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What is intelligence? How does our mindset impact our intelligence? The standard dictionary defines intelligence as the capacity for learning, reasoning and understanding. However, the dictionary does not mention hard work and effort. Success is directly proportional to the effort made. Like in sports, if you don't practice and work hard you can't expect to gain anything.

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Carol Dweck's research on growth mindset has become essential knowledge in education circles. The Stanford psychologist found that children who understand that their brains are malleable and can change when working through challenging problems can do better in school. Now, many school districts are attempting to teach growth mindset to their students. At the core of this practice is the idea of "productive failure" (a concept Dr. Manu Kapur has been studying for over a decade)* and giving students the time and space to work through difficult problems. Another key idea is to praise the process and effort a child puts in, not the final product.

These mindset changes are easy to describe and dictate, but more challenging to implement. To help both teachers and parents, Stanford's PERTS Center has teamed up with the Teaching Channel to produce videos that demonstrate process praise and productive struggle. PERTS has developed a toolkit to support the adults in children's lives who are struggling to change their practice.

In the video below on classroom struggle, second grade teacher Maricela Montoy-Wilson repeatedly asks her students to justify their thinking using reasoning and evidence. She encourages students to critique one another's thinking and ask for specific kinds of help. She highlights that problems can be solved in different ways and normalizes struggle in her classroom so students don't feel bad if they don't understand.

"Everyone is going to feel stuck," Montoy-Wilson said. "Everyone is going to feel challenged by it. So they can get excited and think about the strategies they can implement to tackle the problem."

Look out for the moment near the end of the video when Montoy-Wilson checks in with a group of students who haven't even been able to solve the first problem. She asks them how they feel and they respond "good" because "we're working hard." She calls attention to the struggling group in front of the whole classroom, prompting one boy to say, "We were happy because we were growing our brains."
*A previous version of this article neglected to mention the scholarship of Dr. Manu Kapur who is an authority on the concept and design theory of productive failure. We regret the omission.

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Growth Mindset: How to Normalize Mistake Making and Struggle in Class

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Carol Dweck's research on growth mindset has become essential knowledge in education circles. The Stanford psychologist found that children who understand that their brains are malleable and can change when working through challenging problems can do better in school. Now, many school districts are attempting to teach growth mindset to their students.

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1. Don't Be Boring
"In our engaging classrooms, we have to have a set of procedures and routines," Perez said. But they don't have to be boring. She often has students come in and look at a list of adjectives on the board, many of which stretch her students' vocabularies. She asks them to greet two other students and use one of the adjectives to describe how they are feeling today. The activity gets them up, moving and ready to learn, plus they've used a new vocabulary word in relation to themselves, checking in with their community along the way.

2. Vote
Activate students' brains with a quick round of voting. Perez often puts three learning goals for the day up on the board and asks students to vote for the one they think is most important. All three goals are good ones and there's no wrong answer. "The reluctant learners get to look around the room and see who else thinks just like them," Perez said. This quick activity helps create curiosity among students about what each of them is thinking.

3. Set Goals
Perez is also a proponent of both teacher and students setting personal learning goals every day that are achievable, believable and measurable. "Part of reaching that goal is publicizing that goal," Perez said. Making goal-setting a regular and visible part of one's teaching practice models it for students. But it's very important to leave time for students to revisit the goal they set at the end of the day, Perez said. That opportunity to reflect will help them see and value what they did during the day, as well as where they may have fallen short of the goal.

4. Form Groups
Perez constantly asks her students (in this case a group of educators) to break off to share with one another, brainstorm or collaborate, and she always sets a time limit for the conversation, like 72 seconds. "In my classroom I use bizarre time limits and then they think I'm actually watching the clock and they get to it," Perez said. She finds this promotes more time on task than a generic five-minute time limit, which students know is just as likely to stretch into eight minutes.

