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
Ish (Creatrilogy) by Peter H. Reynolds
Ramon loved to draw. Anytime. Anything. Anywhere. Drawing is what Ramon does. It¹s what makes him happy. But in one split second, all that changes. A single reckless remark by Ramon’s older brother, Leon, turns Ramon’s carefree sketches into joyless struggles. Luckily for Ramon, though, his little sister, Marisol, sees the world differently. She opens his eyes to something a lot more valuable than getting things just “right.” Combining the spareness of fable with the potency of parable, Peter Reynolds shines a bright beam of light on the need to kindle and tend our creative flames with care.
How this book teaches Growth Mindset:
This is a story about a little boy who draws a picture of a not-so-perfect vase. He is teased because of it. He has been crumpling up the drawings and throwing them away because people have been making fun of them. His sister has been secretly collecting the pictures and hanging them on her wall in her bedroom and admiring them. She says to him “It may not be a vase, but this is kind of vase-ish”. So the little sister teaches the boy that things don’t need to look “as-is” and there is beauty in that. This allows for creativity and imagination to flow wildly when we do not have limits and things do not have to be exactly “as-is”. This story teaches growth mindset.
A video to teach Growth Mindset:
Lesson on teaching Growth Mindset:
Growth Mindset Collaborative Lesson – a collaborative growth mindset activity for small groups in your classroom
