Typically children who are low-socioeconomic status live at, or below the poverty line. When educating children who are low socioeconomic status, your learning environment should be warm with compassion and understanding. Children who are low-socioeconomic status may not have parents at home all the time, because the parents are typically working low-paying part time jobs to make ends meet. That is why it is important for you as the teacher to give those children a lot attention they may not receive home. It is important for you to take care of their social, educational, physical, and emotional needs during instruction, which are typically a lot greater compared to some of the other children in your classroom. For example, children who walk into your classroom who are low socioeconomic status sometimes may not even have enough money to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner when they are at home. They also may not have running water that they can drink at home. This is something you should keep in mind in your classroom and you should provide your classroom with snacks daily and drinks (like water) so that every child is well nourished. During your instruction, you should every so often offer all the children in your classroom food and drinks (that way you are not singling out those who are low socioeconomic status). How can I child truly learn if they are dehydrated, or not well nourished?
One way you can provide for these children educationally is, offer these children the educational support they may not receive at home during your instruction. During your instructional time as you weave your way through the phases of instruction, you should rotate around the room. When you rotate, focus specifically on the children who are low-socioeconomic status. Make sure you do so in a non-obvious way, so these children do not feel singled out. You should make sure they are on task and that they understand the concepts you are going over in class. It may make your lesson plans a bit longer, but in the long run it will pay off. You can and should be each child’s educational support if they are not receiving that support at home. It might be challenging to handle students who are low-socioeconomic status, but in the end if you handle these students correctly during instruction, you can impact these students positively in a variety of ways.