5. Quick Writes
Often Perez will throw out a question and ask students to quickly brainstorm on paper as many answers as they can. Then she'll do a "popcorn share" where students stand up whenever they want and throw out an idea. This could be an alternative to something like "round-robin reading," which can put reluctant learners in the hot seat. In this case, Perez sets her students up for success by giving them time to brainstorm first -- the answers are right in front of them. This strategy has the added value of forcing students to listen closely to their peers, since they don't know who will pop up next.

6. Focus on the ABCs: Acceptance, Belonging and Community
"Without this set of ABCs, traditional ABCs will not be as successful," Perez said. She's aware of the rush to cover content in many schools and classrooms, but says teaching is not about what is covered today, it's about what is uncovered in students. "Don't be so standards-driven that you forget the needs of your students," she said.

7. Continually change the "state" of the classroom
These are changes in who is providing the information, who is doing the talking. Perez likes to say for every 10 minutes of content, teachers need to give students two minutes of "chew time."

8. Empathize
Keep in mind the students' perspective and listen when they explain what they need to learn. Take Ned's Great Eight to heart.
NED's GREAT EIGHT

I feel OK

It matters

It's active

It stretches me

I have a coach

I have to use it

I think back on it

I plan my next steps

9. Do a BRAIN checklist

Build a safe environment

Recognize diversity in the classroom

Assessment must be formative, authentic and ongoing

Instructional strategies should be a palette of opportunities

New models

"We've got to be growing and open to new ideas," Perez said. "That's why teaching is such an adventure. Each day you walk into the classroom, you never know what you're going to get."

10. Simplify
Perez suggests framing every lesson in a similar format, but executing it differently each time. First activate the learners by making them curious and developing a need-to-know. Then, let them dig into the content in an exploratory phase that takes them deeply into rich content. Last, help scaffold students' broader understanding by helping them integrate it with what they already know. Some metacognitive questions that can get them thinking this way include: What part of the lesson did you like the best? What part was the most difficult for you? Why do you think that was? What do you think you can do today to help yourself stay focused?

"If we don't give our kids time to reflect, to connect, to marinate on the information, they're going to regurgitate what's right there in front of them without even thinking," Perez said. Reflection and rehearsal of what was learned is crucial to move information from working memory into long-term memory.

11. Chunk Information
Make information more easily digestible for students. "We need to be more purposeful in our delivery of information," Perez said. Too often teachers deliver an entire lesson without letting students move or discuss once. Kids will give up if they are overloaded with facts, and chunking provides a way to pause and let students think over what they've learned. Breaks to assimilate information are crucial for mastery.

"Lesson mastery means students have mastered the content when they do something substantive with the content beyond echoing it," Perez said.

12. Props
Perez keeps a box of props for when she's teaching. She often throws something to a child when it's his turn to talk so he has something to focus on. She says this works particularly well for kids with attention problems, as well as for the tactile learners.

13. Breaks
Short video clips can be a great brain break. A great clip can be interpreted in multiple ways. "You're fostering divergent thinking," Perez said.

14. Post-Its
Post-It note discussions are a good way to get all students involved without making anyone uncomfortable by putting them on the spot. Ask an open-ended question. It could be an activator at the beginning, a marinator in the middle, or even a summarizer to test for understanding at the end of a lesson. Students jot down their answers to the prompt on Post-Its. English Language learners or special needs students could write just one word or draw something. Then students share in pairs. "Even the most reticent learner is OK sharing one-on-one." Perez said. Post all the responses on a graffiti board and pull out some trends.

15. Make Snowballs
The Snowball brain break is one of Perez' favorite ways to summarize learning at the end of a lesson (and should be done when students are on their way to recess or at the end of the day). Students write answers to a prompt on a piece of paper. On the count of three, they throw their "snowball" randomly up and away (but not at anyone). Then everyone grabs a snowball that landed near them."It's a way you can purposefully pause, have them reflect and make connections," Perez said. She uses it in all subjects, sometimes asking students to write three new vocabulary words they learned, or three successes they had in that lesson, or three questions. "Students love it and it's inclusionary because it's anonymous," Perez said. Students also get to see one another's thinking in this activity.

