Firgrove Book Study

Well ... I am not sure if Ruby will burst with pride or will wince with pain, but we had a fantastic set of group presentations on A Framework for Understanding Poverty and the last group indulged us in a song of review of all we learned. To be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandee. It was complete with instrumental accompaniment. Well done team ...

The Firgrove bunch, we read a book
And boy it was a dandy!
The stuff we learned sure made us think
And will surely come in handy!

CHORUS (Let 'er rip!)
Ruby Payne, you helped me see
Ruby Payne, you showed me
All those strategies to use
To help kids move from poverty

Now I know ‘bout those hidden rules
In all the different classes
And I’ll teach middle class rules
To our lads & lasses (CHORUS)

Frozen, formal, consultative
Casual and intimate
Are the language registers
And now we are aware of it (CHORUS)

To be successful in this life
Our students need to know
When to use each register
And this will help them grow (CHORUS)

The child’s voice is emotional
The parent’s is demanding
It’s best to use the adult voice
To foster understanding (CHORUS)

For any learning to take place
It must be based on trust
Significant relationships
Are a definite must (CHORUS)

There are some rules for kids to learn
To use while they’re at school
But using those same rules at home
May make them feel a fool (CHORUS)

Teaching is outside the head
Learning on the inside
Those cognitive strategies
Help children learn with pride (CHORUS)

Expectations and support
Must be our guiding lights
So that our students will have
A future that is bright (CHORUS)

We learned from our brave colleagues
When stories they did share
That what really helped them
Was having someone care (CHORUS)

Understanding poverty
Some interesting notions
Got us talking, gave us skills
And stirred up our emotions (CHORUS)

We at Firgrove ate it up
Just like cotton candy
We’ll apply all that we learned
So kids can be just dandy

(Last chorus slower and with emphasis)
Ruby Payne, you helped me see
Ruby Payne, you showed me
All those strategies to use
To help kids move from poverty