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How teachers respond to stories of poverty can either silence or validate children's experiences.
"I had a dream of my dad when he got out of jail. And he did get out of jail. When we went to get him and it looked like he was fighting rats in his hair because his hair was stickin' up. "
-Cadence, first grade
Cadence wrote this story in September of first grade. Like many teachers and researchers, I'm rarely sure how to respond to stories like this-stories that reflect the "real" lives of the students with whom I work. I always aim to value and validate, but I do that in various ways (and not always successfully). Sometimes I say nothing, and just listen as more details pour out. Other times I focus on the craft of writing and negotiate with the writer about details that could be added and how those details would best be described for the author's purpose. When Cadence read this story to me, I had barely begun to know her. She read the beginning of her story in a matter-of-fact way and did not respond to my silence and thoughtful gaze. So I asked about her original observation that his hair was sticking up, she responded, "It looked like he was fighting rats!" I suggested she might add that to the story-and she did.
Cadence, a young white girl, attends a K-8 elementary school in a predominantly white, high-poverty urban neighborhood in the Midwest that has a dropout rate exceeding 65%. Out of the 18 students in her classroom, 14 are white and 4 are African American. Three of the four African American students are bussed to school from surrounding neighborhoods, and the fourth is currently living in a homeless shelter nearby. As a researcher in Cadence's first-grade classroom two days a week, her full-time teacher/researcher for eleven weeks at the beginning of second grade, and the leader/ researcher of an after-school program throughout her second-grade year, I learned a great deal about Cadence. Her father is in jail on drug charges, and Cadence believes that he is working for the police to be granted a lighter sentence. I'm not sure if this is true, but I do know that he...