What's your mindset?

Isn’t it ironic that students usually limit the idea that hard work impacts achievement everywhere else in their lives except the classroom? In school, they believe achievement can only come from innate ability. “He’s just smart,” or “I’m not good at math.”

Carol Dweck, in her amazing book Mindset, challenges us to bring the playing field mentality of “no pain, no gain” into the classroom.

A growth mindset is based on the principle that our basic qualities are things we can cultivate through our efforts. We, as teachers, need to help students link successes to their effort and hard work. There is great power, lifelong affects, in knowing that hard work pays off. Let students in on this.

 

 

Here is a wonderful teaching idea we observed in classrooms that helped instill a growth mindset.

Stars and Stairs Feedback:

 

	Begin with a positive, but make sure the positive comment provides detail as to what is so great about it. Then, your students know what they are doing well. A simple “Excellent work” will not offer the feedback students need. How about something like, “Excellent work, I really love the way you showed all your steps with such clarity. It really made it easy to follow!”
	Now, include a growth point. We all have them & students need to know where they need to go to see progress. This instills a growth mindset. You can begin by using one of the following sentence stems: I wonder how it would look if next time you…. What do you think if next time you…? I noticed on the second step you…when you should have…Next time, try…