Collaboration enriches professional development.
Everyone needs professional growth opportunities.
All professionals want to improve.
All professionals can learn.
All professionals are capable of assuming responsibility for their own professional growth and development.
People need and want information about their performance.
Everyone needs professional growth opportunities.
All professionals want to improve.
All professionals can learn.
All professionals are capable of assuming responsibility for their own professional growth and development.
People need and want information about their performance.
--taken
from Reflective Practice to
Improve Schools page 157--
We will study the book: Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for
Students From Poverty by Eric Jenson
GUIDE TO ADDING YOUR COMMENTS TO THIS BOOK STUDY BLOG
on
Poor Students,
Rich Teaching (revised edition)
Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From Poverty by Eric Jenson:
1.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE
SEVEN BIG IDEAS.
2.
Read the snapshot
of what each mindset says.
3.
Select one or two
questions to answer after reading the chapters.
4.
Name It and Lock
It: Do the application at the end of each section/part.
(You can start
reading at any point in the book. Just make sure to identify the section you
are commenting about and make sure to read the preface and introduction! Great
stuff here!)
Big Idea One: The Relational Mindset Chapters 1-3
The relational mindset says, “We
are all connected in this life together.
Always connect first as a person (and an ally)
and second as a
teacher.”
Page 12 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How can you personalize the learning? Page 15
b. How can you connect everyone for success? Page
21
c. How can you show empathy? Page 27
Name It and Lock It …………………page 34
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Big Idea Two: The Achievement Mindset Chapters 4-6
The achievement
mindset says, “I can build student effort, motivation and attitudes to succeed.
They are all teachable skills.” Page
38 of Poor Students,
Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact
Mindsets for Students From Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How can you create and set gutsy goals? Page 43
b. When and how can you give fabulous feedback?
Page 49
c. How can you develop and maintain grit? Page 57
Name It and Lock It …………………page 62
I,________________________am committing to……………………………
Big Idea Three: The Positivity Mindset Chapters 7-9
The positivity
mindset says, “I am an optimistic and grateful ally who helps students build a
successful narrative of their future.” Page 64 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How can you model and teach and boost optimism
and hope? Page 71
b. How can you build positive attitudes? Page 79
c. How do you change the emotional set point?
Page 87
Name It and Lock It …………………page 94
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Big Idea Four: The Rich Classroom Climate Mindset
Chapters 10-12
The rich classroom
climate mindset says, “I focus on what students need to succeed and build it
into the learning and social environment every day.” Page 98 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How can you engage voice and vision? Page 101
b. How do you set safe classroom norms? Page 109
c. How can you foster academic optimism? Page 115
Name It and Lock It …………………page 122
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Big Idea Five: The Enrichment Mindset Chapters 13-15
The enrichment mindset says, “I
know brains can change.
I can
grow and change myself first.
Then, I can build powerful
cognitive skills
in my
students.”
Page 126 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How do you manage the cognitive load? Page 131
b. How can you strengthen thinking skills? Page 139
c. How can you establish and enhance study skills
and vocabulary? Page 147
Name It and Lock It …………………page 156
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Big Idea Six: The Engagement Mindset Chapters 16-18
The engagement
mindset says, “I can and will engage with purpose every student, every day,
every nine minutes of less guaranteed.” Page 160 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. How can you engage for maintenance and stress?
Page 163
b. How do you engage students for a deeper buy-in?
Page 171
c. What is your plan to engage to build community?
Page 179
Name It and Lock It …………………page 184
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Big Idea Seven: The Graduation Mindset Chapters 19-20
The graduation
mindset says, “Focus on what matters. Be an ally to help students graduate
college and career ready.” Page 186 of
Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
a. Why and how should you support alternative
solutions? Page 191
b. How can you empower and prepare students for
college and careers? Page 201
Name It and Lock It …………………page 208
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Epilogue of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From
Poverty by Eric Jenson
Having Choices page 210
Changing Your Mindsets page 211
Eliciting Change page 212
You are your Mindset page 213
Fill in the following blanks with your name, a mindset, and
strategies from this book. Repeat the phrase daily until it’s automatic.
