Growth Mindset
Many people think of the brain as a mystery. When we think about what intelligence is, far too often people have the notion that a person is either born smart or not and stays that way for life. But the latest research shows that the brain is more like a muscle - it changes and becomes smarter everytime we "work it out". Scientists have been able to show how the brain grows and gets stronger as we learn.
To learn and understand how we can help to grow our brains, the students and I have been exploring the concept known as growth mindset. The theory of growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck. In a growth mindset, people believe we have the ability to stretch and grow our brains through taking on challenges, learning from mistakes, accepting feedback and criticism, practicing and applying strategies, persevering, asking questions, and taking risks.
The opposite of growth mindset is referred to as fixed mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talents, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talents instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.
To learn and understand how we can help to grow our brains, the students and I have been exploring the concept known as growth mindset. The theory of growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck. In a growth mindset, people believe we have the ability to stretch and grow our brains through taking on challenges, learning from mistakes, accepting feedback and criticism, practicing and applying strategies, persevering, asking questions, and taking risks.
The opposite of growth mindset is referred to as fixed mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talents, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talents instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.
To fully comprehend what it means to have a growth mindset, the students and I created a poster of language a person with a fixed mindset might use versus a person who has a growth mindset. We have also read various books relating to growth mindset followed by having insightful discussions about what we noticed. A few books that are particularly helpful in teaching students about growth mindset include: Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein. The following is a great read on growth mindset: The Learning Myth |
Science
As a class we contemplated the question “What is science?”. The students came up with excellent ideas including science is making observations, doing experiments, making discoveries, using tools, etc. We then used our observation skills to observe our classroom followed by observing the outdoors. I can tell we have many enthusiastic scientists in our class!
Math
In math we are currently focusing on Topic 12: Length. Measurement provides a real-world context for students. Instruction begins with the use of nonstandard units in order to focus on the measurement process. While learning about different units of measurement (i.e. footsteps, cubes, paperclips, etc) students are exploring and discovering the relationship between the size of a unit and the number of units required to measure an object. As students develop an understanding of length, selecting appropriate nonstandard units, and the ability to compare objects, it will allow them the foundations to eventually measure in standard units in future grades. In addition, students will be introduced to the new term "estimate", which we like to call a "smart, careful guess". Next up is Topic 13: Time!
Phonics
The students have been hard at work practicing their handwriting skills and reviewing letter names and sounds. Wilson Fundations is a literacy program we use at Winn Brook to explicitly teach phonological/phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling skills. Echo and baby Echo (our furry owl friends) help us practice the name-keyword-sound combination for each letter. We also utilize the Lively Letters program by Telian-Cas Learning Concepts to reinforce letter sounds and teach the students how the sounds are formed in our mouths. After reviewing the letter sounds, the students practice correctly forming each letter by writing it in the sky followed by writing it in their Lively Letters Books and on whiteboards.
Daily 5
As part of Daily 5, the students have been working hard on building their stamina for read to self. Thus far, the students are able to read independently for 10 minutes! An extremely important aspect of Daily 5 includes setting expectations for each component (i.e. read to self, work on writing, listen to reading, word work, and read to someone) and following the expectations as we work towards increasing our stamina. Among the expectations the students set for read to self are: read the whole time, stay in one spot, get started right away, work quietly, and build our stamina. We are now trying to surpass our goal for read to self and will soon work on building our stamina for the other components of Daily 5.
Choosing Good-Fit Books
Last week we began our discussion of just right books. One of the most important things we can do to become better readers is to read good-fit books. To show the students just how important it is to select just right books, I brought in five pairs of shoes (sneakers, boots, high heels, flip flops, and my dad’s much too large sneakers). For each pair of shoes, we used the I PICK anchor chart to talk about the purpose of each pair (ex. Boots = to keep my feet warm and dry from the snow) and what it might show about my interests (ex. Sneakers = I like to exercise). Of course the kids got a kick out of my dad’s much too large sneakers and instantly declared they were NOT a good-fit for me! We also discussed that although we may have the same purpose and interests as a classmate, what is a good fit for one student may not be the best fit for another. We then carried the I PICK method over to books and further discussed how to use the strategy to select just right books! We will return to this lesson quite often throughout the school year and practice selecting good-fit books.
Last week we discussed what it means to be an active reader! The students learned a fancy new word called schema. Our schema is all the information we have stored in our brains. The students discovered that we can activate our schema to help us understand what we read. The students created their own schema maps! |
Three Ways to Read a Book
To kick off reading workshop, the students learned, observed, discussed, and modeled three ways to read a book. The ways include reading the pictures, reading the words, and retelling the story. We then observed and discussed habits of good readers (thank you for helping with the students’ homework assignment!!) and created a list of expectations that will help the students use their reading time wisely. We will spend lots of time practicing the three methods while simultaneously increasing our independent reading stamina.