Growth Mindset: Health - Grade 4

Subject:  Health

Grade: 4

Lesson Objective: To introduce students to the concept of Growth Mindset and what that looks like in everyday life.

Common Core Standard: 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1.D

Review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.4

Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Materials: 

• Whiteboard
• Create a Phrase Card Set for each group (write them on index cards or type them up and print them out. Cut them out so that there is only one phrase on each card.
• Growth Mindset Phrases
  • • I will try to use some of the strategies I learned.
    • What am I missing?
    • I won’t give up. Let me try again!
    • I’m almost there. I can do this.
  • Let me try another way.
• Fixed Mindset Phrases
  • • I’m just not good at this.
    • It’s good enough.
    • I give up.
    • It’s too hard.
  • I’ll probably fail.

Starter:

Have this prompt written on the board when students arrive: Think about a time when you had to overcome a challenge in learning something or work hard to get better at something. How did you do it? How did you feel after?

Main:

• Say: “I asked you all to think of a time when you had to overcome a struggle in learning and to solve a problem. I’m going to share with you a time that I had to do the same.”
• If you have a personal story you can share with the students, please take the time to tell it to them now. Be sure to highlight hard work, strategies you used along the way, and help you received from others. [Note: This will be much more meaningful if you can personalize it to yourself and something that actually happened to you - your students will care!] If you do not have one of your own, you can use this sample:
• “In middle school, I struggled with my writing. I knew what thoughts I wanted to share but couldn’t get them out on paper. No matter what I tried to do, I would get stuck and not write what I wanted to say. This was frustrating since I had so many great thoughts, but no one could see them. Since it was so hard for me, I really didn’t like it and thought that I was just not a good writer. One day, I talked to my teacher about it, and she told me that writing was like sports (which I LOVED), and that to get better, I had to practice. She explained to me some strategies I could use to get past writer’s block. After some practice with these strategies, I started to understand how my brain worked when writing, which helped me get unstuck when an assignment was hard. The best part was when I was able to write things I was proud of and share them with my classmates and family! I learned that even though it was a lot of work, and I wanted to give up at times along the journey, my brain is like a muscle and with more practice and work, it grows and you can learn anything.” 
• Ask students to share what they had thought of at the beginning of class or a time when they had a challenge they had to overcome. Discuss the strategies they used and what they learned from the experience.
• Keep a running list on your whiteboard of strategies students used (asked for help from parents, teachers, researched on their own, practiced, etc.)
• Explain Growth Mindset. Say: “A growth mindset is believing in yourself and the power of your brain. We know that if we put in enough time and practice and use the right strategies, we can get better at things we try. So, a growth mindset is knowing when we practice we will get better at something.
• Explain Fixed Mindset. Say: “The opposite of growth is fixed. A fixed mindset is thinking that you can’t get better at things, even if you practice. Sometimes wanting to give up, thinking that something is too hard, or that you’re just not good at something is a clue that you have a fixed mindset.”
• Small Group Activity: Split students into small groups (3-4 per group). Give each group of students a phrase card set. Ask them to discuss amongst themselves and sort the cards into things people with growth mindset might say and things people with a fixed mindset might say.
• Whole Group: Bring your students back together as a whole group and discuss which phrase was placed in which category. Write the growth mindset phrases on the board as they are correctly identified.

Differentiation: Pay attention to groupings here. You can differentiate this lesson for students by pairing peer models with students who struggle with activities and discussions. This way, they can meaningfully engage in the activity of grouping phrases, and the discussion that follows, even if they are struggling with the material or adding their thoughts.

Feedback:

Have students pick one of the growth mindset phrases on the board, and explain which phrase they chose and how they think it may help them in learning.

Extensions:

• Famous Failures: have students research famous people they are interested in who failed along the way to success. (Examples with great stories: Albert Einstein, Vincent Van Goh, Stephen King, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Michael Jordan, and J.K. Rowling) 
• Word maps of related terms such as: mistakes, effort, persistence, courage, dedication, success. These can be done individually or in groups. You can also combine them to create a word wall that students can refer to throughout the year when they are feeling challenged.

Written by John Jones

Education World Contributor

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