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Just an idea - either on Take 5 or morning announcements - taking a moment to share growth mindset thoughts, questions, or ideas.

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Engineering by nature requires a growth mindset to be successful.  I read an article that states: "Our research indicates that introducing open-ended design projects into the curriculum may tend to lessen or eliminate the shift toward fixed mindset. Students assigned open ended, socially relevant engineering projects were compared to students without such projects; students without the open ended experience showed a much greater propensity toward fixed mindset. We hypothesize that these findings may inform introductory engineering and technology courses, including those in high school meant to prepare students for study in STEM areas."

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Twice a week, we do an activity called "My Favorite No".  Students do a math problem on a notecard with all work shown.  I then collect the cards and review them quickly.  I choose one of the cards that has the wrong answer and write the student's work on the board (I do not share the student's name).  Then we have a class discussion.  First, we talk about all the great things the student did.  Then, we talk about what might have caused them to get the wrong answer.  The students are able to reflect on common mistakes, learn that mistakes can be positive learning experiences, and learn to work together in a collaborative way.
-Nunez

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I would like to begin these conversations in our classroom meetings so that they'll be able to make more connections to this in our classwork.

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I would like to begin these conversations in our classroom meetings so that they'll be able to make more connections to this in our classwork.

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This is an activity that I would like to do during a class meeting with my students and to begin the year next year to incorporate

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I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold's books like The Dot and Ish. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well with this growth mindset activity we worked on. Read on to find out how this activity worked out in my classroom.

I started this school year with an activity that I saw on Twitter. I wrote out these words on plain paper and then read each word to my students so they would know what each said. For each word I asked for a show of hands to see how many kids had an idea of what each word meant. The only ones that I didn't get every hand up for were persistence and dedication. So we talked about those words as a class and I shared what those words mean to me. I also gave a specific example for each of those words.

Then I spread each paper around the room with markers and asked students to go to each word and write or draw what the word means to them. I told them it had to be a silent activity so that their friends could really think about each word.

I have a fairly chatty class but you could hear a pin drop during this activity. Some of the ideas they came up with were just so great.

The most important part of the lesson came at the end when we shared all of their ideas. I asked them to tell me why they thought we were talking about this, why was this an important conversation.

Here is the answer I got from one student, "...because it's okay for us to make mistakes. If we don't make mistakes we can't learn from them. And in order to make mistakes we have to have courage to take risks sometimes, even if we are worried we might get it wrong. In order to take risks we have to put in some effort and persistence and we will eventually be successful".

WOW!

Just. WOW.

Kids are so bright!

Give this activity a shot in your classroom. If you have younger kids I would limit the words to just 4. This was a mixed grade glass with third and fourth graders.

Let me know how it goes!

You can read about another simple way to build classroom community here.

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An Easy Activity to Promote Growth Mindset

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I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold's books like The Dot and Ish. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well with this growth mindset activity we worked on.

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At the beginning of the year, I gave my students a growth mindset quiz (similar to the ones we have done in the new teacher meetings). It was a great way to see where the students were at the beginning. I plan on taking the same quiz at the end as well.
-Criddle 5th

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5th Grade: Read the book-- The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes and have a class discussion about it. I will encourage discussion about why making mistakes is OK and how to learn from them. 

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5th Grade: Read the book-- The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes and have a class discussion about it. I will encourage discussion about why making mistakes is OK and how to learn from them. 

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Class activity where we looked at fixed mind-set statements and changed them into growth mind-set statements. They then made the posters.

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In our classroom, we all say "no shame" when students are seeming timid during discussion or answering questions. We have an understanding that is OKAY to make a mistake. It is something small, but as soon as a student says it to someone that is struggling, it puts them at ease.
-Criddle 5th

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Students interact with a whiteboard message on Mondays. They respond on a sticky note how they can show a growth mindset that day. Typically, there is discussion and sharing between students regarding their responses.
-Criddle 5th

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FAIL: First Attempt In Learning
-Teaching kids productive struggle and how to work through those moments when they hit a wall
-Many times kids have learned that it's not okay to fail and teaching them to look at failure and to learn from it. Teaching them to use the areas where they were originally not successful
-Showing them that failure is inevitable and that everyone does it [even the teacher! :)]

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My kids really struggle with things such as giving up or saying things are too hard.  We spend time discussing how we can change something being too hard, maybe strategies they can use to help them, which in turns starts to curb the giving up piece!

