Mindsets in the Classroom WRAP UP!

Are you ready? Let's do this! Mary Cay Ricci makes it infinitely clear that although we obviously cannot control many variables in our students' lives, we certainly possess the ability to make a meaningful impact on them in the classroom to inspire a growth mindset! We can conspire to inspire our students by encouraging them to reach small goals everyday to boost their confidence and grow their growth mindset muscles!  As we wrap up our book study we would like to thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you have enjoyed this Mindsets In the Classroom adventure! Below is a free poster for you to print and post near your work area in your classroom to remind you to help your kids soar!
Conspire to inspire growth mindset!

•Value effort, persistence, and perseverence
•Praise effort over intelligence
•Small goals & wins boost confidence
•School improvement plans should include growth mindset goals/focus
•School staff meetings should include growth mindset talk/focus
•Parent-Teacher conferences should include education/talk of growth mindset
•Classrooms should be non-threatening, and fear free of embarrassment from mistakes or failures - in fact they should be celebrated for evidence of trying and working hard to learn & grow!

Thanks again for reading with us this summer!

Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 8

I know.  We have completely sold you on the idea of helping kids develop a growth mindset.  How can you resist helping kids believe in themselves, believe in hard work and perseverance, and believe in the power to achieve?  Isn't that our goal as teachers?

Here is an overview of the chapter.  You can click on the picture to download the PDF for easy reference.

Chapter 8 in the book Mindsets in the Classroom gives practical ways to integrate the development of a growth mindset in your classroom.  But, with all of the demands and commitments of a normal school day, where can we find time?  Well, be creative!  Mary Cay recommends integrating your growth mindset lessons into your day.  Are you working on non-fiction comprehension?  Why not read about neuroscience (which would obviously have to be modified for the elementary classroom)!  Are you starting the year with a science unit on famous scientists?  Add a mini unit on neuroscience.  I bet those scientists had a growth mindset.

Ricci walks you through the entire process.  She has it all planned out for you, from pre-assessment to sample learning tasks, to introducing students to growth mindset terminology.  I have chosen three of my favorite things from the chapter, and have combined them into a big, chapter 8 freebie.  Who doesn't love a freebie?

I have included the pre-assessment worksheet, one of the learning tasks, and made printable posters of eight quotes that Ricci included at the end of the chapter.  Here are a few of my favorites.

You can click on any of the pictures shown above to download your freebies.

What were your thoughts on the chapter?  Link up below or leave a comment.  Thanks for visiting us!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is all about sharing information about growth mindsets with parents.  As we all know, building those positive relationships is so important in the classroom.  Having such a positive relationship will help make it easier to make the change to growth mindsets.  (I know it will for me!)

I love this quote by Mary Cay Ricci, "If any adult in a child's life communicates low expectations either verbally or nonverbally, then achievement can suffer".  It is essential to get everyone on board in order to provide each child with the most opportunities for success.  

I feel like the strategies outlined in this chapter are ones parents and teachers alike can all use.  So regardless of whether it was dedicated to parents, I found it extremely valuable for me!  One section of the chapter was all about building resilience.  Mary Cay Ricci says, "A central message to communicate with parents is the importance of encouraging resilience in their children".  I am SO guilty of this with my students.  I have this need to help and coddle students from their failures.  But as we learned in Chapter 5, failure is necessary for success. 

One of the strategies for building resilience is to use growth mindset praise.  Mary Cay Ricci states, "Always praise a child's willingness to try, effort, patience, and practice.  Do not attribute success to "being smart" or "being the best" but to hard work and perseverance".  I am guilty again of not using growth mindset praise!  Don't get me wrong, I praise ALL THE TIME, but rarely is it in a growth mindset way.  This is definitely an area I will be improving this coming school  year.  To me, the best way to teach parents how to apply growth mindsets to their children is by modelling.  It would be so powerful to them (and our students) if we showed them exactly what we mean by using growth mindset praise.  I made these little notes to send home with children frequently modelling growth mindset praise.  

Just as we teachers need to be educated, parents need to be specifically educated about neural connections so that they can be aware of the importance of practice and persistence.  Ricci suggests having parents participate in some of the student learning experiences which we will learn more about soon in Chapter 8.  Along with participating in these experiences, post information about growth mindsets on the school website, social network sites, newsletters, or any other form of communication.  The more we can teach and model for parents, the better.  

