Introducing Growth Mindset in Math

10 September 2016
Growth Mindset in Math - Starting Math Class Right!
This year, before we dive into our first math unit, we're setting up for a successful year by examining our growth mindset in math.

The very first day, I started with a math engagement survey, to see what my students' attitudes were about math and their learning (you can grab a free copy of this survey HERE).  It was pretty awesome to see that most of my students already have a pretty positive attitude about math - that's definitely a testament to the amazing teachers I work with at my school.

This summer I discovered Stanford University's YouCubed site by Joanne Boaler - full of amazing math lessons and activities that are designed to foster a math mindset in students.  I instantly knew I was going to start the year with this.

Growth Mindset in Math - Starting Math Class Right!
As I was reading more about the activities during my prep period on the second day of school, I came across this fun video made at a youcubed summer camp.  As I was watching it, I saw an image of this quote:  "In this class, mistakes are expected, inspected, and respected."  Perfection.  I pulled my big binder of bulletin board letters of my shelf and set to work.  By the time my students came in from recess, there was a new quote to look at on our wall.  When I posted the picture of this quote on my facebook page, a few people had mentioned they had seen this quote with the word "corrected" added (such a great addition ... but I have no more wall space to add the word - lol).  When my students and I discussed this quote to examine what it means, we all agreed that corrected is an integral part of inspected - when we inspect our mistakes, we are not only trying to determine where we went wrong, but also how we can use teacher and peer feedback to correct it.

Growth Mindset in Math - Starting Math Class Right!
One of our first tasks (suggested on youcubed) was to brainstorm what makes a successful math group, as so much of our learning and inquiry will be done in groups.  We did a think, pair, share activity and came up with this great anchor chart to remind us of the norms while we are working.  It hangs right below our "mistakes are" quote - and together they are exactly what we need to remember as we start our math year.

Growth Mindset in Math - Starting Math Class Right!



On Monday we our going to start our Interactive Math Journals, and our first entry is going to be my Growth Mindset in Math entry - the perfect start to our math journals.  You can read more about this entry in a blog post HERE.  From there, we will finish off our week with more great math inquiry lessons from youcubed.

Growth Mindset Math Journal Entry

With all of this, I am so excited to begin our year exploring math.  We're going to have a great year!









3 comments

  1. I love youcubed. I saw it on your Instagram and just did the first lesson about working in groups yesterday. I also love the dot activity in that lesson because it really showed the class how we all see math differently. Thank you so much for posting it. I'm lookingoforward to doing the one about mistakes on Monday

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  2. I really enjoyed reading about the way you introduced the concept of a Growth Mindset in math. I tried creating my own unit on Growth Mindset but wished I had known about YouCubed to make my unit more meaningful. As I explored the site, I was pleased to see that Jo Boaler has two weeks full of engaging activities that will develop the growth mindset message. Thank-you for recommending this site as I will definitely be referring back to it. Another thing I loved was the quote you put up on your wall, “In this class mistakes are expected, inspected, and respected.” I had my students work in triads to create an original poster about having a growth mindset. The quote and posters are constant reminders of the mindset we want our students to have when doing math.

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