Here is an update of my progress - I have aded a new task, but am on track with my timing!
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I am making progress!!!
I have spent time this week considering my problem of practice: How to select the appropriate pieces of information from the wealth of information and artefacts I have collected, in order to create simple and actionable lesson plans? There is so much information that I want to document and store and keep on hand to supplement future lessons, but I know that I can't fit it all in to the first set of lessons. My solution has been two-fold: 1. Based on my reading on growth mindsets, I laid out the progression of topics I would like to cover in 4 lessons, and created a draft lesson plan. I also have created a folder for this topic. Now as I go through my collected information and resources, I file it in the appropriate folder. Later I will go through and determine for each folder if the information is new or repeated? helpful or just interesting? and decide then how to incorporate into the lesson plans. 2. For all other information that does not make it specifically into the lessons, I will include it in my website. I have decided that this website can also serve as a resource in itself for my future use and the use of others. It will be a place where I can continue to update new learnings and links to information on growth mindsets. Our current task in the course is to determine a "problem of practice" - a challenge encountered in our professional/personal inquiry. Determining a problem of practice has almost become a problem of practice in itself! What exactly is a problem of practice encountered in this inquiry.
A few challenges I am dealing with at the moment are: 1) How to select the appropriate pieces of information from the wealth of information and artefacts I have collected, in order to create simple and actionable lesson plans? There is so much information that I want to document and store and keep on hand to supplement future lessons, but I know that I can't fit it all in to the first set of lessons. 2) How do I adapt/differentiate the lessons for a wide range of learners? Many of my students are ELL. Will the vocabulary be too difficult? How do I ensure that all students truly understand the differences between the two different mindsets? As I do more and more research, and read more and more, I am collecting quite a pile of papers and many website links. Some of them relate directly to the lesson plans I will be creating, and the others relate to general knowledge and information about growth mindsets.
To keep me on track, today I mapped out the general content of my four lesson plans. This will allow me to focus and direct my readings and apply it appropriately to each of the four lessons. IDEAS to WORK WITH: Four lessons (45 - 60 minutes each) 1. What Does it Mean to Be SMART? Anticipation Guide - - Your Fantastic Elastic Marvellous Brain - Brain Research Article - 3,2,1 Formative Assessment Learning Goal- students understand that our brain is a muscle that can be stretched 2. Why Mistakes Are Good? Making Mistakes is Important - The Girl who Never Made Mistakes - Failure Videos - document learning how to skate, ride a bike, music lessons etc. Perfect when you first tried? Learning Goal - students understand that mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn and grow. 3. What are Growth and Fixed Mindset - what are they? - who has them? - what are characteristics of each - what can you do to move from Growth to Fixed Skits 4. Class Motto and positive Sayings Changing mindset, changing words As I continue my reading, I will make sure that I add the information to the appropriate spot, or alter my lesson plans to better suit the needs of the students. Already, I have changed my mind about the flow of the lessons. Originally I thought I would begin by introducing Growth vs Fixed Mindsets and then working backwards. However, as I get into the information, it now seems more realistic to give students the background information on the brain and how it works and grows - and then let them know that they can use this to their advantage through a growth mindset. Even though I am still on track based on my planning timeline (which indicates that my data collection phase should be complete by the beginning of next week), I wonder if I am taking too long? I seem to be tagging and adding post-it notes left, right and centre - but I have not really done much work on consolidating it. And to make things worse, every article or book I read makes me want to read more and flag more!
For the purposes of keeping this inquiry moving, I need to ensure that I make a hard stop on data collection on February 22nd. If I have not read it or flagged it by then, it will not be incorporated into the inquiry. This will allow me a full week to analyze the data and determine which elements are most important and helpful for my lesson plans. Taking the time to post this reflection has helped me to feel better about my progress. I have set up this website and blog, and have met my initial goal of posting at least once every three days. I am well into the Data Collection phase of my plan, and have read most of the books, conducted much online research, and had conversations online with other professionals and with coworkers. By Monday, I will begin my analysis of data!!! It's been a busy week at school with Parent Teacher Interviews and a Family Day Long Weekend but I am happy to have made some progress.
I met with a fellow teacher at my school who introduced his Grade 8 students to Growth Mindsets last year. I plan on following up with him next week to further discuss his ideas and his experiences. In the meantime, he gave me a brief overview of the work he did in his class. First, he had students read the following article: He then had students apply this learning to a variety of individuals they have read about in class, and then documented their findings in the following video: https://youtu.be/UYYLvhAAFhY I have also taken advantage of some extremely cold temperatures to stay inside and do some reading, and I am almost 90% of the way through Carol Dweck's Mindset book. I am loving it and each chapter clarifies the definition of growth vs fixed mindsets with increasing clarity. It also provides excellent examples of individuals who have succeeded as a result of their growth mindset (Michael Jordan, etc.) As I begin seeking out resources on Growth Mindsets, I have discovered that they are everywhere - the more I dig, the more I find. While I am encouraged by this discovery - I am also a little overwhelmed! I realize that I need to build in some time to determine which resources are the most helpful and direct my focus on those.
Last night I participated in a Math Mindsets Webinar that was extremely helpful. While it provided strategies that were primarily targeted to Mathematics instruction, they were completely transferrable to other subjects. More importantly, I was introduced to a very helpful website called With Math I Can. "Developed under the leadership of Amazon Education and TenMarks, “With Math I Can” challenges the nation’s more than three million teachers and their students to take the pledge to replace the notion of “I’m not good at math” with “I am working to get better at math” by embracing a “growth mindset,” the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed, which leads to an increased focus on the process of learning rather than the outcome. Supporters of the “With Math I Can” movement include Stanford University Professor of Mathematics Education Jo Boaler, Character Lab, Common Sense Education, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Stanford University’s Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS), ClassDoJo, ASCD, and Teaching Channel. Teachers and students can learn more, watch a video, access resources, and take the pledge at www.withmathican.org. (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160202005555/en/“With-Math-Can”-Initiative-Unveiled-Change-Student) Hello and welcome to my blog! I will use this blog site to document my progress (trials and tribulations) as I progress through my self-regulated inquiry into Growth Mindsets. My goal is to complete a series of lessons (a mini-unit) to be delivered to my Grade 6 students to teach them about Growth Mindsets - and hopefully encourage them to develop a growth mindset. I plan posting in this blog at least once every three days to provide progress updates. My first step was to create a timeline of tasks that need to be completed and target completion dates. I determined the dates by working backwards from the final project due date. As I work through the tasks, I may need to revise the timeline to either shorten or lengthen allotted time as required. Please refer to the timeline below. |
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