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My kids really struggle with things such as giving up or saying things are too hard.  We spend time discussing how we can change something being too hard, maybe strategies they can use to help them, which in turns starts to curb the giving up piece!

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A weekly lesson or possibly a video that would expose students to a growth mindset and give them a chance to practice these skills.

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Students are being a project creating analogies of cell parts. Some students really struggle with the "open-ness" of this project, but I plan to praise them through the struggle. Instead of answering their questions, I will probe them to dig deeper into their understanding of cells. For some this will be very uncomfortable, but in the end they will LOVE what they were able to accomplish through the struggle.

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A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son's confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability-along with confidence in that ability-is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 35 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

Praising children's innate abilities, as Jonathan's parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a "growth mind-set," which encourages a focus on "process" (consisting of personal effort and effective strategies) rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

The Opportunity of Defeat
I first began to investigate the underpinnings of human motivation-and how people persevere after setbacks-as a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s. Animal experiments by psychologists Martin Seligman, Steven Maier and Richard Solomon, all then at the University of Pennsylvania, had shown that after repeated failures, most animals conclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. After such an experience, the researchers found, an animal often remains passive even when it can effect change-a state they called learned helplessness.

People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in people's beliefs about why they had failed.

In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than does the belief that lack of effort is to blame. In 1972, when I taught a group of elementary and middle school children who displayed helpless behavior in school that a lack of effort (rather than lack of ability) led to their mistakes on math problems, the kids learned to keep trying when the problems got tough. They also solved many more problems even in the face of difficulty. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded for their success on easier problems did not improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These experiments were an early indication that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and engender success.

Subsequent studies revealed that the most persistent students do not ruminate about their own failure much at all but instead think of mistakes as problems to be solved. At the University of Illinois in the 1970s I, along with my then graduate student Carol Diener, asked 60 fifth graders to think out loud while they solved very difficult pattern-recognition problems. Some students reacted defensively to mistakes, denigrating their skills with comments such as "I never did have a good rememory," and their problem-solving strategies deteriorated.

Others, meanwhile, focused on fixing errors and honing their skills. One advised himself: "I should slow down and try to figure this out." Two schoolchildren were particularly inspiring. One, in the wake of difficulty, pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips and said, "I love a challenge!" The other, also confronting the hard problems, looked up at the experimenter and approvingly declared, "I was hoping this would be informative!" Predictably, the students with this attitude outperformed their cohorts in these studies.

Two Views of Intelligence
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners-helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different "theories" of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that's that. I call this a "fixed mind-set." Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.

The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort or acquirable skills, not fixed ability, they can be remedied by perseverance. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts.

We validated these expectations in a study published in early 2007. Psychologists Lisa Blackwell, then at Columbia University, and Kali H. Trzesniewski, then at Stanford University, and I monitored 373 students for two years during the transition to junior high school, when the work gets more difficult and the grading more stringent, to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math grades. At the beginning of seventh grade, we assessed the students' mind-sets by asking them to agree or disagree with statements such as "Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't really change." We then assessed their beliefs about other aspects of learning and looked to see what happened to their grades.

As we had predicted, the students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal in school than getting good grades. In addition, they held hard work in high regard, believing that the more you labored at something, the better you would become at it. They understood that even geniuses have to work hard for their great accomplishments. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, students with a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy for mastering the material.

The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with less regard for learning. They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a sign of low ability. They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well. Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability, those with a fixed mind-set said that they would study less in the future, try never to take that subject again and consider cheating on future tests.

Such divergent outlooks had a dramatic impact on performance. At the start of junior high, the math achievement test scores of the students with a growth mind-set were comparable to those of students who displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more difficult, the students with a growth mind-set showed greater persistence. As a result, their math grades overtook those of the other students by the end of the first semester-and the gap between the two groups continued to widen during the two years we followed them.

