole day. During the lecture I used a lot of analogies and created a story to emphasize important concepts. I also referred to the textbook as a tool and I never used a test as a form of discipline. I took time to explain to the students that the tests were given to see if we were on the track during the course of instruction. This seemed to satisfy them and I gained a tremendous amount of cooperation among what many would consider a very tough group of adults. Had I read any of Ruby Payne’s work prior to teaching in 1987 I would have been better prepared to teach the audience I was assigned to.

2. I have become very concerned about our adult learners understanding of the formal register of English. So, recently I decided to implement a speech rubric for our students to use when they give a presentation. This rubric was designed to enhance the students speaking skills in the workplace. It emphasizes complete sentences and organization of the student’s thoughts and ideas. Initially the students balked at this form of assessment, but just recently they have come to rely on the rubrics when organizing information for a report.

3. Coping strategies is a life lesson that all of us have to work on no matter what social economic background we come from. In order to assist our students in acquiring and developing coping skills I am planning to have a “take a break with the Adult Education Director” for our fulltime students (72). It is my hope that I can discuss with students the plight of being a fulltime student. I would like to have them share with others some of the ways they cope with all the pressures of going to school while trying to support a family. We have discovered that many times those who have had a hard time completing a training program is normally due to home environment and lack of support systems outside of school. It is my hope to discuss these things the students and discover how we can address any issues so they can be successful.

Several years ago I was invited to one-day workshop in fact the presenters of the workshop said that they modified the program from two days in one day. This particular workshop changed my thought patterns about the poverty culture and the middle class culture and how I interact with people throughout the day. Every day I go to work I am reminded of something about that workshop and how my understanding of the poverty class and middle class hidden rules has helped me to better understand the paradigm from which I operate and how that impacts my service to others. I can strongly recommend to anyone in who is in education, social work or any service industry that they attend a “Bridges out of Poverty” workshop. The workshop will be well worth your time.

References
Payne, R. (2005). A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highlands, TX: aha!Process, Inc.