Growth Mindset

Happy Wednesday!

Looking for new ways to cultivate a classroom culture that embraces a growth mindset? This week’s coach tip includes several resources for you to add to your toolbox related to growth mindset in the classroom. Maybe you will try something new in the last few days of school, or use the resources to plan for next year!

Growth Mindset: a belief that suggests that one’s intelligence can be grown or developed with persistence, effort, and a focus on learning.

According to Mary Cay Ricci in her book, Mindsets in the Classroom, “An educator with a growth mindset believes that with effort and hard work from the learner, ALL students can demonstrate significant growth and therefore all students deserve opportunities for challenge. Add to this belief an effective teacher armed with instructional tools that differentiate, respond to learner’s needs, and nurture critical thinking processes, and you have a recipe for optimum student learning.”

   

Looking for a little summer reading? This book, Mindsets in the Classroom, is full of helpful ideas in an easy to read format. There is also a compatible resource book making new ideas easy to implement.

Additionally, this video “Praising the Process”, demonstrates how process praise helps students to develop growth mindsets. The video is specifically focused in the area of writing, and is well worth the 6 minutes to watch! In the video, Ms. Stewart shares tips for how teachers can begin to use process praise in their classrooms.

Finally, if you haven’t already checked out the Class Dojo videos related to growth mindset, you’re missing out! They are a perfect way to help elementary students to see themselves as learners, cultivate a growth mindset, and start classroom discussions.

Class Dojo Growth Mindset Videos

Super-Easy Strategy to Help You Save Time for a Lesson Closure

Why should teachers build in time for lesson closures?

Lesson closure can enhance “a learner’s ability to organize, evaluate, and store information presented in class” (Reese). We focus on learning targets, but to maximize learning, we should also make sure that students have adequate time to process their progress toward the learning target and to set goals at the end of the lesson.   

The problem is this:  How does a teacher keep track of the time and not end up accidentally teaching all the way to the bell? 

Watch this SUPER-EASY strategy used in the classroom of THS Math teacher Malinda Shirley.  All she did was to recruit a student to call a five-minute warning at the end of the period each day, so that she always has time for a closure. Brilliant!

To learn more about closures: “Road Tested / Lesson Closure: Stick the Landing” by Tyler Reese.
 (http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/jun14/vol56/num06/Road-Tested-~-Lesson-Closure@-Stick-the-Landing.aspx)
 

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Student Self-Assessment & Goal Setting

According to Susan Brookhart, the coordinator of assessment and evaluation for the school of education at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania, student self-assessment is driven by three basic questions that students must be taught to ask themselves

• Where am I going?
• Where am I now
• Where to next?

To learn more about equipping students with the tools to accurately answer those questions check out this article: “Students 'Self-Assess' Their Way to Learning”

Three W's Closure Strategy

This is a simple strategy that provides students a chance to reflect on their learning and teachers an opportunity to gain important information to inform future instruction (6.3).

Students write or discuss:

What?	So What?	Now What?
What did we learn today?	What is the relevancy, importance, or usefulness?	How does it fit into what we are learning?   Does it affect our thinking?  Can we predict where we are going?

More Lesson Closure Ideas

Ask questions:

• What is one thing you learned today?
• How does today's lesson impact your understanding of _______________?  
• How would you summarize today's learning for someone who wasn't here? 
• What was the most significant learning from today?
• What "a-ha" did you have today?
• What was the most difficult concept in today’s lesson?  Why?
• What should I review further in our next lesson?
• 
  

If you are running short on time:

• On a scale of 1-5—using your fingers—rate today's lesson. To eliminate peer pressure, have everyone close their eyes.  
• Whip around:  Have each student share one word or concept they learned.

Get-Out-of-Class Ticket

• Ask students to write down one potential TEST QUESTION from today's lesson. Collect them as your students leave the room, a ticket out of class, if you will. Hang on to them. You might want to use one or two on an upcoming unit exam. This also provides a chance to personally connect. Saying goodbye is an opportunity to build up individual relationships with your students which, in turn, helps build up a positive classroom culture.

This article was also used for this post.