Along with psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson, now at Columbia, I found a similar relation between mind-set and achievement in a 2003 study of 128 Columbia freshman premed students who were enrolled in a challenging general chemistry course. Although all the students cared about grades, the ones who earned the best grades were those who placed a high premium on learning rather than on showing that they were smart in chemistry. The focus on learning strategies, effort and persistence paid off for these students.

Confronting Deficiencies
A belief in fixed intelligence also makes people less willing to admit to errors or to confront and remedy their deficiencies in school, at work and in their social relationships. In a study published in 1999 of 168 freshmen entering the University of Hong Kong, where all instruction and coursework are in English, three Hong Kong colleagues and I found that students with a growth mind-set who scored poorly on their English proficiency exam were far more inclined to take a remedial English course than were low-scoring students with a fixed mind-set. The students with a stagnant view of intelligence were presumably unwilling to admit to their deficit and thus passed up the opportunity to correct it.

A fixed mind-set can similarly hamper communication and progress in the workplace by leading managers and employees to discourage or ignore constructive criticism and advice. Research by psychologists Peter Heslin, now at the University of New South Wales in Australia, Don VandeWalle of Southern Methodist University and Gary Latham of the University of Toronto shows that managers who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growth mind-set. Presumably, managers with a growth mind-set see themselves as works-in-progress and understand that they need feedback to improve, whereas bosses with a fixed mind-set are more likely to see criticism as reflecting their underlying level of competence. Assuming that other people are not capable of changing either, executives with a fixed mind-set are also less likely to mentor their underlings. But after Heslin, VandeWalle and Latham gave managers a tutorial on the value and principles of the growth mind-set, supervisors became more willing to coach their employees and gave more useful advice.

Mind-set can affect the quality and longevity of personal relationships as well, through people's willingness-or unwillingness-to deal with difficulties. Those with a fixed mind-set are less likely than those with a growth mind-set to broach problems in their relationships and to try to solve them, according to a 2006 study I conducted with psychologist Lara Kammrath, now at Wake Forest University. After all, if you think that human personality traits are more or less fixed, relationship repair seems largely futile. Individuals who believe people can change and grow, however, are more confident that confronting concerns in their relationships will lead to resolutions.

Proper Praise
How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children? One way is by telling stories about achievements that result from hard work. For instance, talking about mathematical geniuses who were more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills engenders a growth mind-set, our studies have shown. People also communicate mind-sets through praise. Although many, if not most, parents believe that they should build up children by telling them how brilliant and talented they are, our research suggests that this is misguided.

In studies involving several hundred fifth graders published in 1998, for example, psychologist Claudia M. Mueller, now at Stanford, and I gave children questions from a nonverbal IQ test. After the first 10 problems, on which most children did fairly well, we praised them. We praised some of them for their intelligence: "Wow ... that's a really good score. You must be smart at this." We commended others for their process: "Wow ... that's a really good score. You must have worked really hard."

We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed mind-set more often than did pats on the back for effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for example, shied away from a challenging assignment-they wanted an easy one instead-far more often than the kids applauded for their process. (Most of those lauded for their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard problems anyway, those praised for being smart became discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores, even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward, declined as compared with their previous results on equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for their hard work did not lose confidence when faced with the harder questions, and their performance improved markedly on the easier problems that followed.

Making Up Your Mind-set
In addition to encouraging a growth mind-set through praise for effort, parents and teachers can help children by providing explicit instruction regarding the mind as a learning machine. Blackwell, Trzesniewski and I designed an eight-session workshop for 91 students whose math grades were declining in their first year of junior high. Forty-eight of the students received instruction in study skills only, whereas the others attended a combination of study skills sessions and classes in which they learned about the growth mind-set and how to apply it to schoolwork.

In the growth mind-set classes, students read and discussed an article entitled "You Can Grow Your Brain." They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use and that learning prompts neurons in the brain to grow new connections. From such instruction, many students began to see themselves as agents of their own brain development. Students who had been disruptive or bored sat still and took note. One particularly unruly boy looked up during the discussion and said, "You mean I don't have to be dumb?"

