Teaching and Supporting Students Living with Adversity (Quick Reference Guide)

In this quick reference guide, Debbie Zacarian and Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz outline five keys to supporting students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress:

1. Build asset-based relationships with students.
2. Provide students with a voice and choice in their learning.
3. Connect the curriculum to students' lives in meaningful ways.
4. Provide reassuring classroom routines.
5. Collaborate with others.

Research demonstrates the urgent need to use an asset-based rather than a deficit-based approach when teaching students living with adversity. The guide's strategies and examples will help teachers create a strengths-based learning environment where students feel safe, a sense of belonging, valued, and competent.

About the Authors:

Debbie Zacarian is known for her work in advancing student achievement. She is the founder of Zacarian & Associates and has an advanced degree in clinical psychology; a doctorate in educational policy, research, and administration; and more than three decades of combined experience as a district administrator, university faculty member, and educational service agency leader. She presents and publishes extensively on working successfully with culturally and linguistically diverse populations, including working with students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress.

Her authored and coauthored books include In It Together: How Student, Family, and Community Partnerships Advance Engagement and Achievement in Diverse Classrooms; Mastering Academic Language: A Framework for Supporting Student Achievement; Transforming Schools for English Learners: A Comprehensive Framework for School Leaders; The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners; and Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas

Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz is a highly accomplished bilingual/bicultural school psychologist with more than two decades of experience working in inner-city school districts serving culturally and linguistically diverse student and family populations. In addition to her expertise assessing and supporting students' social-emotional and academic growth, she has collaboratively led initiatives supporting teachers and administrators in their efforts to optimize students' potential, work successfully with families, and use culturally responsive practices. Working in partnership with public school districts, Alvarez-Ortiz successfully pioneered innovative education reform initiatives targeted at improving opportunities and outcomes for students, schools, and districts deemed at risk of failure. At the center of Alvarez-Ortiz's work is the relentless pursuit of students', families', educators', and communities' strengths that empower them to capitalize on their potential.