Student Praise

 

“You learned that so quickly! You’re so smart!”

“Look at that drawing, is he the next Picasso or what?”

“You’re so brilliant, you got an A without even studying!”

Many good intentioned parents/teachers have said these things and see them as supportive and self esteem boosting messages.  Reading the book Mindset by Carol Dweck has completely changed my outlook on praise as both a parent and a teacher.

Read the praise messages again and listen closely to the underlying message that children hear.

• If I don’t learn quickly, I’m not smart.
• I shouldn’t try drawing anything hard or they’ll see I’m no Picasso.
• I’d better quit studying or they won’t think I’m brilliant.

According to Dweck’s research, messages like these will quickly put our children/students into a fixed mindset.  “Parents (teachers) think they can hand children permanent confidence- like a gift- by praising their brains and talent.  It doesn’t work, and in fact has the opposite effect.  It makes children doubt themselves as soon as anything is hard or anything goes wrong.”


We need to make sure that our messages of praise aren’t saying “You have permanent traits and I’m judging them,” but rather, “You’re a developing person and I’m interested in your development.”


So what/how should we praise then?


Dweck offers these suggestions……


Praise as much as you would like for growth oriented process.

• practice
• study
• effort
• accepting a challenge
• persistence
• strategies

When we praise students for growth oriented process they begin to attribute their accomplishments to their own effort, something they have full control over!


So, how can we do this in our classrooms?  Here are a few of my favorites…….

“My Favorite No”

I love this idea from The Teaching Channel.  I often use this very informally in my room.  When someone gives an answer that is incorrect, but I can tell that a lot of thought went into it, they really put in a lot of effort or they were using a great strategy that just didn’t work out for them, I will tell them that it was my favorite no and to keep trying!  It’s a great way to let students know that while their answer was incorrect, the thought process they were using to arrive at the answer was on track!

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/class-warm-up-routine#

Class Cheers

We love cheering for each other.  I use class cheers for things that we do great as a class, or for individual students to celebrate hard work and effort.  We love using them to celebrate students who take a risk, who try something and take a chance.  It’s a great way to build your classroom community and let students see that in your room you celebrate challenges and that even if the answer is wrong you can be proud of trying something new and taking a chance.  I introduce some basic class cheers at the beginning of the year.  It never fails though, each year my class will start making up cheers of their own that we add on.  This year we have “The Perfume Cheer,” they pretend to squirt 3 squirts of perfume and say “Oh La, La,” while shrugging their shoulders.  We have added several others too!

Click HERE to see a great blog post about class cheers and it includes a freebie to download.

Effort Awards

Effort Awards are something new that we just started in my room.  I use them to recognize students that worked extra hard.  Some days when we are learning a new concept in math, equivalent fractions for example, I can see that some of my kiddos (especially my “gifted” learners) are getting frustrated.  They aren’t getting it right away, because new learning takes time.  We talk a great deal about how learning something new means our brain needs to make new connections and it takes time for that to happen.  Anyways, I like to point out and recognize students who make it a point to not tune out or give up.  Students who continue to ask questions, discuss, and try to make connections with those new concepts.

Sometimes we use “Effort Awards,” to recognize students who met a goal in class.  Not, I got an A on my spelling test goals (that would be results based not process based), but the I practiced my words every night and improved my score from last week kind of goals.

Here are the “Effort Awards,” I give out in my classroom.  You can click on them to download them for FREE!

I love that some of my kiddos are even pointing out their classmates’ hard work and effort now and telling me they think someone deserves and effort award because….!  It makes my teacher heart happy to see them recognize hard work and effort in others as well as themselves!

I would love to hear your thoughts and hear about how you use growth oriented praise in your classroom.  Comment below so we can all learn together and work to get our kiddos into a growth mindset!

 

 

 

Mindset

Every once in a while a book comes along that changes things for you.  My husband is a reader, as in 75 books a year (yes, he keeps track) reader.  Every now and then he finishes one and tells me that it’s a must read.  And, he is usually right!  He finished Mindset by Carol Dweck and immediately said that I NEEDED to read it….that every teacher/parent should read it.  As usual…he was right.  The concept of fixed vs. growth mindset changed my thinking completely.  It changed my language in the classroom.  It changed my approach and interactions with students.

 

I put together this little graphic to help explain the difference between fixed vs. growth mindset in a nutshell.

I mean really….who wouldn’t want their students to be in the growth mindset column.  Isn’t that the kind of student and thinker we want all of our students to be.  So, how do we get our students to start thinking that way.  According to Dweck, “You have a choice. Mindsets are just beliefs.  They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.” 

Check out this TED Talk about Mindset and how it works.

There are some amazing resources online as well.  Check out Mindset Works and sign up for a free account.  This week my class will be reading the article “You Can Grow Your Intelligence.”  We will then discuss the article and begin our journey toward changing our mindset to a growth mindset!

After reading the book, I realized how important this concept is, and not just for my struggling students.  My gifted kiddos need it as much, if not more than my strugglers.  They need to understand that being wrong doesn’t make them “dumb.”  That being challenged and not “getting it,” right away means they are learning something new.  A few weeks ago, after I began changing the language I used with students in my classroom, we had a particularly challenging lesson.  It really made my kiddos think and there was a lot of productive struggle going on.  One of my gifted kiddos was getting visibly upset at not “getting it.”  I mean, this is a kiddo who has been told all of his life that he was “so smart,” right?    We talked about how challenges are an opportunity to learn and grow our brain, if everything is always easy and we already know how to do it, then where is the learning opportunity in that.  You may not “get it,” but you just don’t “get it,” yet!  At the end of the day we did our daily wrap up.  I ask them to think of one new thing they learned that day.  My gifted kiddo, the one who had struggled that day, said this….

What a HUGE step for this kiddo!  My goal for the rest of this year is for EVERYone of my students to leave my classroom with a growth mindset and the belief that they truly can do anything they set their mind to!


Have you read Mindset?  How have you implemented the principles of growth mindset in your classroom or school?  I would love to hear from you!