Blog Post #3, Student Agency

When watching Carol Dweck speak about mindset and reviewing the New Tech rubric for agency in Middle School, I am just shaking my head in wonder. This stuff is so good, but HOW DO WE GET THERE?

I think that a lot of a students' educational experiences are revolving around being "fed" information all day. It's how I learned, and I often notice, I can be guilty of teaching that way when I'm not on my game. Giving too much direct instruction without providing opportunities for students to struggle. The truth is, it's when something is just beyond our reach that we do our best learning. Since we know that, we need to engage students in inquiry by building curiosity. They need to fail, and then get feedback, and then try again. They need to use their relationships with others and actively participate to truly take ownership. We have to make TIME for kids to sink into these experiences and learn by doing.

Even at my school, which has a STEAM/PBL focus, I think many of my students can make it through a good part of their day without having to think critically. Today's students don't particularly like to struggle either, and often shut down. But once they start to see how much they are growing from the struggle, I always notice that they begin to embrace it more.

Many of my own students scored in the strong growth mindset range when they took a quiz on it this week. They realize that they can grow and that intelligence isn't set at birth, but they feel frustrated in the intermediate.

For our students to develop agency, it comes down to one thing. WE (their teachers) have to give them the OPPORTUNITY. That's what comes to me more than anything when I look at this rubric and think about growth mindset. They know they can grow, I know they can grow...now I've gotta let them fail and struggle so they will succeed later.