Not Yet… The Power of Yet
I have seen Professor Dweck’s TED Talk “The Power of Yet”
before but it was still just as inspiring as the first time. The Power of Yet
and the change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is one of the reasons I
chose to take this class. I wanted to
find new ways to keep my students engaged from the beginning to the end of the
learning experience. As Professor Dweck
said, in a fixed mindset students run from the error. But in a growth mindset,
in an engaged state, students run toward errors or at least aren’t running away
from them. Their brains react as if they are on fire. They learn as much from the process as from
the final outcome of learning.
We have raised a generation of kids who expect to be
rewarded for everything. My own children
were some of the first who received Little League trophies for playing T-Ball
when, in all reality, all they ever did was pick flowers and throw their
baseball gloves in the air. So, do we continue
to raise kids who are only looking for their next reward that they have not
earned? Do we make the final letter grade of A more important than what they
learn along the way or do we begin to praise the process itself?
Building the bridge to yet includes praising the process
that kids engage in their effort and perseverance. This means that we need to
grade process praise instead of just the final praise. This could mean having
multiple grades for one project. In
other words, you would have one grade for each section of the project. For example, one grade for an outline – one
grade for the project write up - one grade for pictures that support the
project write up – one grade for the reflection.
The ultimate reward should be the “yet” grade instead of the
final grade. The yet grade rewards the efforts, strategies and processes. Those
students who struggle are more likely to be more engaged and persevere if they
are rewarded for their effort toward and the resulting final project.
I work in a former Title 1 school that even though we aren’t
technically a named Title 1 school, we still have the same criterion of
students. Their only chance is that we as teachers create a path to the future
that changes their mindsets as well as the mindsets of their parents. I
actually have experienced that it is
more difficult to change a parents mindset than that of their parents. Just
because people think their failure is inevitable, doesn’t mean it has to
be. A good teacher can push them out of
their confidence level toward a brighter future.
I like the look of the group work norms and think I will use
them in my Genius Hour Project.
Group Work Norms
Be Purposeful Be Productive
Stay on task Get a lot
done
Focused on our work Meeting my goal
Work the whole time Collaborative help
Set a goal Work
Smarter - Get what I need & I get going
Rating Scale
0 Not yet 1 Started
to 2 Almost finished 3 So Close
4 Yes! Ways to Show What You Know
Tina,
ReplyDeleteI love reading your posts because I can hear your voice and personality in my head when I read the words on the page. You had me laughing out loud when you made the connection between fixed mindset and your own children being the first ones to receive a little league trophy when they were picking flowers. My Eli is in his little league phase now and loves his time up to bat but not so much his outfield time. You are exactly right in realizing that we need to prioritize the process of learning rather than just the outcomes so students see the correlation between effort and determination and perseverance with the end product. As teachers we can help students see the value of a growth mindset through valuing multiple attempts at learning and working to provide challenging opportunities that require sustained effort rather than compliance or copying. I am glad that you have found the group work norms suggestions helpful for your Genius Hour Project. I can't wait to see how those turn out.
Sincerely,
Dawn