Name It and Lock It …………………page 213 and
214
I,________________________am committing to………………………………
15 comments:
Comments from reading the introduction pages 9, 10:
I recently attended a state conference and learned about the relationship of Effect Size in reference to school climate and school culture in promoting students’ ability to learn.
It is interesting to find the mention of Effect Size in this book on mindset. We learn in the introduction of Poor Students, Rich Teaching (revised edition) Seven High-Impact Mindsets for Students From Poverty by Eric Jenson that the scoring system that decides a winning classroom strategy is called the Effect Size. Effect sizes are a common research-based way to measure the impact of a strategy. A .50 effect size is one year’s worth of academic gains. Effect sizes of 1.0 are two years’ worth of gains.
Teachers must help students catch up from starting school one to three years behind. Therefore, if everything we did over a single school year averaged at least .50 effect size, we would bring students up one year’s worth of academic gains.
Now imagine if what we did as teachers averaged a 1.57 Effect Size. This would mean 3 years of academic gains/growth for our students!
When referring to the school climate and school culture in terms of promoting students’ ability to learn, there are different effect sizes as well.
Effect Size
1. Collective teacher efficacy 1.57
2. Teacher estimates of achievement 1.29
3. Student self-efficacy .92
4. Positive peer influences .53
5. Teacher-student relationships .52
6. Positive self-concept .41
7. Decreasing disruptive behavior .34
The highest Effect Size is Collective Teacher Efficacy which means a shared group that is motivated by a common issue or interest or a group that works together to achieve a common objective with efficacy. Efficacy is the ability to get a job done well with effectiveness and the power to produce an effect.
So, in other words, when teachers work well together to achieve a common purpose with the effective power to accomplish and produce a sustaining effect, this has the greatest Effect Size on promoting student’s ability to learn. What is the most common way teachers collaborate?
A PLC. (Professional Learning Community). If you are apart of a vibrant, motivated, powerful, PLC in your school, you are on your way in making an awesome impact on your students’ learning. You are focused on learning. You are building a collaborative culture. You are results-oriented.
Stay the course!
My students will be attending a career simulation field trip to BizTown on Nov. 14, 2019. They will assume jobs and responsibilities in actual job positions. Some of the positions require only a high school education and others must have a college or higher education. I chose chapter 20 to begin my book study, "PREPARE FOR COLLEGE AND CAREERS". The chapter identifies the need, necessity, encouragement, and activities for inspiring students towards setting and achieving higher goals. One of our 5th grade standards is completing a research paper. Consequently, based on the information I read in this book, I decided to use the idea
from "Strategies to Prepare for College and Career" on page 202 and 203, to ignite my students as they research and identify with their assigned careers. I feel that the project will not only enhance their BIZTOWN field trip experience, but it will also help them connect to establishing their desire to work hard at getting to and through college. I've always encouraged my students by constantly letting them know that now is the time to begin working towards their commitment to a higher education. Now, after reading this chapter, I will begin inspiring them by pushing them to take ownership in their commitment. My dialogue with them will include when they go to or graduate from college, not if they do or simply why they should.
Each year I try to think of new ways to connect with each of my students. I choose to start at the begging and read chapter 1 " Personalize the Learning". The chapter identifies great strategies that can be implemented into the classroom at the beginning and through the year to help make and build upon personal relationships so that students will perk up and become more invested in their learning because we took the time to become more invested in them.
Some of the strategies I have already implemented such as learning each student's name, and doing a "me bag" that introduces a bit of my life to the class outside of just being their teacher.
With reading this chapter I would also like to introduce Share an Everyday Problem, often as adults, we try to shelter problems or feelings from our children but this chapter suggests that in sharing in a problem and allowing for students to give feedback on maybe how to solve that problem. It give the students a hands-on approach to real-life problem solving and coping. It also lets them connect to you more than just a teacher and hopeful will give them better problem-solving skills in their future.
Thank you C.P.
These are great comments!
How can you personalize the learning? Page 15 b. How can you connect everyone for success? Page 21 c. How can you show empathy? Page 27
Can you complete your NAME IT AND LOCK IT statements.
