A Growth Mindset Can Be Effective

Blog #2

In writing this post, I hope that I do not "water down" Thomas' opinions or the greater picture.  It is so true that simply telling students to work harder is not going to instill "grit."  It is also true that students bring emotional baggage to school everyday and at times you will wonder how some children make it to school in the morning.  Home life and economics play huge roles in the lives of our students.  It would be incredible if we could wave a wand and make poverty disappear.  Since we cannot do that, we as educators do the best that we can when the students are with us in class.  Offering free and reduced breakfast and second chance breakfast is a temporary fix to a huge problem.  Check-ins with students during advisory help to identify students who may need additional support, such as guidance counselling or peer mediation.  Now, we have the task of educating all students, setting high expectations for all and doing what is needed to move each student along.  My school has adopted a Growth Mindset philosophy.  I never viewed the principles of the philosophy as Thomas does; however, the greater picture is so true.  I use Growth Mindset Mantras in my classroom.  My students and I discuss how we can look at something differently to better understand it.  I also love to use the mantra, "Is this your best effort?"  Students always have an opportunity to revise their work and using phrases consistently in my classroom helps my students know that I expect their best effort.  Thomas' blog links Growth Mindset to a massive, underlying issue that so many students deal with everyday.  I hope that I have shed some light in that Growth Mindset can be used to set high expectations and to help students look at learning and life situations through a different lens. 
Switching gears to grading, I could not agree more with Thomas.  Our district is standards based at the elementary and middle level.  Student work is scored using a 4 point rubric.  Supporting our Growth Mindset philosophy, my school offers a revision policy to help all students reach their highest potential.  Students have the opportunity to retake or revise their work within a set time in order to improve their rubric score.  I believe that this policy truly supports a growth mindset when students can step back and look at their work to see what may have been missed the first time.  For a struggling writer to score a 1 and to have the opportunity to sit with that student to discuss how to improve his or her writing is a true teaching moment.               

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #7 Writing Poetry

When previewing Ms. Christensen's chapter, I read all of the poems first before reading the actual content.  The poems were beautifully written.  They were unstructured and stirred different emotions.  I must admit that although I enjoy reading poetry, I struggle to write poetry on any level.  I'm a bit envious of my peers who not only enjoy poetry, but also have a wonderful talent for writing it as well.  The poem that I am going to share with the class is one written by my oldest daughter when she was in sixth grade.  I remember her ELA teacher, Mrs. Silva, instilling a love of poetry and encouraged her students to publish their own books.  Poetry is definitely an area that I do not enjoy teaching, it intimidates me.  Thinking back to previous poetry units, especially in the primary grades, I remember using templates where students could simply fill in parts of speech that they would use to describe themselves and then, viola!, a poem!  Thi...
Read more

Blog Post #8

I think Linda Christensen is my new hero!  I can not remember any other text that offered guidance and examples that I could readily use in my classroom tomorrow.  Once again, we read that when students are passionate about the content, the teaching, and subsequently the learning, become a bit easier.  Christensen states, "During these units I probe for their passion, exploring the link between the social context, the text, and the students' lives."  This reminded me of the rhetorical situation, genre, purpose and audience, that we discussed earlier in this class.  Combining these two "triangles" gives an additional way to look at what we teach keeping the interest of our students as the priority.  My take-away to use in my class tomorrow is definitely the character silhouette.  In my literacy class, we are reading aloud The Journey Back  by Priscilla Cummings.  The protagonist, Digger, is a complicated young man having to face many life-chan...
Read more

Blog #4

In reading the article, "No Longer a Luxury:  Digital Literacy Can't Wait," I found myself nodding to the five practices that destroy digital literacy.  I was not nodding in agreement, but acknowledging that I am guilty of doing each and every one in my classroom at one time or another.  This is truly an area that we, as educators, need to address.  The question is how to do this with educators who have been teaching for years?  Excellent teachers who may be intimidated to admit that something is new and unfamiliar.  In my building, we are fortunate to have great resources within our faculty.  Administration recognizes this and offers professional development sessions given by our faculty members.  In an effort to offer opportunities to teachers, information about software programs and Google apps/extensions is often relayed through an email.  Having a faculty member give a demonstration is far less intimidating for some as opposed to watchin...
Read more