As the semester progressed, the math grades of the kids who learned only study skills continued to decline, whereas those of the students given the growth-mind-set training stopped falling and began to bounce back to their former levels. Despite being unaware that there were two types of instruction, teachers reported noticing significant motivational changes in 27 percent of the children in the growth mind-set workshop as compared with only 9 percent of students in the control group. One teacher wrote: "Your workshop has already had an effect. L [our unruly male student], who never puts in any extra effort and often doesn't turn in homework on time, actually stayed up late to finish an assignment early so I could review it and give him a chance to revise it. He earned a B+. (He had been getting Cs and lower.)"

Other researchers have replicated our results. Psychologists Catherine Good, now at Baruch College, Joshua Aronson of New York University and Michael Inzlicht, now at the University of Toronto, reported in 2003 that a growth mind-set workshop raised the math and English achievement test scores of seventh graders. In a 2002 study Aronson, Good (then a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin) and their colleagues found that college students began to enjoy their schoolwork more, value it more highly and get better grades as a result of training that fostered a growth mind-set.

We have now encapsulated such instruction in an interactive computer program called Brainology. Its five modules teach students about the brain-what it does and how to make it work better. In a virtual brain lab, users can click on brain regions to determine their functions or on nerve endings to see how connections form or strengthen when people learn. Users can also advise virtual students with problems as a way of practicing how to handle schoolwork difficulties; additionally, users keep an online journal of their study practices.

New York City seventh graders who tested Brainology told us that the program had changed their view of learning and how to promote it. One wrote: "My favorite thing from Brainology is the neurons part where when u [sic] learn something there are connections and they keep growing. I always picture them when I'm in school." A teacher said of the students who used the program: "They offer to practice, study, take notes, or pay attention to ensure that connections will be made."

Teaching children such information is not just a ploy to get them to study. People may well differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift. Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and Cézanne were not simply born with talent; they cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort. Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute more to school achievement than IQ does.

Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For instance, many young athletes value talent more than hard work and have consequently become unteachable. Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs without constant praise and encouragement to maintain their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our homes and schools, however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become productive workers and citizens.
-Carol S. Dweck

A for Effort
According to a survey we conducted in the mid-1990s, 85 percent of parents believed that praising children's ability or intelligence when they perform well is important for making them feel smart. But our work shows that praising a child's intelligence makes a child fragile and defensive. So, too, does generic praise that suggests a stable trait, such as "You are a good artist." Praise can be very valuable, however, if it is carefully worded. Praise for the specific process a child used to accomplish something fosters motivation and confidence by focusing children on the actions that lead to success. Such process praise may involve commending effort, strategies, focus, persistence in the face of difficulty, and willingness to take on challenges. The following are examples of such communications:
You did a good job drawing. I like the detail you added to the people's faces. You really studied for your social studies test. You read the material over several times, outlined it and tested yourself on it. It really worked! I like the way you tried a lot of different strategies on that math problem until you finally got it. That was a hard English assignment, but you stuck with it until you got it done. You stayed at your desk and kept your concentration. That's great! I like that you took on that challenging project for your science class. It will take a lot of work-doing the research, designing the apparatus, making the parts and building it. You are going to learn a lot of great things.
Parents and teachers can also teach children to enjoy the process of learning by expressing positive views of challenges, effort and mistakes. Here are some examples:
Boy, this is hard-this is fun. Oh, sorry, that was too easy-no fun. Let's do something more challenging that you can learn from. Let's all talk about what we struggled with today and learned from. I'll go first. Mistakes are so interesting. Here's a wonderful mistake.
Let's see what we can learn from it.
-C.S.D.

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A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests.

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Editor's note: This post is co-authored by Marcus Conyers who, with Donna Wilson, is co-developer of the M.S. and Ed.S. Brain-Based Teaching degree programs at Nova Southeastern University.
Explicit instruction to guide students toward taking charge of their outlook on academic endeavors can lead to a more positive -- and ultimately more productive -- approach to learning. Applying metacognition to both the emotional and cognitive aspects of learning can help students steer their minds to make steady gains in developing their knowledge and skills.

In a previous post, we explored the gains that are possible when students adopt an attitude of practical optimism as they learn. These advantages persist into adulthood, as business research shows that people with a positive outlook are more productive, motivated, and likely to achieve their goals on the job. And optimistic people enjoy better personal and professional relationships and even better physical health than people who tend toward pessimism.