Name It and Lock It …………………page 34 I,________________________am committing to………………………………
Peggy, I love your comments and your name it -lock it commitment!
Thank you for posting. I am encouraged that you find this book/blog helpful!
Name It and Lock It …………………
I,_____Peggy _________am committing to………………………………
“ I will begin inspiring them by pushing them to take ownership in their commitment. My dialogue with them will include when they go to or graduate from college, not if they do or simply why they should."
After working in two different schools for more than ten years, I observed that students learn better and get easily motivated if they see value in the lesson. As long as a teacher can make connections to the students’ life and their interests, success automatically takes place. As a math teacher, although it’s not possible to link every topic to what students like or interested, I always aim to turn math lessons into some knowledge that my students can get benefit to solve the problems in their life. I start every year fighting with students’ prejudice against learning math, and it’s hard to change the mindset of the students that math is not something to make life worse, but better. On the other hand, it’s essential for a teacher to be aware of what struggles, misconceptions, and misunderstandings can happen during the learning and bring them to students’ attention before they turn into a mislearning.
I was not a brilliant student when I was a kid and the teachers who used empathy to understand what I was going through left more impact on me and motivated me to be a good teacher today. Many of our students are not coming from a family that can afford a good life for them or provides them opportunities to be successful in their life or the school. Our school is the only place where they can learn and interact with others to meet their social needs. Being aware of that fact, we teachers should do our best to help them feel safe and cared in our school so that we can reach them with meaningful opportunities to learn. Smiling, building relationships, and involving in extra-curricular activities with them in and outside of the school increase the success in their learning.
I love your relational, honest comments Mr. Aydin. I can see how well you personalize the learning for your students. Thank you for your comments.
How can you personalize the learning? Page 15
In my classroom I try to get to know my students. We spend some time working together in groups and share things that happen with each other. At the beginning of the year we talked about our families and who is in them. We then learned about each other by asking questions to other students. Now we use these things to make connections in class, we might be doing math and might make up a story problem using some of the students favorite things or the number of siblings someone has. I helps to keep their attention and draws in some of the students who are not paying attention (sometimes I will specifically use their things to help them focus). I would like to try making me bags next year, that was something I had not thought of, I feel like this will definitely help my students see each other in a new light and help them find things in common with one another quickly.
How can you connect everyone for success? Page 21
I really like the 50/50 rule. Usually when we are working I allow the students to talk with their peers (about their work) so they have time to converse and time to help each other with tasks that might be hard for them to complete on their own. Sometimes it is very structured group time, and other times it is less structured and more independent. We also use peer to peer talking on the carpet while learning new things. I like the idea of switching up partners by doing a moving around the room activity, this energizes them and gets them motivated.
I love your comments Ms. Allen.
You are doing a great job with the 50/50 rule.
NOVEMBER BLOG COMMENT:
From the Big Ideal Two: The Achievement Mindset Chapters 4-6
And the question:
a. How can you develop and maintain grit? Page 57
We must foster the optimum conditions for developing and maintaining grit. Building a classroom with an atmosphere and culture of positivity and affirmations fosters grit. This type of classroom, tells a student that they are valued enough to take risks, make mistakes, do inquiry-based, project-based and product-based learning without hindrances as well as ask questions and seek answers. Positive emotions are evoked by a classroom culture whose foundation is built on the worth, respect and future good of the student. A student in this classroom feels that it is worth working hard toward a big goal because they know their contributions are valued.
I remember my third-grade teacher Mrs. Powers and my fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Pitts within the Chicago Public Schools District. They both were amazing teachers who created a safe and positive learning classroom like described above. I excelled in their classrooms because I felt loved, confident and smart. They made me feel this way.
As an administrator, I am bothered when I see that negativity permeates and dominates a classroom and school culture.
Some teachers feel that yelling and constantly pointing out mistakes create grit.
Yet, “you get maximum value in resilience and grit building when the ration of positives to negatives is about 3:1 (Catalino & Fredrickson, 2011).
I am living proof that my teachers’ positive attitude and hope in me helped to build lasting stamina and in-depth resilience with me to never give up but keep working hard as an influencer and giver in the lives of others.
