Persistence
I introduced persistence to my students through the lense of Growth Mindset. My colleague and I created this lesson to center the standard CCSS.MP1, “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.” We began by talking about what we can do to make our bodies stronger. I included videos of students doing push-ups and sit-ups. We then did body exercises together as a class. I explained that we can also make our brain stronger, but it needs a different kind of exercise. I used the Growth Mindset video from ClassDojo to help my students understand this idea. The video shows a ‘student’ who believes that he is not smart because he is struggling with new math problems. His friend helps him learn that when we practice and challenge ourselves, our brains can grow and get smarter. I asked my students to connect Mojo’s experience to one of their own. While listening in on student turn and talks, one student said that when she moved reading groups she felt like she couldn’t do it because the books had “so many words on the page.” We then discussed the question posed at the end of the video, “Can you get smarter? How?” Students shared that we can get smarter by working our way up to more challenging problems, doing our homework, and trying the hard math problems at their desk.
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Students are developing the skills to not only change the way they approach a challenge, but also support their peers in this important task. This will help my classroom community be more collaborative, supportive, and student-led. Developing persistence as a Habit of Mind serves as a foundation on which other Habits of Mind can be developed. I anticipate my students’ willingness to push through challenges will translate to my students seeking our more opportunities for independent discovery. When students are able to see mistakes as learning opportunities to celebrate rather than avoid, I hope they will take more responsible risks in the classroom.
Explicit Instruction
Picture on slide 14 retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR451_EZYs0
The lesson plan shown here allowed me to explicitly teach my students what persistence is and looks like. I included opportunities for discussion as well as examples to help my students fully understand the concept. At the end of the lesson plan there is a bridge building activity. Students participated in this lesson after learning. They practiced using brain talk instead of stop talk to help them push through the challenging task.
The video clips here shows me introducing persistence to my students as well as two turn and talks from the lesson. In the first turn and talk, my students share ideas of how we can get smarter. Students responded that we can do hard problems and never give up. The second turn asked students to share a time they pushed through and persisted. Students answered they pushed through when learning to ride a bike and when they learned how to write letters. This shows students are able to reference my guidance in work habits.
The chart below shows students' responses to turn and talk questions asked during the lesson. Students answered "When have you pushed through?" to make a personal connection to the new content. Students answered "Can we get smarter? How?" to apply the learning they did during the lesson. The responses below show students gained a solid understanding of what it means to persist in the context of pushing through, and understand that 'being smart' is not a fixed trait, but a skill that can be developed. This shows students were able to reference their teacher's guidance in character traits.
Persistence is a critical component to academic success. The willingness and ability to persist through unfamiliar tasks sets students up to push themselves and gain new knowledge and skills both in and outside of school. I remind students to persist by using the phrase ‘push through.’ Students are able to use the hand motions they practiced during the lesson to reinforce the idea of never giving up. I reinforce this lesson throughout the school day, and can see the impact on students as they work to internalize this character trait.
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I have visual reminders of brain talk throughout my classroom as a reference point for my students while they are working independently. Students are able to look to the growth mindset boards and read an example of ‘brain talk’ to replace the ‘stop talk’ they may be saying to themselves. Students are also able to use these to support their friends when they notice a peer struggling to push through.
Reinforcement - Classroom Reminders
The video shown here is of me leading the push through chant before students took a math test. This routine helps get students ready to face the challenge of an assessment and gives them the confidence to try their best, even when they are not sure of the answer. While my students are still working to master all of the language in the chant, they enthusiastically participate with their voices and their bodies, showing a physical representation of how they will push through the challenge.
I include visual reminders throughout the classroom to help remind students to persevere throughout the day. The picture above shows a bulletin board that includes brain talk students can use to help change their mindset during challenging independent work. The picture to the left shows a reminder for students to persist that I display during assessments. The student in the picture is taking a math test. When students are stuck, I am able to refer to the board to remind them to keep trying. Including this slide in my lesson plan also reminds me, as a teacher, to verbally reinforce persistence throughout the assessment.
