Amy Hyde
NLGL Creative Synthesis
May 2019
Relationships With Students
When students feel safe and cared for, they can achieve all that they are asked to do. Many students who come from lower socioeconomic households seek to form relationships with their teachers. Teachers can build these relationships in a variety of ways. Using texts that are culturally relevant to students' lives is a way to help form relationships with students and help students to feel empowered. When students feel that the texts used in school are relevant to their lives, more learning occurs.
Students can get the most out of their education when they form relationships with each other, too. The work below, In Favor of Teaching Writing in the Elementary Classroom explains the ways that writing can bring students together to care for one another and show empathy.
Click here to read more about the importance of writing in the elementary classroom!
This is a book talk about Puerto Rican immigrant families and how one Puerto Rican librarian changed their lives. I have many students in my school that come from Latin American countries. They can appreciate and relate to books like these because the customs are familiar. This particular book also includes their native language!
Read through two book reviews that I wrote as I was searching through books to find new-to-me high quality texts to use in the classroom.
In addition to explaining how poverty affects a child's developing brain and how he or she learns, this book has a chapter dedicated to the importance of relationships in a child's life. Because of the chronic stress associated with poverty, children of impoverished parents tend to receive less attention, support, and affection during early developmental years, which can affect their ability to form lasting relationships throughout their lives. Teachers can impact these relationship challenges by being sensitive to their students' needs. (Jensen, 2009). This is a valuable book for any teacher who works with students from lower SES households.
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Click the box above to visit my WOW Books Goodreads site. This site lists quality texts from a variety of genres.