Diversity Tie-In

The Rich Get Richer

Children in low-SES classrooms do not have access to the same materials to support literacy as their high-SES counterparts. Researcher Nell Duke found wide differences between classrooms of high-SES first graders and those of low-SES first graders. She also found that high-SES students had more opportunities to use the materials in their classroom libraries.

Read "The Rich Get Richer" again. As you visit and work in the schools in your area, find out about the literacy materials in the classrooms and how they are used to support literacy learning. Create your advocacy action plan to support literacy learning in your area.

Go to the website below and print the literacy articles in the PDF format. These articles are print ready and give ideas for families to use at home to support literacy learning. It is also a good idea to send home books and other materials listed in the articles to support literacy learning in homes of low-SES children who may not have books and other literacy materials in their homes. File the articles in your Professional Development Notebook.

Raising a Reader
http://www.naeyc.org/ece/1998/19.asp

Helping Children Learn About Reading
http://www.naeyc.org/ece/1997/12.asp

For further reading: Educator and author Jonathan Kozol has documented the inequalities in our schools in a number of books. For further reading outside of the classroom, the book Savage Inequalities by Kozol will help you understand children who live in poverty, and the conditions of the classrooms they attend.