Here's a sample note you may want to send home at the beginning of the year.  It explains a little bit about growth mindsets and giving appropriate praise.  All of this information came from the book.  

Students also play an important role in teaching their parents about how their brain works.  Mary Cay Ricci references this clip from The Pursuit of Happyness.   

I absolute loved it!  I love how you can tell who has a fixed mindset and who has a growth mindset.  Their body language says it all!  

I especially loved this quote from the film. 

I thought it would be an inspiring mantra for you class to learn, memorize, and apply in their situations.  It also got me thinking it would be so powerful for your class to develop their own mantra in relation to growth mindsets.  Then, they can teach it to their parents and help bring some of those concepts into the home.  Just as Ricci said, "Children may, in fact, be the catalysts for helping their parents truly understand the malleability of the mind".  

Grab all the freebies here!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 5

 As a fourth grader I remember my teacher putting me down for not solving long division math problems the same way as she explained. She put me down because I was thinking in a different way.  I had "failed" to solve the math concept correctly. I lost all confidence in myself, my math thinking, and my love of learning was lost. From that point on I struggled in math. It wasn't because I wasn't smart, it was because I was scared of making mistakes. 

I'm so happy I was able to read and reflect on chapter 5 of Mindsets in the Classroom. It has helped me reflect on my own teaching. I ask myself, "In my classroom, is failure a reward?" I love how Mary Cay Ricci explains, "Failure can be a reward, for it is through failure that we can learn the most."  Unlike my 4th grade teacher, I hope all teachers can remember this simple yet important skill.

Later in the chapter Mary Cay Ricci states, "The way we respond to failure depends on our mindset. When we believe intelligence is malleable, then we realize when we make a mistake - when we fail - we need to approach the task differently and/or put more effort into it." This is important for teachers to foster the love of learning in all students no matter their academic level and let them learn from their mistakes or failures because all students will have them. 

Our world would be a different place if many important people didn't learn from their failures and keep trying. I wonder what it would be like if Steve Jobs quit after failure? Walt Disney was faced with many obstacles but he kept moving forward because like he said, "Around here, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down paths." 

We must teach students how to respond to failure. Teachers must create a classroom environment that welcomes failures. We as educators should teach students that failure is celebrated. Because it's through failure that we become successful. Success doesn't come easily and we must fail first. 

Motivation should be given as intrinsic rewards (personal satisfaction). Extrinsic rewards such as prizes, money, and certificates have many flaws. These rewards can extinguish student creativity and foster short-term thinking. Many students stop once they reach a goal or prize. I think of the example of reading in my classroom. Once a child has read their goal for the quarter, they often times think they don't have to read anymore. So how can you use motivation correctly in your classroom to foster life long learning and success? 

I'd like you to take a moment to reflect on your own teaching. How will you celebrate failure this next school year? How are you going to keep your students engaged and excited about learning and trying new things? 

Thanks for following along with our book study this month. I know I am learning so much from this idea of Mindsets in the Classroom. I can't wait to get back into my 2nd grade classroom and give it a try or perfect what I'm doing already!

-Ashlyn from The Creative Classroom

An InLinkz Link-up

Mindsets and Critical Thinking

Good morning!!  I hope that you have been enjoying our Mindsets in the Classroom study as much as we have!  It has been great to see you linking up with us too!  Don't forget you can go back and grab the frame HERE so you can link up with us!!  It's never too late to jump into this awesome book!!

With that, we are going to jump into chapter 4 today!!

Chapter 4 is all about critical thinking and giving our students the opportunity to think critically.  This doesn't mean in just one area once a day.  It means multiple times a day, and in ways that are challenging to your students.

Critical thinking is a process that we have to continue to work on and develop.  If we do not practice thinking critically then we will set expectations that are too low of ourselves and our students.  Mary explained how cooking is not a skill, but a PROCESS that requires many, many different skills.  Without these different skills you would not be able to cook.  If you could not measure then you would not be able to correctly make a cake.

Thinking critically is also a process where we have to practice many different skills.  We have to understand what is being asked, we have to interpret information that is given to us,  we have to reason, solve problems and make decisions.