My Name It and Lock It:
I, Mrs. Burlock, am committing to foster conditions for grit by modeling for teachers how to celebrate positivity; how to celebrate caring; how to celebrate commitment; how to celebrate strengths and competence in order to ensure that every teacher lets every student daily receive more affirmations, quality feedback, nonverbal encouragement than they receive negatives such as criticism, negative nonverbals, exclusion, etc.
My question for all “Is what can you Celebrate today?”
The Engagement Mindset!
What is your plan to engage to build community?
I really liked this chapter because it talked about building a classroom community of engaged learners. I have always tried to create innovative ways to keep the students engaged and on task. Eric Jensen believes that this can be achieved successfully by establishing a ritual that is different from any other classroom activities. One thing that I do that's different from any other thing is that I snap my fingers and the students join in. This is done to establish attention and redirect focus. I liked the suggestions in the book, one in particular was ending the class with a celebration. In the book he suggested having the student turn and talk to a partner about something interesting that they learned that day. I thought this would be something interesting to do in my classroom with all three classes.
Thank you for your comments Ms. M. I agree with you and really like this chapter on the engaged mind because even when our scholars have a positive classroom climate, there needs to be authentic engagement. Ongoing classroom engagement fosters learning. Students miss out when they are not fully a part of the happenings. They must be engaged mentally for high-cognitive processing of the material and they must be engaged emotionally so that they care about their learning.I can see how your passion for teaching keeps our scholars engaged.Thank you!
We personalize learning by understanding that “ We are all connected in this life together”. It is important to make a real life connection for the student. Try using real world solutions to help tie in classroom problems.
I believe it is important to learn about each student and not treat as a number. We must remember the school year is a journey. (marathon)
I also like the idea of having more social time during the class. Elementary students will use this to build connections and learn while having fun during the process. It is hard for us as teachers to give social time but we must make a concerted effort to develop this part of the relationship.
Showing empathy is something we must do for students. I like using the five empathy-response tools to help make a connection with the student. It is important that the student knows we are there for him/her at all times. Highs and Lows
Setting gutsy goals is dependent on the “big picture” and students should understand the endgame. It can be a challenge for some to dig deeper into a topic. We are conditioned to get an answer quickly. Students should be challenged to go above where our expectations should be. Shooting for the stars should always be a dream for a student. Never settle.
Feedback can be determined by the goals set for each student. Strategy, effort, and attitude are key. Students must understand the mission they are on. Ex. Your goal is to get 100 percent on the test.
As stated before, the year is a marathon. I love the idea of showing clips (movies) to show examples of grit. It will help show real world grit to the students. Being able to fight to achieve your goals are important in the classroom and the student can use these lesson moving forward in his/her life.
My Comments on Big Idea Five: The Enrichment Mindset Chapters 13-15
The enrichment mindset says, “I know brains can change. I can grow and change myself first. Then, I can build powerful cognitive skills in my students.” Page 126 of Poor Students, Rich Teaching.
Teachers hold an extraordinary amount of influence in changing the trajectory of students. When a teacher communicates regularly to a student that they believe in them, they can raise student achievement!
I like how the book, Poor Students, Rich Teaching explains the landmark study of Carol Dweck. The study of Carol Dweck showed the impact of different beliefs on students’ learning. Students’ academic performance improved when a growth mindset is fostered and taught to them. The study of Carol Dweck is also mentioned in the book Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler (page 82-99).
It is important that we as educators work at changing the mindset of our students from fixed to growth because when students believe in their learning potential (growth) and let go of myths that their achievement is genetically determined (fixed), then they will see that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger and grows with hard work and effort and thus students levels of achievement will rise.
I love the practical tools given on pages 131-153 in the book Poor Students, Rich Teaching on enriching our students’ brains. However, this first starts with us as educators every day to change our narrative and thus change our teaching.
To change our narrative, we should say: I am committing to developing an enrichment mindset with my students every single day. I will begin by saying to myself, “I know brains can change. I can grow and change myself first. Then, I can build powerful cognitive skills in my students.”
S.F. Burlock
Post a Comment