16. Guessing Games
When slightly boring content must be covered, create a need-to-know in students by having them predict the answers. Students are more likely to be invested in the answers when they are revealed after students themselves have had a chance to debate and predict.*

This strategy among others is meant to get students to manipulate and think about the information themselves. "If the teacher does all the interacting with the material, the teacher's brain, not the students' brains, will grow," Perez said. That's why Perez advocates that teachers have a large toolkit of approaches to get students thinking, speaking, writing, touching, building, listening and, most importantly, doing something with the content.

17. Balanced Inquiry
Lectures do have a time and a place, but they are far more effective when they are interactive. Perez likes Harvey Silver's guide for an effective lecture: connect new knowledge to existing knowledge, organize the materials into chunks, dual code the information so it's stored in multiple places and exercise the brain.

"It's a matter of balance to keep the engagement alive," Perez said. She doesn't advocate that teachers always have students teach one another just because it has a high retention and transfer rate; doing all of one thing is never effective. Instead, she says, it's about a balanced use of all the inquiry approaches.

18. Mind-streaming
Mind-streaming is another fun brain break activity that also gives students a chance to recall what they've learned and teach one another. Have students randomly pair up and then each person teaches the other the most important things they've learned in that lesson. Each person will remember different things, and when there is overlap that will reinforce the concept. It's simple, effective and doesn't require any teacher preparation because students are teaching one another.

19. Be Interactive
Perez begs educators to always try to make tasks engaging and interactive by giving students enough knowledge, giving them the language to express it, giving them an authentic reason for the interaction they're engaged in, prime them with interesting questions, establish a community of learners that support each other, and give students a clear understanding of the task. If these elements are part of every class, she says, all students can be successful.

20. HOPE
The last tip Perez offered educators is to have HOPE, an acronym she uses for Have Only Positive Expectations.

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20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners | KQED

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1. Don't Be Boring "In our engaging classrooms, we have to have a set of procedures and routines," Perez said. But they don't have to be boring. She often has students come in and look at a list of adjectives on the board, many of which stretch her students' vocabularies.

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Growth mindset-we've all heard the buzzword, but what exactly does it look like in our classrooms? And how do we help children develop it?

Researcher Carol Dweck puts it this way: "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."

Sounds like every teacher's dream, doesn't it? Students taking risks, focusing on effort rather than result, meeting challenges head-on and even celebrating mistakes as a means for growth.

One easy way to encourage growth mindset is through engaging, purposeful read-alouds. We've assembled a dozen stories of individuals (including one precocious penguin!) who overcome obstacles and labels to develop extraordinary talents and capabilities.

Best for: Grades PreK-2

In this inspirational story, a young stargazer wishes to catch a star of his very own. Despite his many creative attempts, he learns in the end that sometimes having your dreams come true requires a little flexibility. A great story for encouraging kids to dream big and never give up.

Best for: Grades PreK-2

"Oh, how Willie wished he could whistle ..." begins this beloved classic. Young Willie longs to be able to whistle for his dog, but try as he might, he just cannot figure out how to do it. We follow along as Willie goes through his day, trying, trying and trying some more until finally his efforts are rewarded with a tweet!

Best for: Grades PreK-3

This sweet tale follows the course of a little one trying to learn to ride a bike, a milestone to which younger students will surely relate. With determination and practice, as well as a fair share of frustration, her trials ultimately lead to triumph.

Best for: Grades PreK-3

Penguin has big dreams of soaring through the sky with the seagulls. Although his body is not remotely designed for flight, Penguin's creativity and ingenuity, not to mention his persistence, lead to the fulfillment of his dreams. A wonderful story for encouraging kids to think outside the box.

