"Mindsets in the Classroom"

An educator's mindset directly influences how a child feels about him or herself and how he or she views him or herself as a learner. A child's mindset directly affects how he or she faces academic challenges.

The students showed positive growth when they believed that intelligence is malleable and when they learned about their brains.

Ideally, every adult in the building must work toward adopting a mindset where he or she believes that with effort, motivation, perseverance, and the right menu of teaching strategies, all students can achieve great things.

Understanding conceptually and communicating that intelligence is not a stagnant, innate attribute is the most important aspect of professional development.

When adults praise what a child "is," such as tall or smart, the children attribute their accomplishment to a fixed trait they were born with. When adults praise actions or tasks that children "do," the children attribute accomplishment to their own effort.

Neurons make new connections when you learn something new. These connections become stronger with practice and effort. The more connections, the denser your brain is. The more density, the "smarter" you are. (So, if you have ever been accused of being dense, that is a good thing!)

I would argue that it is not possible to plan and facilitate an effective, differentiated, responsive classroom if an educator does not really possess the belief that intelligence can develop. Differentiation is responsive instruction.

previewing provides an opportunity for students to activate background knowledge and previous learning prior to a preassessment so that the results will be a better reflection of what they understand.

The effective use of preassessment is essential to ensuring that students and teachers both work from a growth mindset, believing that effort is the most important attribute that determines success. Without the use of preassessment, some students do not develop a good work ethic due to the fact that they are "learning" content that they already understand.

Compacting buys time for students to go deeper and wider into the content and/or accelerate to above-grade-level indicators.

Maintaining flexible small groups across content areas is an essential component of a differentiated, growth mindset class culture.

Think about enrichment as going deep and wide into the content and acceleration as going forward.

Formative assessments help teachers find out who needs to be retaught, who is on track, and who needs enrichment and acceleration.

critical thinking is a process that must be infused with content.

According to the attribution theory, successful people will often attribute their success to effort, an internal factor. Those who are unsuccessful tend to attribute their lack of success or failure to the difficulty of the task and/or to just having bad luck.

if students look at failure or errors as a way to get feedback or reflect on areas that need more attention, they possess an underlying belief that they will, with effort, persistence, and help (that they've sought out themselves) eventually grasp the learning.

A central message to communicate with parents is the importance of encouraging resilience in their children.

Rather than overusing the term gifted, consider using other words or phrases such as "high-potential learners" or "highly motivated." Everyone has potential that needs to be nurtured

The goal of every school or district is to develop an instructional philosophy that addresses the needs of our most advanced learners while at the same time allowing access to instruction to all learners.

Strategies like Guess Box contribute to a growth mindset culture. Students who surface with well-thought-out questions can often be those students who may not shine in more traditional areas of school.

--Your brain is like a muscle.
--Exercise (learning and embracing challenge) is good for your brain.
--When you learn something that is at first challenging, keep practicing! This helps your brain get stronger.

Concept formation relates to making connections, seeing relationships between items of information, and defining a concept from them. Concept formation is a key skill required for learning of new ideas.

Neuroscientists have discovered that consistent negative or positive thoughts and feelings can affect brain activity and have an impact on learning. The good news is that you can train your brain to help you become a more optimistic person. It just makes sense that a growth mindset classroom is an optimistic classroom.

The learning environment should also be a fear-free zone. Fear is such an intense emotion that it can shut down cognitive processes and force the brain to only focus on the source of the fear and what to do about it. The fear of making an error or experiencing failure is a big obstacle to learning.

The commitment to building and maintaining a learning environment where expectations are high for all students, responsive instruction is the norm, and where all students value effort and perseverance is well worth the time.