Empowering a Growth Mindset for Students with Disabilities

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 30

My students with disabilities enjoyed learning about the difference between having a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. They practiced applying growth mindset thinking to work on academic tasks that they perceive as challenging and typically shy away from. Through the integration of literature from the books purchased, we learned about the parts of our brain and making connections in our neurons. My students favorite part was Mindset Mondays, in which we read one of our mindset books and applied that to our learning for the week. In addition, students played logic games to challenge themselves with applying a growth mindset instead of giving up when they made a mistake or didn't get the solution right away. The most unexpected experience with the implementation of this grant was reading the book Thanks for the Feedback.  It broke down the barriers for me to provide corrective feedback without my students feeling like a failure or shutting down. They developed and undertanding that feedback's purpose in school is to help them grow.  Due to the success of this lesson, I was asked to share at a staff meeting. I had other teachers asking to utilize my books, games and teacher resources.  Therefore the number of students impacted far exceeds the orignal projected amount. 

Click on this link to see a student explain how feedback helps their growth mindset: https://flipgrid.com/8ce2cb