We need to make sure that we provide our students with plenty of opportunities to use their critical thinking process!

When students are able to use their own reasoning skills, then they are able to figure things out and talk about why they arrived at a certain answer.  When we continuously give them the answer, or tell them there is only one way to do things, then we have a fixed mindset.  By allowing students to try different ways, we are showing them that it is okay to think outside the book, and sharing the ideas that we are allowing them to have a growth mindset.

Don't forget to add your link up if you would like to join us!!  We are almost half way done!!  Can you believe it!?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mindsets in the Classroom

What Are They, and How Do They Affect the Classroom?

Welcome to our summer book study!

We really hope that you will join in and link up with us as we share our take on this great professional resource!

Let's get started!

Chapter 1 is all about what mindsets are and how they make an impact in the classroom.  I have often thought about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the classroom, but this books took me to a different level describing the two different mindsets, growth and fixed.

The belief system that asserts that intelligence is malleable and can be developed is called  growth mindset.  Interestingly, 100% of kindergartners entering school have a growth mindset.  This number drops significantly over a student's first few years, with the notable drop from 82% to 58%, between second and third grade!  Kids come to school believing that they can and will learn and they begin soaking up everything that we expose them to.  But then what happens?

Students with a growth mindset believe that they can learn just about anything.  Even though challenging, with effort and perseverance they can succeed.  The focus of this mindset is on learning, not looking smart.

However, students with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is something that you are born with and that the level of intelligence cannot be changed.  For students who struggle or don't think that they are smart, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  They often give up and do not put forth much effort.  For those who view themselves as "smart," they can become focused on "looking smart" at all costs and avoid taking risks where they feel they may not succeed.  These are the kiddos who seem to coast through school without putting forth much effort, but are praised for their good grades.  They are high achievers who blame outside influences when they "fail" at a task.

A child's mindset directly affects how he or she faces academic challenges.

What does this mean in the classroom?

According to Malcom Gladwell, "It turns out that summer vacation is a massive disadvantage for poorer kids.  Richer kids get a lot of help over the summer.  Their homes are filled with books and things that advance their knowledge; they go to camp and have all these other activities.  But a poorer family can't do that.  To improve that, we as a society would have to provide it in the first place.  During the school year, poor kids actually outlearn richer kids.  Then they stall over the summer."

Our society has become one that values pace.  The faster the better.  But we need to really think about the fact that it is not about how fast students master learning.  It's about the persistence and effort they put forth.  Personally, I think that is what the common core standards are aiming for; depth and perseverance rather than rote and speed.

The good news?  Mindset can be shifted!  Recent brain research negates the notion that intelligence is fixed from birth.  Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to adapt and "rewire" itself throughout our entire lives.

We as educators, need to begin as early as possible to instill a growth mindset in our students so that they will continue to believe that the can and will succeed.  Talk to your students about brain research and teach them that their intelligence is not predetermined.  Teach them that their effort and persistence are what will enable them to succeed.  Believe in them.  Encourage them.  And most importantly, make sure that you embrace a growth mindset in your classroom.

  

Click on the image below to download a PDF version of the chapter 1 summary. (I also included the Perseverance and Keep Going signs.)  Then share you views about the book on your blog and link up with us.

An InLinkz Link-up

Book Study: Mindsets in the Classroom

Are you ready for some fun online professional development with the Hello Sunshine teachers?  Join us as we read Mindsets in the Classroom and learn together how we can move our students, staff and communities to a growth mindset. 

Grab a copy of the book or download the Kindle version and join us!  Starting June 4th we will be hosting a linky party every Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday for the month of June.  Use the frame at the end of this post to link up and you will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a gift card!
Here is the book study order so you can plan accordingly:
Chapter 1 – June 4
Chapter 2 – June 7
Chapter 3 – June 9
Chapter 4 – June 11
Chapter 5 – June 14
Chapter 6 – June 16
Chapter 7 – June 18
Chapter 8 – June 21
Chapter 9 – June 23
Chapter 10 – June 25
Wrap Up – June 28
We are so excited to go through this study with all of you and share ideas for transforming our classrooms and schools!
Use this framework to link up with us for each chapter. 

See you June 4th for Chapter 1 !