Subject: SEL (Social-Emotional Learning)

Lesson Length: 45 mins - 1 hour

Topic: Fixed and Growth Mindset

Grade Level: 4, 5

Standards / Framework:

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:

  • Ask students to remember a skill they learned at a younger age and can consistently do well now, and discuss.

    • What did it feel like when they first tried the skill?

    • Were they frustrated? Annoyed?

  • 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:
    • A caption naming or describing the skill or goal they are trying to achieve.

    • Speech bubbles that show themselves embracing "the power of yet!"

  • Pair Share:

    • Discuss a time in school that you struggled with something.

    • Explain what the challenge was and how it felt to have that challenge.

    • How did you overcome it?

    • What were some steps that got you there? 

    • Discuss a school skill you struggle with right now.

  • Discussion:

    • Choose volunteers to share some of their current school challenges.

    • 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!"

    • 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.

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.
  • Preteach vocabulary.

  • Provide sentence starters for discussion, comic creation, and reflection when necessary.

  • Allow students to work with a peer model.

  • Allow students to write in their home language.

  • 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: