kay granger elementary, northwest isd, justin, tx # ... · 2. deliberate cultivation of...
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#GRITHAPPENSKimmie Etheredge, Director, Transformational Leadership
Community—TEPSA
Pam Mitchell, Director, Transformational Leadership Community -- TEPSA
Laura Maunsell, Campus Instructional Teacher
Kay Granger Elementary, Northwest ISD, Justin, TX
Compass Points
An exercise in understanding preferences in group work. Developed
in the field by educators affiliated with the National School Reform
Faculty (NSRF).
The Practice of Authentic PLCs by Daniel R. Venables
Compass Points
Grit – firmness of mind or spirit, unyielding courage in
the fact of hardship or danger.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Why Grit?
Snowplow Parents
Helicopter Parents
Obstacles to Teaching Grit
Affluenza Epidemic
Obstacles to fostering grit.
Perceived Barriers to a Growth Mindset Environment
We can’t allow kids to “fail” so that they can learn from it.We don’t want our students to struggle.Our class size is too big.We can’t educate all of the teachers.Our administrators will not “allow” teachers to stray from the curriculum to teach about growth mindset and brain lessons. Many of our teachers have resistance to anything “new”.We have teachers with a fixed mindset.We need to educate the parents first.Test scores and grades prevent a growth mindset.Student self-perceptions.
Educator mindset—Do they believe all students can learn.
Recent research by Dweck asserts that intelligence can be developed and that all students can achieve at higher levels – with effort, perseverance, and resiliency. Coined the phrase “growth mindset”.
Students with a growth mindset believe they can grow their intelligence with hard work.
A growth mindset learning environment encapsulates the philosophy that there is
enough success for everyone and both teachers and students learn about the malleability of the brain and what can
happen as a result of practice, perseverance, resiliency, and grit.
Fixed mindset – a belief system in which one believes that intelligence
is something you are born with---or not! It is innate and intelligence is
something you are born with and cannot be changed.
Components of a Growth Mindset Learning Environment:
1. equitable access to advanced learning opportunities;
2. deliberate cultivation of psychosocial skills such as perseverance, resiliency, and grit (75% of achievement is contributed to psychosocial skills);
3. student understanding of neural networks in the brain (students reported that visualizing neural connections helped them move forward); and
4. growth mindset feedback and praise (success based on effort and achievement, not ability).
____________________________________________________
Actions our school/district hasalready taken to cultivate these
skills
Ideas to cultivate non-cognitivefactors
Perseverance
Grit
Resiliency
Learning From failure
We need to differentiate how we teach grit based on students’ emotional readiness. We must know what degree of frustration our students can presently accept. We work to improve students’ grit by beginning the current capacity tohandle obstacles.
Consistent success is not the goal here; the real goal is for students to feel frustration so they learn how to respond to it.
Process-tasks presented in a way that doesn’t come
easy—not their style!
Produce—operate beyond their
ZPD—confront frustration and
maybe even failure, before they
succeed.
Content-levels of complexity that
cause frustration and take them out
of their comfort zone.
At
A+
High Flyers – student who go from success to success will be unprepared for life’s frustrations
Simply because they have no knowledge of them. Parents need to understand the benefits of failure!
Struggling Students-These students may need grit the most as they are confronted
with frustration and failure on a regular basis.
The Six Steps of Teaching Grit
1. Establish the environment.2. Set the expectations.3. Teach the vocabulary.4. Create the frustration.
5. Monitor the experience.6. Reflect and learn.
Relationships are the key
If you establish good relationships with students and approach education as a whole series of trials and errors, teaching for grit is a
moot issue. *How do you acknowledge students?
*Do you recognize effort and improvements?*Do you give them a time to share the difficulties they are
experiencing and publicly support one another?*Do they feel safe failing in your school?
Effort needs to be valued; hard work needs to be made cool.
http://www.ted.com./talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_ey_to_success_grit
1. Establish the environment.
Fifth Grade Chant
4th Grade Chant
2. Set the expectations.
BehaviorAcademic
Concept of “yet”!
resiliencetenacity
stamina
determination
persistencepluck
fortitude
courage
spirit
mettle
resolution indomitable
spunk
staminatoughness
guts heart
resolve
passionwillpower
3. Teach the vocabulary
Grit Takes a Village
None of us work in isolation; we are all part of a community, surrounded by and working with people who hold different
roles. Because teaching for grit runs counter to many assumptions about
teaching, it’s especially important to have other stakeholders on board before
beginning.
Students must be partners in the quest for grit. They need to know what grit is
and why it’s important, and they need to understand that developing grit is going to be hard and sometimes unpleasant.
Hello Ms. Etheredge,I just wanted to share a story of “GRIT” used in everyday life with you. My second grade daughter, Emma attends Granger and has obviously been touched in a positive way by this year’s school theme. Emma had soccer practice on Wednesday and their coach had them doing a lot of running. After practice I commented to Emma that she did really well with the running by sticking with it and not quitting. She said to me, “It was really hard Mom and I wanted to cry but I thought, No! I’m going to get my GRIT on and do this. And Mom I totally persevered!!!” Needless to say I was so impressed that not only did Emma as a second grader understand these words and ideas but was able to apply to a situation in in her life so easily. Thank you to you and all her teachers for making a positive impact in her way of thinking. I think GRIT is a great lesson for our children! To understand that it’s not just what others do for them that help them succeed and meet their goals, but it is also, and most importantly, what they believe and do for themselves. Thanks again for all you do!Crystal Thompson 9/26/14
The frustration necessary for developing grit can sometime stem from ambiguity. If a task isn’t clear or presents too many options, students may want to walk away from even beginning. It’s important to be attuned to students’ emotions, attitude, and confidence so you know when to intervene..
4. Create the
frustration.
Because there is no formula for teaching grit we need to be very aware of our students’ individual frustration levels and how they respond to them. It’s essential to monitor students’ efforts, keep them focused on the task, and prevent them from moving on to a different activity.
5. Monitor the Experience
6. Reflect and Learn
We want them to ask themselves why they didn’t give up on a given task and what they learned that will help them when they get frustrated again. Reflecting and learning is key to turning a good failure into a success.
Goal setting opportunity!
Modeling Grit
Sharing About Grit
Kindergarten
Fifth Grade
Suggested Resources:
Brock, Annie and Hundley, Heather – The Growth Mindset Coach
Duckworth, Angela – Grit: The Power of Passon and Perseverance
Dweck, Carol – Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Ricci, Mary Cay – Mindsets in the Classroom
Ricci, Mary Cay –Mindsets I the Classroom Ready to Use Resources
Tough, Paul – How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and Hidden Power of Character
Grit to
Great!