Best for: Grades K-3

This whimsically illustrated story tells the tale of a talented artist who grows up immersed in the joy of creating art until he is tragically injured in a war. Very patiently, with great determination, he slowly regains some of the control in his injured right arm, and although his abilities aren't exactly the same, he goes on to become a celebrated artist.

Best for: Grades 1-3

When Rosie's attempt to build a flying contraption for her aunt doesn't turn out quite as she plans, she feels like a failure but learns that in life the only true failure is giving up. A story of pursuing one's passion with perseverance.

Best for: Grades K-4

Although he was born with one misshapen leg, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah pursued life with a tenacity that helped him accomplish all that he set his mind to. Encouraged by his mother, who told him to pursue his dreams regardless of his handicap, this story is an inspiring true story of triumph over adversity.

Best for: Grades 1-4

Nadia Comaneci captured the hearts of the world with her skill and grace as a young Olympic champion. This story shows that her triumph was the result of years of practice and dedication. Even through difficult times, Nadia worked hard, picked herself up when she failed and persevered.

Best for: Grades 1-4

Irene, the loyal young daughter of a dressmaker, must forge through a dreadful storm to deliver her mother's work to the duchess. She must brave the howling wind, the freezing temperatures and many dangerous obstacles in order to complete her mission. An inspiring story that teaches that with proper motivation, there are no age restrictions on accomplishing great things.

Best for: Grades 1-4

An inspiring true story about a girl who dared to dream of being a drummer in a culture that said girls could not. She practices in secret and never gives up on her dream. Ultimately, her perseverance and belief in herself change a culture and reverse a long-held taboo.

Best for: Grades 2-5

Hana's worried about playing her violin in the talent show. She longs to play beautiful music like her grandfather in Japan, but she's only a beginner. She is determined to play her best though, so she practices every day. This inspiring story offers hope and confidence to all children who are yearning to master something difficult and teaches that sometimes there is more than one way to be successful at a task.

Best for: Grades 2-5

Ruby is a young girl filled with curiosity and a hunger for learning in a time when schooling is traditionally a boy's privilege. Her hard work and courage result in her skills being recognized by her powerful grandfather, who breaks with tradition and clears the way for Ruby to further her education. This is a great story for inspiring kids to break down barriers in their pursuit of the love of learning.
Download our colorful poster "8 Phrases That Nurture Growth Mindset" for your classroom !

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12 Perfect Picture Books for Teaching Growth Mindset

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Growth mindset-we've all heard the buzzword, but what exactly does it look like in our classrooms? And how do we help children develop it? Researcher Carol Dweck puts it this way: "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.

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A young girl helps a tiny boy to fly home before it's too late! Use this delightful animated film in your classroom with our collection of cross-curricular teaching ideas and activities!

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This year, I am trying to do things that will keep our classroom positive and happy, so I thought I would connect some of the academic ideas we are learning with a bit of team building fun. So as we wrapped up our unit on character traits (you can read about exactly what we did ), I had the students think about the traits that their classmates embodied.

I created a form on Google Forms that included each of my students' names. (I made each entry a "short answer" question) I then asked the students to think of 3 POSITIVE adjectives that described their fellow classmates and input that into the form. I wanted them specifically to think of inside traits that we had learned about in our character unit, as outside traits were a bit too obvious. To help the students really dig deeper on the character traits, I projected this character trait list from onto the board. I also added several unique character traits about each student, as well as their name about 10 times (which will become important later on.)

Once all of the forms were submitted, I created an individual doc for each

student with all of the adjectives listed. Using the "Save as Doc" add-on in Chrome, the individual doc was easy to create. I then shared it from my drive to the student who it belonged to.

The students then copied and pasted all of the words into a word cloud form from . This generated a cloud with all of the character traits that their classmates used to describe them. This word cloud takes the words that appear more than once and makes them bigger than others, so the student's name should appear the most on the doc. After taking a screenshot and inserting it into a Google Slide, the students took a selfie and added that on top of the slide.

I printed the slides out, laminated, and now we have a gorgeous display with hundreds of positive character traits to describe our class!

