What is the Growth Mindset?
If this is your first time here, welcome! This is a 12-week series to help parents and teachers discover hidden gems across the internet that will help them teach Growth Mindset to the children in their lives.
What is it? Fixed versus Growth Mindset
A fixed mindset means a child believes his or her intelligence is set and that there’s no changing it. With a growth mindset, a child believes persistence and hard work lead to success.
How can you help?
**Allow children to make mistakes
**Praise them on the process (work) instead of the end result (grade)
** Teach them that mistakes and failures will help them learn and grow
**Help your child change their inner dialogue:
Instead of “I can’t do this,” teach them to say, “ I can’t do this yet.”
- Instead of “I’m not smart,” try “ I will learn to do this!”
- Instead of “That didn’t work!” tell them to say “There’s always Plan B!”
- Instead of “I give up!” have them practice saying, “I’ll try it a different way!”
- Instead of “This is too hard!” have them say “This may take some time.”
**Be mindful of areas that can promote a Fixed Mindset (undesirable mindset)
**Pay attention to: what children are
- Watching (television, youtube, etc.)
- What children listen to (music)
- What they are reading (books)
Use www.commonsensemedia.org for reviews and recommendations for children’s media and technology
The Little Linebacker: A Story of Determination
Stephen is a little kid with big dreams of playing football. The odds are against him when he is tested and faced with challenges. This is a story of a boy who worked hard to defy the odds and become a leader.
How this book teaches Growth Mindset:
How does this book teach growth mindset? It shows us that the main character, Stephen, doesn’t give up. He has many different situations in the book – he has a hard time focusing, he’s not picked first on the team and he’s not big enough to play football. But instead of taking these challenges and quitting, he continues to try and never gives up. And that’s how it teaches growth mindset – we look at challenges and we just find different ways of figuring out how to succeed.
A video to teach Growth Mindset:
Lesson on teaching Growth Mindset:
A Beginning of the Year Introduction Lesson to Growth Mindset – starting the growth mindset discussion right from the very first day
