Blog #12

Foster a growth mindset by emphasizing effort, perseverance, and the belief that intelligence and math skills can be developed over time.  This tip is SOOOO important in math, maybe even more than other subject areas.  Why?  Because there is a certain perspective that math is binary, either I’m right or I’m wrong, and it is easy for students to categorize themselves in one camp or the other without seeing the spectrum in between.  Math teachers, therefore, need to make and extra effort to communicate that learning math, like any other subject, is a process.  Students are not “good” or “bad” at math, they are learning math.  And even when students make errors, they can learn from those errors and make improvements. 

How do we foster this growth mindset in our math classes?  Here are a few ideas, ranging from simple to more involved.

Growth on Display

There are numerous signs and posters that can visually remind students to have a growth mindset, or show students what a growth mindset looks like compared to a fixed mindset.  Here is one example from the TPT account on Pinterest.

You can easily display these kinds of poster in your room.  Refer to them if a student is really getting down on themselves, or incorporate them into reflective moments where students can analyze where they are and how they can grow to get to where they want/need to be.

Talk the Talk 

How you address mistakes as a teacher sets the tone in your class.  Be aware of how you react to student errors.  Present your feedback in positive terms of what a student CAN do, and specifically what a student CAN WORK ON to improve, NOT on what a student cannot do.  If you must phrase it in a way that indicates what a student in unable to do, add the word “yet” to the statement.  Just adding that simple word can help students see that their current skill level is not the final judgement, and that you believe that they can improve if they follow your suggestions and feedback. 

Also be cognizant of how students are talking when they make a mistake or see a result from an assessment.  The students can drown in a cycle of negative self-talk, and soon, they start to believe it.  Help students to rephrase that negative talk, or reframe how they react to errors.  You may need to get them to literally repeat after you, depending on the history of success (or lack thereof) they have had in previous in math classes.  Keep encouraging them and helping them to reframe to a growth mindset until they actually start to believe.  I guess what I am saying is, help them “fake ‘til they make it”.  😊

Walk the Walk

Don’t be afraid to show students how YOU handle mistakes, errors, and tough problems.  Firstly, students need to see that teachers are human and that we also make mistakes, even after all the years of training and experience we have.  If we are still making mistakes, they should EXPECT to make mistakes as they are still learning.  Secondly, students need to see a growth mindset modeled for them.  It is not easy to be open about our errors or miscalculations because we fear looking foolish in front of our students.  If this is particularly difficult for you, plan for it ahead of time.  Come up with a couple of reactions that you write on a sticky note and keep nearby.  This gives you a ready response when you WANT to say something negative to instead model something positive. 

I also think part of walking the walk is making sure that you are providing plenty of opportunities for students to make those growing mistakes without those mistakes affecting their grades.  Formative assessments like those I discussed in Blog #8 give students the chance to practice, learn and grow before it really matters.

Proficiency Scales

If your school is using standards based grading and assessing, then you are probably familiar with proficiency scales.  But even if you school is not a Standards Based Learning school, some form of proficiency scale can be helpful to students.  Here is an example of a proficiency scale from Chris Hunter’s website. 

This particular blog from Chris gives a great explanation for how to Construct Proficiency Scales with examples like this.  There are a few things that I particularly like about this example. 

• The nested rectangles – this gives students the visual sense that the skills from the lower levels are necessary for success at the higher levels.  But just having emerging skills is not enough to say that you are meeting this standard in the present class.  It again helps students see that if they can demonstrate developing skills, they are laying the foundation of skills that they will need to move to the proficient level. 

• The examples – as teachers, we have been working with math curriculum long enough to understand what a standard or benchmark means.  But students do not usually grasp what a verbal description of a skill really entails.  Including example problems helps students to determine where they are on the scale by what problems they are capable of consistently doing correctly.  It makes the expectations much more clear and students have a better idea of what they are working toward.

• Positive language – again, the language used is important.  Even in the lower levels of emerging and developing, the descriptors are in terms of what a student CAN do, and not focusing on what a student CANNOT do.  A student CAN solve by elimination when multiplication is not necessary, which is a stepping stone to learning to solve by elimination when multiplication by one equation is necessary.  Our job as teachers is to help them make that next step.

Clearly, if you are not teaching at a school that has embraced Standards Based Learning, then the proficiency scales will be a more challenging step.  But it is not impossible, and can be so beneficial to your students.  Especially when paired with solid assessment that matches what the proficiency scale says you want them to demonstrate. Or you can design a pretest to allow students to get a “baseline” of where they are, formative assessments that allow students the opportunities to practice, learn and grow in the areas on the proficiency scale, and then a post-test that highlights the growth that students have made.  If you have the time and wherewithal, this can be really powerful insight for a student to gain.

So what can you do?  The suggestions above range from hanging a few posters to implementing a total revamp.  All of them can have an impact, so pick one or two that work for you and go help you students GROW!!!  Until next week…