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Building a Positive Class with Character Trait Word Clouds

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This year, I am trying to do things that will keep our classroom positive and happy, so I thought I would connect some of the academic ideas we are learning with a bit of team building fun.

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As more and more research comes out about the power of Growth Mindset and more and more people are leaning towards this line of thinking (heck, even my District is getting on board...they talked about it at a training I went to over the summer!), I figured that this would be as good a time as any to teach my students about their own brains and mindset. So I began my first week of school with a few lessons that really set a great tone for my students.

To begin, I wanted something tangible and hands-on for my students to experience. So I searched online and found this lesson here . In a nutshell, I folded some paper in a crazy figure (that didn't actually look all crazy...until I tried to make it...go to the blog for exact instructions) and told the students they needed to recreate it. I had them get into groups of 7-8 students, put the figure in the middle and gave them each the exact same piece of paper I used. There were only two rules: They could not touch the folded paper and they could not have a second piece of paper.

Most of the students got right to it. As they were working, I walked around with a clipboard and wrote down everything that I was hearing in the groups. At the beginning, I heard things like:

This is easy.
Look, we just fold it this way and then that.
Let me get my scissors and we can all just cut it.
Hmmm....I wonder how she did that.
Can you just show me what you are doing?

Then, as time went on and recreating the folded paper wasn't as easy as they thought, the narrative started to change. I started to hear:

Wait, what?
This isn't going to work.
I can't get this. What did you do?
Seriously, she had to use tape.
How did she get that part?
Let's only do one paper at a time in case we make a mistake.

This was also the time when I started to see some kids just sit back and watch. They stopped trying altogether and just let everyone else experiment. I also noticed some kids taking charge completely and not letting others have opinions.

Then, towards the end, I heard:

This is impossible.
I give up.
I just can't do this.
What on earth did she do?
She used magic.

After about 10 minutes of working, I called them all together again (no one was able to fold it correctly), I showed the students what they said. It was a bit eye-opening for them to see that some just quit so early on or that they declared the task impossible. Clearly it wasn't, as I had just folded the paper. They just wanted me to tell them the answer. This then lead into a nice discussion about the basic principles of growth mindset. That you have to keep going and trying. That your brain was meant to learn.

So I passed out a quiz that I got from Angela Watson of the Cornerstone for Teachers . (she has a whole Growth Mindset pack that is really useful) They took the quiz, which asks questions about whether students think they can learn and grow or if they were just born that way. Then, we watched a video that Angela links from the Khan Academy about the fact that our brains were born to learn.

We wrote down many ideas from the video, the biggest being that failure = growing. That REALLY stuck with them.

I then asked the students to write down all of the words they could think of that pertained to their idea of what it means that "you were born to learn." The more important words, in their opinion, were to be larger than the less important words. Effectively, they were making a free form word cloud.

I then took their picture as if they were screwing in a lightbulb, glued it onto the word cloud they created, and using tissue paper, they formed a "lightbulb" above their hand.

All in all, this was a fabulous way to introduce the idea of growth mindset to my students. This entire process took two days to complete, but it was well worth it. The students continue to make connections to that first video from Khan Academy and refer to the idea of "failure = growing" still. I am also finding that there is just a much more positive tone in class because of it. I can't wait to continue on with future lessons.

Have you delved into growth mindset? What are your experiences?

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As more and more research comes out about the power of Growth Mindset and more and more people are leaning towards this line of thinking (heck, even my District is getting on board...they talked about it at a training I went to over the summer!), I figured that this would be as good a time as any to teach my students about their own brains and mindset.

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In this unit of lessons, children will learn about growth and fixed mindsets. They will follow the adventures of Mojo, from Class Dojo, and see how he overcomes problems at school. The children will write anecdotes from their own lives regarding times when they have been stuck or struggled with learning. They will discuss and write down ideas on when they have shown a growth mindset and when they have had a fixed mindset.
These lessons will progress to an extended writing activity in which the children will write a letter or create poster for a family member or friend, giving them advice on how to have a growth mindset when learning something new.

