I started this article with a plan, as I was asked to
write about what it is like to be a kid for a day. I was going to shadow a student and record
the Growth and Fixed Mindset messages students give and receive during a
typical day. I did do exactly what I wanted to do: followed a student and recorded the
interactions that could be considered either Growth or Fixed Mindset
messages. I found that it was not as
simple as I thought. A message like,
“good job,” is considered a Fixed Mindset message, but what if it is followed
up with, “But tell me why you think ‘successor’ means that.” That simple little follow up statement
changed a Fixed Mindset response, to a Growth Mindset response, and
communicated to the student that the learning was more about the process than
the result.
What does this have to do with being a kid for a day? I
shadowed a student, trying to get a sense of the messages students heard
throughout the day. What are we, the
teachers, communicating, as we offer feedback?
I tracked those messages. I listened, typed, and coded all day
long. At the end of seventh period, our
last class of the day, I still was not sure what conclusions I could draw about
the Fixed and Growth Mindset messages our students were hearing. I was not really sure what I could take away
from the day, as a student.
Then I had the opportunity to be a substitute principal at
an elementary school for a week. As a
substitute principal, discipline is one major job I get to handle. I actually love that part of the job. I enjoy talking with kids, learning about
them, and working with them to create plans so that whatever went wrong, and
landed them some time in the hot seat, will not happen again; so they will know
how to respond the next time. It is
amazing how a little listening and some sincere respect causes a child to open
up and share more details than I really need to hear. But it does.
And they do.
One child, a fifth grader, was sent to the office for
having a meltdown after his paper airplane, during a science investigation, did
not achieve the longest flight in the class.
He was just barely beat out by another student, and he had worked hard,
for days, trying to design and fold the perfect paper airplane (That’s a Growth
Mindset!). There is nothing wrong with a
little competition, and the teachers had certainly set up the competition in a
fun and engaging way, that had focused on the process (design, precision,
principles of physics), and culminated in a competition. And man was this kid upset when he did not
place! He threw his paper airplane, as
hard as he could, across the room. So,
to the office he went, to spend recess reflecting about the problems caused by
his actions.
I sat down with the student, and we had a fantastic
conversation about how frustrated this child felt. He enjoyed the entire process of the paper
airplane challenge, and he was confident about winning. Unfortunately, he had recently learned
something about his family that shook him. With all the turmoil at home, and he
was struggling to leave it behind when he was at school… thus, overreacting to
the loss of the competition. After our
talk, though, he was feeling better. He
had some ideas for continuing his exploration of paper airplanes at home, and
he acknowledged that other students had also worked hard on the challenge. His loss was not their fault. He was ready to go back to class, apologize,
and have a great day.
Feeling like I’d had a principal win, I attended to some
other substitute principal responsibilities.
Soon there was a call on the walkie talkie that a food fight had broken
out in the cafeteria. I rushed to the
lunchroom, to find the same student, and several other boys, engaged in some
popcorn launching and exploding milk carton fun. The cafeteria monitors did not think it was
quite as fun. Since the boys had taken
from their community, they had to give something back: washing tables and
cleaning up the mess that had been left on the floor. Though they were not happy about it, all the
kids slipped on some gloves and in minutes, turned the room into a sparkling
lunchtime paradise. After the clean-up,
the boy I had talked with earlier walked over to the trashcan to throw away his
glove. Plop. It landed in the compost instead. Out of frustration, one of the lunch monitors
shouted, “What are you doing! What’s
wrong with you!” The boy first became
defensive, then turned around, and burst into tears. He crumbled.
I do believe our students respond to Growth Mindset
messages- but those messages are part of a process, and cannot be tracked or
assessed in just one day. These messages
must be internalized, and that takes time.
When everything is going wrong in the life of a child, they have no
control. What we say and how we respond
to their needs communicates whether we value the process or the product. Yelling at a child for making a mistake, does
not teach the child how to fix the mistake.
It takes more effort on our part, but rather than assuming there is
something wrong with children who do not act or respond how we expect them too,
we have to continue to teach and communicate the process. Give children a chance to fix mistakes, both
in academics, and with behavior, and recognize the effort it took to make a
change. We may not be able to fix a
Fixed system, but we can be cognizant of how we respond to children, and allow
mistakes, while we encourage Growth over time. That is a Growth Mindset.
Kelli
Dizmang
Title I
Math Teacher and Administrative Intern
Jemtegaard
Middle School
Washougal
School District
kelli.dizmang@washougalsd.org
