Primary Chalkboard: Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

Hi There!
Lisa here, from Growing Firsties & I'm going to share a little bit about Growth Mindset today, which is based on Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's work.

Heads up that I do have some Amazon Affiliate links in this post. Should you choose to use the links, I'll earn some "circle money" as my daughter calls coins. :-) Half of my affiliate proceeds are for paying it forward - each month I receive earnings I give to my local food pantry/outreach services organization. The other half is spent on books and items for my classroom.
Growing Firsties Primary Chalkboard

With a growth mindset, people believe that through effort and practice, they can develop and improve their talents and abilities. In a fixed mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed...and that it's talent (not effort) that creates success. Woah.

Years ago, I first began to think about mindset in terms of working with struggling students...those students where the learning is hard. Students, who, if they don't have the mindset to keep trying, will give up. Then what will they learn?

My thinking expanded as I witnessed students labelled as gifted hitting a struggle academically and not knowing how to handle the struggle when they are unfamiliar with the resilience and effort needed.

Then I realized that mindset, resilience & perseverance are critical for all of us. Regardless of age. #helloIhatecardio #gottadoitanyways

You may have seen this Growing Firsties post from a few years ago, containing this freebie download.
Everyone Matters!

Or maybe this post from last summer all about perseverance.
What's Under Your Cape?

I am blessed to work at an amazing school! Some talented colleagues ran a book study on Dweck's Mindset book this year and it was such fun to re-read and discuss mindset with like-minded teachers! I also added Mindsets in the Classroom (by Mary Cay Ricci) to my collection.

We read aloud some great books and I expanded my collection beyond the wonderful texts from Peter H. Reynolds (Ish, The Dot, Going Places...)


One of my teammates asked me if I had a printable for our work on mindset and that gave me the motivation to put my swirling thoughts to work....Here's a little peek at the inside...







Scroll down to download this freebie! :)

You might be interested in reading an article by the always eloquently-thought-provoking Alfie Kohn "The Perils of Growth Mindset" education. You can get to it {right here}.

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, has written this EXCELLENT article...you'll definitely want to check it out! You can get to it {right here}.

I have a Pinterest board called Mindset and I love pinning to it! You can check it out by clicking here or the screen shot below. You should really check out the Famous Failures video! It's amazing!
Growing Firsties

We'd love to hear what you do to help build a growth mindset with your learners!


24 comments:

  1. Thanks for such a great post. It is great that your school and staff is making this such a focus. I learned a lot about Growth Mindset and Carol Dweck through my math specialist classes and constantly look for ways to bring it into my class. Thanks for the freebie and the link to your Pinterest board.

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    1. Absolutely!! Thank you so much for stopping by! :-) Lisa

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  2. I loved reading this post! A couple years ago my school read that book as a book study, but I love how you've taken it to another level by sharing with the kids in an easy way. Love, love, love, this.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Sarah :)

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  3. Thank you! I just finished a Growth Mindset class and this will be perfect to start using with my new class.

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  4. I was reading Carol Dweck's book this summer and trying to think about how I was going to use the information with my students. This is PERFECT! Thanks!

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  5. So much helpful information!!!

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  6. This was a great post!!! It is one of my favorite professional books :) I also feel that it has helped me tremendously as a parent!

    Literacy Without Worksheets

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    1. I completely agree, Bridget!!! I really love Choice Words, too, by Peter Johnston.

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  7. LOVE this book for back to school and how it connects with our IB program. Thanks so much for such a great free product and informative post!!

    The Classroom Contessa

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    1. That's wonderful to hear!!!! So glad it helps you out! :) Lisa

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  8. Love, love, LOVE this! Thank you for sharing it for free! =)

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  9. Love this!! This is amazing!! My firsties would have loved this last year!!!

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  10. I love this! It's so great Lisa because it can span the grade levels. It would work great with my third graders too!

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  11. Thanks for sharing! I stumbled across growth mindset about six months ago, and I introduced it to my students right away (I blogged about it here!). I was amazed to see the change in them. I am eager to introduce it at the beginning of the year this time and see what impact it has over the course of the school year.

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  12. Found your post interesting to read. I cant wait to see your post soon. Good Luck for the upcoming update.This article is really very interesting and effective. Take a look on this website Click Speed Test

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