Every Monday, students participate in a Makerspace during math centers. This in itself helps develop persistence and a willingness to push through. Developing the Habit also helped students find more success in these activities. In our most recent Makerspace, students needed to build a stand alone structure that would allow an imaginary mouse to travel from the ground to the top of a table. While no group was successful, all groups were showing a growth mindset and using mistakes as an opportunity to learn. This failure helped students grow. One group started by building a very thin staircase, but quickly realized it would not stand on its own. They then excitedly realized they needed to make it wider, and changed their approach. This shows students reference their teacher's guidance in work habits.
Reinforcement - Makerspace Monday
Two Makerspace activities we have completed are shown here. The two left pictures shows students building the stand alone structure to help an imaginary mouse get from the floor to the table. The picture below shows community buildings students created using recycled juice boxes. We created these buildings while learning about structures and materials in our literacy unit. Both of these challenges asked students to try challenging activities that require persistence.
I intended to include an interview with a student about how they persisted when participating in MakerSpace Monday. However, due to schools closing I was unable to obtain this evidence. Based on informal observations, I saw students persist in these tasks when their work fell down and they needed to start again. Rather than getting upset and frustrated, as I have seen in the past, students would express their disappointment, then get right back to work. In one particular instance, a student checked the board to see how much time his group had left, then excitedly told his peers that they still had ten minutes to try something new. This shows students internalized this trait and it has led to personal growth on the part of my students.
Another way I reinforce persistence is including self-check opportunities for students to edit their own work and make adjustments accordingly. The poster shown here is our Wow Writers Checklist. When students have completed a writing assignment, they are asked to check their own work by ensuring they have included all of the items of the check-list. When students are able to identify their own mistakes, they are able to fix it on their own, and are more likely to learn from their mistake.
Reinforcement - Writer's Checklist
The writing samples shown here are from the same student. The difference between writing samples shows how this student referred to my guidance on persistence throughout the year. The student was able to use the Wow Writer's Checklist to ensure she had the components of a complete writing piece. As the year progressed, this student was able more consistently refer to the checklist and ensure she included punctuation and capital letters.
In this section, I intended to include examples of student work before they used the writing checklist as well as the edits they made after. However, due to schools closing, I was unable to obtain this evidence. I have noticed throughout the year when students participate in peer editing or use the Wow Writer's Checklist on their own, the most common mistakes they are able to quickly recognize and fix are capital letters and punctuation marks. I have noticed students are usually shocked that they have forgotten such basic components of their work and are excited at the opportunity to fix it and make it better. This shows students reference their teacher's guidance on persistence by going back and fixing their mistakes.
I celebrate persistence in the classroom at the end of the year by highlighting the growth students have made, as well as the reading level they have ended the year on. This helps show students the progress they have made throughout the year and all of the hard work they have put into their work. When I present students with the certificate, I ask them what they are most proud of from the year. One student shared that she felt proud of herself for working hard even when it was really hard and she did not want to keep working. She said she kept pushing through because she knew that one day it would not be so hard. This shows this student referenced my guidance on character traits and work habits, and experienced personal growth.
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Theis celebration targets persistence because the certificates indicated the growth they made rather than just the final level they ended on Studented needed to persist through challenging texts to master reading strategies to achieve the growth shown. Celebrating the number of levels grown rather than the final score allows us to recognize the effort that the student put in to make that significant growth.
Celebrations
This student celebrated her growth from a level ten to a level forty.
This student celebrated his growth from a level two to a level twenty.
This student celebrated his growth from a level three to a level eighteen.
Teaching, reinforcing, and celebrating persistence in the classroom has helped my students develop a willingness to push through challenges and achieve greater growth in the classroom. When students develop persistence as a Habit of Mind, they become better learners in the classroom, as well as better 21st century thinkers outside of school. The skills my students have learned in my classroom will continue to serve them throughout their education and their life.