Student Notebooks, Part 3: Growth Mindset

All of our students have data notebooks that we are using to keep track of their academic goals, achievements, and progress. Research shows that students that keep track of their learning goals and achievements are more successful than students that passively receive (and disregard feedback) such as quiz scores and test grades. On average, students that tracked their own progress had a 32 percentile point gain in their achievement. You can read more about Marzano's research HERE. We decided to implement that research this year by creating student data notebooks.

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If you missed our post on how we use notebook covers and learning inventories, you can view that HERE. And if you'd like to read about how we're keeping track of our students' progress on grade-level common core standards, you can give that post HERE.

Student Notebooks: Growth Mindset
There's been a lot of chatter about using a growth mindset since Mindset: The New Psychology of Success got into the hands of teachers. Carol Dweck, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, developed the concept of fixed and growth mindsets, and it's lighting the education world on fire. A fixed mindset is the belief that one's intelligence and abilities cannot be changed.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

A growth mindset, on the other hand, is the belief that a person's abilities and intelligence can be developed through practice, hard work, dedication, and motivation.

What are the benefits of encouraging a growth mindset?
Encouraging a growth mindset in students helps them actively solve problems, take on challenges, set goals, use problem-solving strategies, ask questions when they don't understand, seek feedback from others, monitor progress to visualize growth, avoid feeling discouraged by others'  successes, and avoid being discouraged by mistakes.
How do our tutors help students develop a growth mindset?
In our student notebooks, one tab is dedicated to growth mindset. We use an amazing resource from Schoolhouse Diva on Teachers Pay Teachers that includes worksheets, mini posters, and a list of do's and don't for parents.

Growth Mindset from Schoolhouse Diva

We also use another great resource from To The Square Inch on Teachers Pay Teachers. Have you seen our  #mindsetmonday posts on our Instagram and Facebook pages? We post a new quote every Monday morning, and we continue work on that quote for the week with our students. And if I'm being completely honest with you, I internalize those quotes the more that I work with them. We love this resource because it comes with a great set of posters that we display in our office, as well as cards of encouragement and a flip book that helps us illustrate the concepts in more depth.

Growth Mindset from To The Square Inch

How can I help my child develop a growth mindset?
If you're reading this, there's a pretty good chance you already "preach" a lot of these ideas at home. There are some great books readily available online that are great for reading together.

The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

The Story of Inventions

The Most Magnificent Thing

Be The Change Make It Happen

What Do You Do With An Idea?

The Dot

Cordelia

How can I develop my own growth mindset?
There are some GREAT books that you can read to help develop your own growth mindset.  

The Big Leap

The Growth Mindset Coach

We use our one-on-one tutoring sessions to help foster a growth mindset, and we love the progress that we're seeing so far!

Check back next week for Student Notebooks, Part 4!

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