Ms. Sucre: Growth Mindset

For the past couple of weeks we've been talking about what it means to have a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. This concept is especially important to talk about in Third Grade for a couple of reasons. First, the whole idea of learning through your mistakes that we try to teach our students, is rooted in this concept, and by teaching this idea early enough we are helping students to grow up with a healthy view of mistakes and failures.

Here's a short, simple video that explains what growth vs. fixed mindset is all about:

What's been really powerful as we explore this idea, has been watching the students identify their own fixed mindsets when it comes to certain things. Even as we've been working on projects about fixed vs. growth mindset, students have caught themselves saying things like "I'm just really bad at this" or "I can't do it". They're realized that some of these mindsets are so engrained in them that they don't even notice when they think a certain way. Thankfully, through all the different things we've done with this topic, they've become more aware of their own thinking.

Take a look at some comic strips they created to illustrate some situations in which we think with a fixed vs. growth mindset.

Growth Mindset Comic Strips: