First I want to say that I am not reading the book with you all, but I
am reading your posts.
Jennifer, what you have written makes me think. Maybe responses to my
questions are in the book, and I need to get a copy.
I am working hard in my classroom not to promote a fixed mindset. The
teachers and admin in my building know about a fixed mindset, but boy!
is that a hard habit to break. People who know better -- me included
at times -- still promote that fixed mindset. We say things to
students and each other about students being smart and capable.
How do I remind my colleagues not to talk that way? I think that until
we're all on the same page, we're not going to make much progress.
Jan
Quoting "Palmer, Jennifer" <jennifer.pal...@hcps.org>:
Let's do some talking about this idea of Johnston's that when we tell
a child he
is a "good boy" ...or a "good reader"...it automatically sets up a fixed
performance frame for students. If one can be "good", one can also be
"bad"...we
confirm the idea that people have fixed and unchanging abilities.
Johnston shares some thought-provoking research that we need to consider. He
writews on page 11:
"When children holding fixed theories encounter difficulties, mistakes become
crippling. Worse, if they think a task might be difficult they choose to not
even try so that they won't fail and look stupid. They choose not to
try, even
if it means losing an opportunity to learn something important. They choose
instead to look good, or at least not to look bad at whatever they
are doing."
I am thinking back to several students I had difficulty motivating and am
considering now the damage I might have been doing when I encouraged
struggling
students that they were indeed "good readers" instead of focusing
them on their
process.
With Common Core coming up for many of us...where we will be asking
students to
work in more complex texts...to persist in solving difficult problems in
mathematics...to design their own inquiries in science...What implications do
our students' theories about being smart or becoming smart have for
us in this
new and rapidly changing educational environment?
Do you agree with Johnston's points that our language can develop childrens'
worlds and views about learning? What changes will you make in the
language you
use with your kids TODAY, in your classroom?
Jennifer L. Palmer, Ed. D.
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