|
Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author |
GROWTH MINDSET:
Could showing students they can do it, inspire them to grow?
|
Background
Dr. Carol Dweck coined the terms "fixed mindset" and "growth mindset" which describe the underlying beliefs that people have about learning and their intelligence. Dweck states, “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” Throughout my years of teaching older struggling readers, I have found that many of my students have such a powerfully negative self concept that they are unable to see their potential to become strong readers. As my research project developed, I knew that my first step had to be teaching students that their brains are muscles which can grow and strengthen with practice. They had to understand that they could do it before they could even begin to set reading growth goals with me.
|
VISUAL GRAPH
EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
REFERENCES
|
|
Teaching Students How Their Brains Work
I introduced my students to the concept of growth mindset and brain research using the lesson plans found in the downloadable files on the right. The 28 page student resource found in the first file is from Carol Dweck's website called mindsetworks. This site has an entire paid schoolwide program, but I was happy with the free resources (tight school budget!). I chose to use Activity 3 from this file (pgs 23-28) because it was less text heavy and had opportunities for interactive student reflection along the way. For my more advanced readers, we also read the student resources on the right "You Can Grow Your Intelligence" which was also available in Spanish. As a family connection/homework opportunity, I used the growth mindset questions and feedback tool that I sent home to families. I especially like the feedback language frames tool because it provides parents with about 50 practical sentence starters that they can use with their children. It is broken down into categories such as "When they struggle despite strong effort", "When they are making progress" and "When they don't put in much effort and then don't succeed". As a culminating project, students worked in pairs to create a visual mind map about what they learned about growth mindset using a digital tool called Popplet. We explored some examples together and then I presented students with the challenge of exploring the site on their own and creating their own Popplet project. Although it is a very user friendly tool, students had the opportunity to put what they learned about perseverance into action when they began to struggle. Once they were finished, we projected the Popplet on the screen (they can also be printed) and students used them as a visual aid to share why they chose those images to represent their mind map. The oral presentation rubric file on the far right is the best rubric I have found to assess public speaking because it has very clear, student friendly expectations. |
DOWNLOADABLE LESSONS
For literally thousands more resources on Growth Mindset, explore Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers.
| ||||||||||||