For my second practicum I wanted to focus on some growth mindset themes that I believe are important to teach for all students. Every week we focused on 2 themes.
In the program I have really connected with the ideas behind growth mindset and wanted to share this learning with my students. These lessons were very important to me as these were themes that I would have greatly benefited from as a student myself. I believe all students could benefit from these ideas at any age, and teaching these ideas to grade 1 I felt the students could carry on within their lives.
Themes included:
Week 1 – I can do hard things + I am a problem solver
I wanted to begin this practicum with this theme to get students to think about their own problems, and provide them with strategies to use when they are struggling. Students were able to discuss and connect their own life experiences with times they struggled or had a problem.
This theme would carry through my entire practicum as myself and the students would refer back to this idea. Discussing why these themes are important before reading allowed students to engage with the theme of these 2 stories on a more meaningful level. The connection between having a growth mindset and how this can positively affect someone’s mental health would be emphasized as students learned more about different growth mindset/ self-esteem ideas.
Week 2 – I am important + I believe in myself
The theme this week tied in very well with the previous theme, which helped emphasize the idea that each student has something they are good at. This theme also allowed students to look at the diversity of different skills they could work on, and this fit in with the idea of trying new things even if you are not good at them in the beginning.
Week 3 – I am kind to myself and others + I am beautiful inside and out
The theme I am beautiful inside and out was one of my more difficult and fulfilling lessons, particularly with the story “Beautifully Me”, as it tackled the concept of kindness to oneself along with body positivity. This was a theme I struggle with in my personal life, so being able to share this learning experience with a growth mindset made this lesson more meaningful (for me?)
Support Activity:
Gather students in a circle sitting or standing, pass around the paper heart, and as the heart goes around students will fold a part when it is their turn.
Each time the heart is folded the teacher will say something unkind, when the heart returns to the teacher they will try to smooth the folds out, as you try to smooth the wrinkles say kind things to the heart, after this process show the students the heart and ask some prompting questions about student observations.
This lesson was intended to engage learners in critical thinking either through making connections or using their observation skills to come to a conclusion. The emphasis on kindness was supported with our discussion afterwards which allowed students to connect that although I apologized to the heart while smoothing it those wrinkles did not completely disappear. This lesson was especially poignant for me as I felt all students were able to connect the activity with the intended learning target aligned with respecting and valuing diversity.
Week 4 – I believe in myself + I celebrate differences
For the last week of my practicum I brought the idea of I can do hard things and I believe in myself together with the book “The Magical Yet” which was further enhanced with “The Cool Bean” theme of lifting each other up. These two stories were able to complete our unit on growth mindset by bringing themes we had learned in previous weeks together.
“The Cool Bean” was also a fantastic resource to use as it is a Vox Book which is an audio book within the print book! This story was especially popular in grade 1 as it allowed readers to hear and follow the story even if they were not at the same reading level as this book. This resource exemplifies standard 1 by allowing all readers to feel successful with reading a book, and this also helped those students who struggle with literacy to engage with a story meaningfully.