Grammar taught throughout the unit will include verbs, and conjunctions. Children will write a draft letter and then a re-draft to show their understanding of editing work and self assessment.

The outcome will be an extended piece of writing and a mental awareness of how having a growth mindset can help their learning when working independently and collaboratively.

The inclusion of social, moral and emotional needs in this unit of work means the children are working across the curriculum and developing an understanding of empathy, perseverance and motivation alongside writing skills.

Year 3 English:

"Mental Health and Wellbeing" is the added bonus!

Lesson 1:

The objective of the first lesson is to define and describe the concepts of growth mindset. The children will be able to say what growth mindset is, make references to their own learning and be able to write ideas on growth mindset vs fixed mindset. Ask:

Discuss the ideas the children create and note them down on a collaborative website like Padlet, or use post-it notes to write ideas.

Watch the first chapter of Mojo, from Class Dojo and write down notes from the video.

The task of the first lesson will be to write examples of growth mindset from their own lives.
Differentiation:

Using the sentence starters, write a down three examples of when you have showed a growth mindset in your life. Then write three examples of when you have had a fixed mindset.

Using the sentence starters, write a down three examples of when you have showed a growth mindset in your life. Then write three examples of when you have had a fixed mindset.
Include in your examples how you overcame when you were stuck. What helped you? Who was there to motivate you?

Write at least a paragraph comparing growth mindset and fixed mindset. (Include ideas from your own life and conclude which mindset is the most helpful when learning something new)

Children then edit their work and write self-assessment feedback:

Lesson 2:

In this lesson, children will describe growth mindset using conjunctions.

Show the children the different images of growth mindset vs fixed mindset.

Discuss ideas on tables and then watch Chapter 2 on the adventures of Mojo.

What lesson did you learn from the video?

Using the template, children will (notice a differentiated approach):

At the end of the lesson, ask the children:

How were you successful in your learning today?

What would you differently next time and why?

Lesson 3:

In this lesson, children will use their knowledge and anecdotes about growth mindset and begin to draft a letter to a loved one.

Firstly, so children are reminded of how to structure a letter. Children will observe and briefly annotate a letter to show understanding of the features and layout.

Children then watch Chapter 3 of Mojo adventures and describe how Mojo has shown a growth mindset.

Children use plan to help devise letter to their family or friend.

Children then write an advisory letter on how having a growth mindset will be have a positive impact on their learning.

Children then edit their work using visual thesaurus and dictionaries. They work collaboratively in pairs and work on one piece of writing at a time so the work has subjective and objective view points to improve.

Lesson 4:

Success Criteria: To edit and re-draft a letter.

Children spend 10-15 annotating their spelling, sense, punctuation and content to recognize mistakes and anything they want to modify.

Children use iPads, dictionaries, partners, table peers to help with editing process.

Children then re-draft their work using their adaptations to help them improve their work.

Can you see you mistakes and how will you change them?

Self reflection after re-draft:

How did you change your work?

Why did you change your work?

What did you keep the same and why?

The use of Padlet or taking notes throughout the sessions will provide formative feedback, but the writing outcome at the end of the Unit means you can provide summative assessments of the writing skills at word and sentence level and the concepts of growth mindset.

Download all of the lesson-related resources below:
If you like this lesson plan, or have an idea to improve it, please consider sharing it on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook or leave a comment below.

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Growth Mindset through Writing: Unit of Work (Years 3/4/5) - Australian Curriculum Lessons

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Summary of Unit: In this unit of lessons, children will learn about growth and fixed mindsets. They will follow the adventures of Mojo, from Class Dojo, and see how he overcomes problems at school. The children will write anecdotes from their own lives regarding times when they have been stuck or struggled with learning.