Influences on Learning Outlooks

A common assumption is that the tendency toward optimism or pessimism is predetermined by genetics. Indeed, research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues indicates that roughly half of people's "baseline level of well-being," the propensity toward cheerfulness or negativity, owes to DNA. However, students can learn to exert control over other significant influences on their emotional outlook and, in doing so, sharpen their focus on positive outcomes. Explain to them that each of us can increase our positive feelings and well-being by taking charge of these three influences:

Thoughts

To a significant extent, we are who we perceive ourselves to be. By consciously seeking to maintain a positive orientation, we can apply a more optimistic frame as we reflect on our learning experiences and abilities to achieve our goals.

Behaviors

Of course, we do not succeed simply by believing that we will. An optimistic outlook must be supported by positive action and persistent effort. Learning can be hard work, but those who keep trying, monitoring their learning to make adjustments when necessary, will make steady gains that create a positive feedback loop to encourage continued progress.

Brain Chemistry

The brain produces chemicals called neurotransmitters in response to both internal functions and external stimuli that affect how we feel. Chemicals that have been associated with positive moods include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. One way to enhance production of these neurotransmitters is through physical activity. Thus, scheduling challenging subjects immediately following phys ed class and recess can help students channel their positive brain chemistry toward learning. This body-brain power connection also offers a helpful metacognition strategy for students. Remind them that when they get hung up on a problem while doing their homework or independent study, they might try going for a run or taking an exercise break, and then return to the problem with their brain recharged.

The CIA Model for a Positive Approach to Learning

To make the most of their power to steer their brains toward positive learning outcomes, it may be helpful to introduce students to what we call the CIA model, which stands for control, influence, and acknowledge.

Control

By being conscious of our thoughts and actions -- that is, being metacognitive about what we are thinking and doing -- we take change of steering them in a positive and productive direction. For example, when students feel their thoughts drifting toward negativity or distractions, they can assume control to stay focused on achieving their learning goals.

Influence

At this stage of the CIA model, we should consciously consider the many influences that may steer us in both positive and counterproductive directions. We should choose to focus on those influences that can enhance our optimistic outlook and sustain our belief in our ability to succeed through hard work and persistent effort. Some students may harbor unacknowledged assumptions that they aren't as smart as their peers or that they lack the ability to improve in certain subjects. Have you ever heard a student say, "I'm just bad at math," or "I'm not a good reader"? As a gentle rejoinder to these negative self-assessments, remind students that they can become good, even great, problem solvers and readers if they keep practicing, aim for steady progress, and believe that they can succeed.

Acknowledge

Finally, it is useful to recognize the areas where we have limited control. As noted previously, about half of our baseline outlook toward optimism or pessimism is determined by genetic predisposition. In addition, we have little control over negative situations and people who prefer to focus on the downside. But we can direct our attention on the aspects of our outlook that are within our control, and we can move past setbacks and negativity.

The message for students is that they should strive to minimize time and energy expended on situations and factors where they have limited control and influence. If a student in their learning group goes off task, for example, they can't control that student's actions, but they can focus their own attention on learning. By reinforcing that students can take charge of their outlook on learning and life, and by guiding them to develop metacognitive tools to do so, we empower self-directed learners to pursue a positive path.

Notes

Conyers, M. A., & Wilson, D. L. (2015). Positively smarter: Science and strategies to increase happiness, achievement, and well-being. West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York: Penguin.

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Positive Brains Are Smarter Brains | Edutopia

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Editor's note: This post is co-authored by Marcus Conyers who, with Donna Wilson, is co-developer of the M.S. and Ed.S. Brain-Based Teaching degree programs at Nova Southeastern University. Explicit instruction to guide students toward taking charge of their outlook on academic endeavors can lead to a more positive -- and ultimately more productive -- approach to learning.

