How to Maximize Learning from a “Failure”! Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 Angela Duckworth and Carol Dweck are the main drive behind this and have said that… GRIT: The ability to persevere, or not give up, when faced with a “Failure” (For Example: Low test score, wrong answer, lost basketball game)  Our goal is to give the students the mindset, and abilities, to persevere.  That is the Fostering part: these skills need to be taught and reinforced. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 I have done my best to condense tons of research and examples into a quick PowerPoint to help give you an idea of what is going on and what our goal is. If you have any questions please contact: Mr. Ballard.  I will be happy to explain any confusing points. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 “The difference between a successful person and other is not a lack of STRENGTH, not a lack of KNOWLEDGE, but rather a lack of WILL!”  Football Legend Vince Lombardi  What does this mean?  How skilled you are, how smart you are, and how natural things come to you does not predict how successful you will be as much as your willingness to keep trying and learning. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 “Being Smart” and “Naturally Talented” are looked at as either “you are” or “you aren’t” (They are not skills)  Often when people who are labeled this way face a large failure, they do not know how to bounce back because they’ve been told things have come easy to them and they have never had to persevere.  Now, the person who has been told that they work hard and that a mistake is a natural part of learning will bounce back quicker from that large failure! Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 FAILURE!!!!  Yes the word that brings up dread and sadness.  That is the reason why it plays such a strong role in learning how to foster GRIT.  When a person comes across a challenging math problem or a long essay in English they will try for a few minutes and then “give up” because they are often worried of getting the wrong answer and would rather put nothing than risk an incorrect response. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 Failure = getting the wrong answer = making a wrong decision  All of these are challenges that we face everyday.  Our goal is to get students to see that even though they put the wrong answer down, they can use that feed back (wrong answer) as direction to help them find the right answer.

 This idea of GRIT is something that takes time to learn.  It will not be mastered over night  Our charge as teachers is to provide the students with both active and passive skills to foster GRIT!  This will happen in Three ways:  Terminology, or the way we phrase comments  Challenges  Reflection Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 We have 8 terms that we will be using throughout the year, in all grades, to help focus the students on the right approach.  Persistence  Resilience  Gratitude  Integrity  Empathy  Leadership  Self-Control/Self Discipline/Self-Regulation  Good Failure  You will find the Definitions on the Wall above the Monitor 

 Besides the 8 key words our approach also uses comments that are directed towards praising the approach that was used.  In correcting an error:  We would say: “This is what you did wrong”  This is a very direct statement that does not recognize effort, but just focuses on error.  Now we say “I like how you started by using the fractions.”  This approach, overtime, trains the brain to search for what worked, as opposed to focusing on the error. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 When encouraging a student who struggled and did not do well:  We would say: “You gave it your best shot!”  This tells the mind that it did all it could and there was nothing else to give.  Now we say: “I liked the effort you put in, but let’s work together some more and figure out what it is you don’t understand.”  This approach readies the mind for new approaches that could be used in the future that it did not see today. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 There are SO many more examples to give, but the main trick to this approach is to focus on praising the following:  The Approach or Process used in answering a problem.  Recognizing the Effort put fourth by the student, not the ease at which they learned the material.  Next to the computer you will find some examples you can use at home  Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 Exposing the students to situations where getting the “right answer” is not always possible, or extremely difficult to achieve it active part of Fostering GRIT.  We use these types of activities to focus on the approaches they use, by asking questions like:  What have you used so far? Has it worked? What other approach could we use?  Where do you think your approach stopped working? Is there another one you could use?  The key to the success of challenges is that the students are made aware that the purpose of the challenge is to make them work and question their approach!  There is no benefit, at this stage, of not warning them. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 The student must be given the opportunity to discuss how the challenge went, or an assignment.  In a reflection they would be asked questions like:  Did you feel stressed by the activity?  What approaches helped you move on?  (If they did not succeed) What can you take away from this experience? Did you learning something?  How much effort do you think you put into this activity?  Do you feel you this challenge was better than the last? (In terms of effort and approach) Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard

 This a skill that is easy to help develop, but takes a long time to master and become natural to students thinking.  Please take the pamphlets and work on these approaches at home.  It will be gradual but you will see a change.  The students NEED to see this from both School and HOME. Any questions Contact: Mr. Ballard