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Gold Winner of the 42nd Student Academy Awards: A cross between Miyazaki and Pixar, SOAR is an award-winning 3D animated movie about a young girl who must help a tiny boy pilot fly home before it's too late. facebook.com/SOARfilm

Soar was created as Alyce Tzue's thesis project in school. What began as a toil of love by first-time filmmakers ended up catching the eyes of festivals all over the world. Soar is the proud 2015 Gold Winner of the 42nd Student Oscars, Best Student Animation Winner at Palm Springs, Finalist at the Student BAFTAs, and has screened all over the US, France, Canada, Korea, and beyond.

The Soar team is beyond grateful for your support. We believe the film's surprise success is proof of its message: when you put in everything you've got, sometimes you achieve more than you ever expected.

The director Alyce is currently developing similarly fantastical ideas for feature length animation and TV. For more information, please contact Alyce Tzue at alyce.tzue@gmail.com.

Written and Directed by Alyce Tzue - www.alycetzue.com
Music by Jack Gravina - www.jackgravina.com
Produced by Anson Yu - ansonyu.tw@gmail.com
VFX Supervisor Derek Flood - imdb.com/name/nm0282541
Created at the Academy of Art University - www.academyart.edu

Visit www.soarfilm.com
Full credits at soarfilm.com/credits/credits.html
Follow us on FB at facebook.com/SOARfilm

AWARDS
Awards:
    Gold Winner, Best Animated Film - Student Academy Awards
    Winner, Best Student Animation - Palm Springs International ShortFest 
    Winner, Best Children's Animation - Rhode Island International Film Festival
    Winner, Best Animated Short - USA Film Festival
    Winner, Best Animation - San Diego Film Festival
    Winner, Best Animated Short Film - Academy of Art University Media Awards
    2nd Place, Audience Award for Best Animated Short - Palm Springs ShortFest
    Finalist, BAFTA Student Awards
    Official Selection, FilmShortage.com
    Official Selection, Austin Film Festival
    Official Selection, Hamptons International Film Festival
    Official Selection, St. Louis International Film Festival
    Official Selection, TIFF Kids International Film Festival (Canada)
    Official Selection, Seoul International Youth Film Festival (Korea)
    Official Selection, Ciné Court Animé (France)
    Official Selection, Hudson Valley International Festival
    Official Selection, Cleveland International Film Festival
    Official Selection, Kansas International Film Festival
    Official Selection, Northwest Animation Festival
    Official Selection, Mill Valley Film Festival
    Official Selection, La Scatola Blu Festival (Italy)
    Official Selection, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
    Official Selection, Leuven Short Film Festival (Belgium)
    Official Selection, London Indie Film Festival (UK)
    Official Selection, Detours en Cinecourt International Short Film Festival (France)

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With prompts

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Class Creator Blog | Resources for Educators

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Why do kids need to learn to struggle?

As adults we all know the most rewarding experiences in life often involve significant struggle and sacrifice at some stage. Personally the greatest joys in my life have all come with some form of struggle...

Being married. We are very happily married, but that doesn't mean we are always very happy with one another.

Being a parent. The most rewarding thing I have and will ever do...but where did my sleep go? (x100 for my wife)

Staying healthy. I like chocolate and since turning 30 my metabolism can't burn 50,000 calories as easily as it used to.

Being a teacher. How do I motivate/help/manage/engage/inspire/avoid being stabbed by this student?

Without the ability to struggle life becomes very limited.

A fear of struggling will stop students from trying something they are not 100% certain they will succeed at with ease.

The list of things we know we can all succeed at in the adult world probably consists of 1) breathing 2) eating chocolate 3) sitting on the couch watching The Bachelorette.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Bachelorette, but I hope people aren't talking about it at my funeral.

So how do we help our students not just cope with struggle, but to thrive with it?

Here is one activity I have used to confront and discuss "Struggling" with my students...

Before your students enter the room place a couple of these (I'll show you how to make it at the end of this post) in a place where each student can easily view it from all sides.