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Math.Practice.MP1

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, \"Does this make sense?\" They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

Math.Practice.MP3

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

Mathematically proficient students understand and use stated assumptions, definitions, and previously established results in constructing arguments. They make conjectures and build a logical progression of statements to explore the truth of their conjectures. They are able to analyze situations by breaking them into cases, and can recognize and use counterexamples. They justify their conclusions, communicate them to others, and respond to the arguments of others. They reason inductively about data, making plausible arguments that take into account the context from which the data arose. Mathematically proficient students are also able to compare the effectiveness of two plausible arguments, distinguish correct logic or reasoning from that which is flawed, and--if there is a flaw in an argument--explain what it is. Elementary students can construct arguments using concrete referents such as objects, drawings, diagrams, and actions. Such arguments can make sense and be correct, even though they are not generalized or made formal until later grades. Later, students learn to determine domains to which an argument applies. Students at all grades can listen or read the arguments of others, decide whether they make sense, and ask useful questions to clarify or improve the arguments.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Math.2.NBT.B.7

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

2: Grade 2

NBT: Number & Operations in Base Ten

B: Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract

7:
Add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method. Understand that in adding or subtracting three-digit numbers, one adds or subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does Ms. Montoy-Wilson help her students become excited about challenges?

2. Why is it important for students to articulate their thinking about challenging work?

3. How does Ms. Montoy-Wilson ensure that her students are struggling productively?

Teachers

English Language Arts Math Science Social Studies Arts / 1 / Teacher

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Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges

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Students in Maricela Montoy-Wilson's second grade class persist through challenging math work. Students work on three-digit story problems, using resources and strategies to come to a solution. Maricela Montoy-Wilson discusses the ways in which she helps students to persevere to make sense of the problems.

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I like the idea of student made posters about how they will show their growth mindset

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Next year I would like to make a visual representation of a brain/neurons that students can add to when they "grow their neurons" and keep it up for the year. I will teach them the "science" of Growth Mindset".

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I plan on doing the activity from Create Dream Explore. I will do this in my ELA GS group. I will have the students go around the room and add examples for the words.

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Rather than making sure students are producing work that meets minimum requirements, students should produce work they are proud of. When students ask, "Is this good enough?" I respond with, "Is it work you are proud of?"

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Posting objectives as I can statements to make learning goal-like for students to grasp.

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http://www.thesnarkyschoolteacher.com/blog/growth-mindset-not-just-for-the-beginning-of-the-school-year
I liked this idea because it involved implementing growth mindset mindfully throughout the year and it had the resources to do so with clear examples of how it was done. I think a lot of times, it becomes a beginning of the year project and then we lose track of it, whereas this implements it and tracks it throughout the year.

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One strategy I would like to try with my extended learning math students is the Strategy Box. I would have them write a math skill they are strong at in 3 of the boxes and then their goal/target skill in the 4th

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Game where students work in groups to solve problems. They intentionally make a mistake in their process. Classmates have to determine the mistake and ask respectful questions to get the group to admit their mistake.

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I have used encouragement in the classroom from the beginning with posters and motivation walls, encouraging videos, and even my words must reflect that I believe in the students, and that they are capable of anything and everything I put before them.   Also using my own mistakes in the classroom as a learning experience for myself and as an example  for the students.

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I have used encouragement in the classroom from the beginning with posters and motivation walls, encouraging videos, and even my words must reflect that I believe in the students, and that they are capable of anything and everything I put before them.   Also using my own mistakes in the classroom as a learning experience for myself and as an example  for the students.

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When doing Super 6, students check their answers, find where they made a mistake, and figure out where they went wrong. Students then share their mistakes with the class.

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"If you can get your students all supporting and fighting for each other, they're going to carry that with them for the rest of their lives."
http://miss-5th.blogspot.com/2016/02/establishing-classroom-community-with.html

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Offering choice, the ability to showcase their academic talents, reinforces growth mindset.

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Growth mindset comes through conversation in our classroom. We discuss the 'get to' (not 'have to') of learning.

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Menu of how to show understanding

I create a menu students can choose from to demonstrate understanding.

This has been very effective when doing presentations/papers.

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TRMS videos.....Videos of our staff or classroom activity where we are putting into practice Growth Mindset.

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After reviewing the resources available share with us some element of growth mindset that you can and are willing to incorporate into your classroom instruction in the next two weeks. Simply click on the pink plus sign on the lower right hand corner and add your comments and ideas.