Subject: SEL (Social-Emotional Learning)
Lesson Length: 45 mins - 1 hour
Topic: Fixed and Growth Mindset
Brief Description: Students will explore the power of “yet” and create a “Things We Can’t Do Yet!” comic.
Know Before You Start: Students should have an understanding of the terms fixed and growth mindset to guide their discussions.
Hook:
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Ask students to remember a skill they learned at a younger age and can consistently do well now, and discuss.
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What did it feel like when they first tried the skill?
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Were they frustrated? Annoyed?
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Discuss fixed and growth mindsets. When we struggle learning a skill or concept, which mindset are we more apt to feel?
Activity:
- Have students create a comic showing themselves attempting to master a skill or concept they haven’t learned yet. The comic should include:
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A caption naming or describing the skill or goal they are trying to achieve.
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Speech bubbles that show themselves embracing "the power of yet!"
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Pair Share:
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Discuss a time in school that you struggled with something.
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Explain what the challenge was and how it felt to have that challenge.
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How did you overcome it?
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What were some steps that got you there?
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Discuss a school skill you struggle with right now.
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Discussion:
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Choose volunteers to share some of their current school challenges.
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Have them repeat what they can’t do and add “yet” to the end of it. For example, "I can’t do long division… yet! I can’t read long chapter books… yet!"
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Explain that the skills they thought they’d never master in school and now can do weren't impossible, it just hadn’t happened "yet." Having a growth mindset means knowing and believing you will get there and it’s just not now.
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Closure:
- Print the comics or display them in a digital gallery under the title “Things we can’t do YET.”
- Students can refer back to this visual to remind them that they are always making progress.
Differentiation:
- Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
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Preteach vocabulary.
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Provide sentence starters for discussion, comic creation, and reflection when necessary.
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Allow students to work with a peer model.
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Allow students to write in their home language.
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Allow students to sort scenarios or images of growth vs. fixed mindset.
- Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
Resources:
- Comic to print or display: Comic.
- Suggested Reading:
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I Choose To Try Again by Elizabeth Estrada.
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Yani The Yeti by Katie Mense.
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The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizzi.
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