Issue #33, May 2015

Growth Mindset News and Tips

Talking to Students About Testing

Share this with your students!

Talking to Students About Intelligence
With high stakes testing, some students believe that the test tells them how smart they are. Students can come away from these tests thinking that they define them somehow. In this free sample from our Growth Mindset Leader resources, you can have a growth mindset conversation with your students about standardized testing!

Growth Mindset and Testing: What We Can Learn From The Hunger Games

by Eduardo Briceño, CEO Mindset Works

In The Hunger Games, at the Training Center before the "games" begin, Katniss Everdeen operates with a growth mindset. Her goal during those sessions is to improve, not to perform. She chooses stations where she can acquire new survival techniques, rather than stations where she can show off her advanced archery skills. Hence, other tributes observe her as a novice and they get the sense that she won't be a strong competitor. But she doesn't care. She knows that she can improve her survival skills (i.e. she has a growth mindset) and that doing so will help her.

MINDSET in Action

by David Dockterman

In this Scholastic blog post, David Dockterman discusses the opportunities and challenges in assessing non-cognitive skills in students. He says, "Some schools have started assessing and sending home grades for “grit,” that characteristic associated with resilience and persistence. Teachers can observe grit and measure it on a Grit Scale. Does the child Always exhibit grit, Often, Sometimes, or Rarely?"

Growth Mindset Educator Contest

Teacher Spotlight! Rebecca Davenport's Assessment Tip

Thank you all for sending in your growth mindset strategies!

Grading and Assessment for a growth mindset was a common theme in your responses to our last newsletter. Many teachers wrote in about their growth mindset assessment practices! We are pleased to share Rebecca Davenport's tip from Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga, TN:

"My middle school girls and I coined the phrase "I'm a girl, not a grade!" to remind them of all the wonderful parts of their lives that cannot be measured by a letter grade..."