![](/content/images/2016/02/Struggle-Blog--7-of-9-.jpg)

Students will need scrap paper and a pair of scissors to attempt to make the structure themselves.

Instruct students they cannot touch the structure, but they are encouraged to move around it and view it from all angles.

Encourage students to discuss their ideas and methods as they go, but if they are successful, they are to keep their method to themselves.
I recommend you don't "prime" the students to be positive, just let them approach the task as they would any other.

Then the fun begins. Students are then challenged to make the structure. Don't offer any advice or encouragement once the students begin. Just observe.

From my experience most students (90%) will not be able to make the structure within 10 minutes.

For the record I never figured it out...

My brother challenged me to make it one Christmas day and it nearly resulted in World War III until he finally told me the answer.

While the kids are working on it walk around the classroom and monitor their behaviour and language. I write down the language I hear and take photos of the kids working.

After seven or so minutes I start writing the language I have heard on the whiteboard, with no names attached. I don't say anything while I write all the language on the board. Some kids stop and read, others keep doing what they're doing. If a student says something else interesting as I write that goes up as well.

Once you think the kids have had enough get them to stop building and turn their attention to the board.

![](/content/images/2017/01/Email-Footer-FBTF.jpg)

Did anyone make it? How long did it take? How many tries?

Was the first ten seconds of trying much different from the last ten seconds? How? Why?

What was it like when someone else got it?

How many attempts did you take?

How long did you look at the structure before you first started?

How many breaks did you take?

Did you look at what other people were doing? Why? How did it make you feel? Did you learn anything from what they were doing?

Then turn your attention to the language you recorded. I try and remove ownership of the language and then use the language as the personification of a person. We discuss how that "person" would fare in a:

football match

job interview

audition for dance company

on MasterChef/X-Factor

relationship

any challenge relevant to your students

We discuss how life is full of frustrating, annoying, unfair situations that often appear too difficult for us to overcome.

We talk about how everyone has different strengths, and as a result we all face different challenges, but the one thing that we have in common is that we will all struggle at some stage in our life.

I then refer back to the language used during the activity and how the language we tell ourselves quickly becomes our own best friend or worst enemy.

If students can start to reflect on the language they use about themselves at a young age, and choose a better path, it is a fair bet their lives will be more productive and fulfilling.

"I can't do this" vs " I can do this, I just haven't figure it out yet"

"He is smarter than me because he already has finished" vs "I wonder if there is anything I can learn from his approach"

"I give up" vs "How can I approach this differently?" or "It's ok that I can't get it right now, but I can keep trying"

For me a student's mindset is the most important element to their success, both in the short and long term.

Obviously you can use this same "Record and Discuss" strategy for any activity that involves a struggle for your students.
If we can help a student feel more comfortable with struggling, we can break them free from the fear of "having a go".
Like this post? You might want to check out **[6 Tech Terms that apply to Teaching](http://blog.classcreator.io/6-tech-terms-that-apply-to-teaching/)**

How to make it:

Step 1: Use a rectangular piece of paper. I've got my business card here to show the twist in Step 5.

Step 2: Fold the paper in half along the long side, the fold it back out flat again.

Step 3: Make the cuts below to the middle. (Two on one side, one on the other)

Step 4: Here is the "tricky" part. You have to twist the paper. That's why I used my business card, so you could see the different colours as a result of the "twist.

![](/content/images/2017/01/Email-Footer-FBTF.jpg)
I hope this blog post give you a few ideas. If you put it into action **[please send me an email](mailto:[email protected])** or leave a comment below.
Like this post? Like creative stuff? You might want to...
![](/content/images/2016/07/3-Amaing-Growth-Mindset-Videos-3.jpg)

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As adults we all know the most rewarding experiences in life often involve significant struggle and sacrifice at some stage. Personally the greatest joys in my life have all come with some form of struggle... Being married. We are very happily married, but that doesn't mean we are always very happy with one another.