Glorious Struggles and Good Failures

It really is crazy (in a good way) when education worlds collide.  I guess that means the conversation is an important one, and people all over are really reflecting on what we can do to help our students succeed.

Last week during a district staff development, we watched Angela Duckworth's TED talk on Grit, and our school leadership teams discussed ways to help reinforce the idea of a growth mindset and the importance of perseverance in problem solving. This weekend at an ASCD conference, my first session was on "Fostering Grit," and our presenter referenced Carol Dweck's work on mindset and Duckworth's research on grit. Finally, this week's #eduread article was also about developing perseverance in problem solving, specifically with math problems.

Message received!  I need to be intentional about teaching students (and teachers) the importance of grit, how to develop a growth mindset, and that failures help you learn and succeed.  After finishing our article Faster Isn't Smarter, I knew this objective needs to be a priority.

Luckily, I'm not starting from ground zero, but I know I can do much, much more.  For the past two years, we have talked mindset in my classes, and we call my challenge problems on assessments #growthmindset questions.  When I first started my work as an Instructional Specialists, my work partner and I heard the phrase "Glorious Struggle," and we used that when we were having a hard time with our job (which was quite often during the first year!) and I taught the same phrase to my students. Yesterday, I created my first TEDEd lesson on Duckworth's talk, and I will ask my students to watch and reflect on her message. In the past, I talked to my students about "Famous Failures," and last summer, I created the Google presentation with quotes on failure, success, and struggle, and shared it with them.



Our presenter at the ASCD conference was Thomas R. Hoerr, and he leads a "Multiple Intelligences" school where teaching grit is one of top objectives for teachers and students.  In his session, he offered six steps for teaching grit, and these ideas also align with some of the points in Cathy Seeley's article.

Teaching for Grit

1. Establish the environment.  Students must realize that they are cared for and supported, even when they're struggling. (How many times have we heard that it all boils down to relationships??)  When teaching grit, how can we acknowledge effort and improvements?  How can we make it "cool" for students to be seen working hard?  Have posters in your room or hallways about effort, success, and hard work.
2. Set the expectations.  Students must understand the value of grit and accept that learning is not always easy or fun. Seeley says the same thing in her article.  Teach that mistakes are good lessons, and there are such things as good failures! (At a different session, we watched "My Favorite No," which I think would help here.)  Teach the students about the brain research, too!
3. Teach the vocabulary.  Hoerr asks his teachers to frequently use words like grit, growth mindset, frustration, and comfort zone when talking with students and parents.  (Seeley had the same reflections in the "For Families" section of the article.)
4. Create the frustration.  Another way that my edu-worlds collide: Hoerr suggests to differentiate by process, and ask students to solve problems using an intelligence that was not their dominant intelligence.  (Referencing last week's #eduread article, instead of using the Mastery or Understanding styles, require students to solve a problem as a Self-Expressive or Interpersonal learner.)  Another idea, tell students that "Today is a GRIT day," and the tasks, instructions, or the final product will be intentionally challenging.  Seeley called it constructive struggling, which I loved!  In math, create problems that are complex and require more than just a rote procedure.
5. Monitor the experience.  Watch your students and their emotions.  Solicit feedback during the gritty experience, either using non-verbal signals or a Likert scale on the work and frustration level.  We don't want students to feel pointless frustration.
6. Reflect and learn.  Ask the students to share why they didn't give up on a particular task.  What did they do that will help them in the future when they're frustrated again?  

Hoerr also provided a few steps for how to teach students to keep persevering, and this is something that I will start at the beginning of the year:

• "Anticipate the level of difficulty."  Ask student to self-assess and guess how difficult they think today's work will be.
• Before beginning the work, ask students to reflect on a time where they have succeeded on something (in academics or outside of school).
• During the task, require students to give 5 full minutes of full-force effort.
• Remind students of the power of a "good failure."

So teaching (and learning more) about growth mindset, grit, and good failures are back at the top of my priority list; what else can I do to help my students learn about grit and perseverance?  How do I incorporate those "gritty" problems into my curriculum?  (One per day?  Once per week?  One on each assessment?)  I also need to start planning now to create tasks and problems that are complex and will create those glorious struggles and good failures for my students!

Again, so much to think about...looking forward to the upcoming #eduread to help reflect on these questions!

---

Jumping to the top of my to read list: Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
(Side note--his recent NYT article was another great commercial for teaching grit and perseverance as a "2nd curriculum," and sounds like AVID for college!)

Read More

Trying Out TED-Ed

I spent a weekend of fabulous learning at the ASCD Conference for Teaching Excellence, and I plan to post some reflections during the next couple weeks...but for now, here's my first follow-up.

In the past few years, we've heard more and more talk about growth and fixed mindsets, and I'm now a fan and believer of Carol Dweck's work.  (If you want to join a great conversation, check out the #eduread chats on Wednesday nights!  Our discussion for July 9th, 2014, will be over Dweck's article "Even Geniuses Work Hard.")  The more recent trend has been about grit, and my first session at the ASCD conference was with Thomas R. Hoerr, who presented on Fostering Grit.

During the past couple years, I've discussed growth mindset with my students, but I've wanted to try something more tangible with them, and after hearing Dr. Hoerr's talk, I knew I needed to give them some more specifics.  Last week at a different staff development, we watched Angela Duckworth's TED talk on grit, and I thought that video was short enough for my students...but how could I get them to do a bit of reflecting?  Enter the lessons on TEDEd.

Without too much time or trouble, I've created two TEDEd lessons this morning: one for my students and one for our faculty.

First, you find any YouTube or TED Talk video, and create an account on TEDEd.  Once you choose your video, the lesson creator for TEDEd allows you to write an "objective" and create multiple choice and short answer questions about the video.  For the multiple choice questions, you even add the exact time where the video refers to the answer, so if viewers answer incorrectly, the video returns to that location to help students find the correct answer.  (You may create up to 15 questions, plus you may edit and re-order the questions at any time.)  Students must create an account with TED to be able to respond on the site and receive feedback; perhaps I'll create a Google Form that mirrors the questions so that they may respond there...still thinking.

Next, you may add additional resources, links, and images that allow the viewers to "Dig Deeper."  For my students' lesson on grit, I found links to Duckworth's grit test, a video on growth/fixed mindset, and a link to Dweck's work on how to change your mindset.

There is also a place for discussion, if you would like to add that feature, but I'm asking my students respond on a protected Google doc instead.  You may add or delete any of these sections for your TEDEd lesson.

And last, there is the "...And Finally" section.  Here, you may type additional reflections, take-aways, and what happens next.  For our faculty's TEDEd, I plan to flip this video and ask that they view it before the first day of professional development.  We'll begin our discussions with the "...And Finally" reflections.  Over the past several years, we've discussed Simon Sinek's Start With WHY, and his latest TED talk is Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe.  My TEDEd lesson asks us to reflect how his ideas of leadership, safety and trust look in the school, departments, and in our classrooms.

I loved learning about the lesson possibilities on TEDEd, and for my purposes this morning, the features were fantastic.  I can't wait to try these videos with our students and teachers.  Watching and reflecting on Angela Duckwork's talk may be part of my assignment on day #1!

---

My stack of reading continues to grow...

Read More