The work of Carol Dweck changed the way I view education and learning. I now understand that learning is greatly influenced by social and emotional factors. Motivation, mood, expectations for grades or outcomes and academic self-concept. A large part of academic self-concept is derived from one's belief about intelligence is a fixed trait or a result of prolonged practice and effort. Students who view intelligence as malleable are more resilient and successful when they encounter challenging abstract concepts (imaginary numbers, anyone?). Dweck's empirical work demonstrates that students respond best when their work effort is praised rather than the their test scores or grades.
"Yes, yes but this is all so abstract" you might be saying. "What are you going to do differently in your classroom."
I'll tell you what. I am going to hold students accountable for the time they spend working on their homework. And that is the only criteria for "success" I will be using in September.
Don't worry, I am tracking individual progress by skills and cross-referencing this data with Common Core State Standards. I am looking at growth over time. I will share this data with each of you at the appropriate time. All these are good. But in the long run the thing that matters most is your child's enthusiasm for prolonged effort. So effort is in the spotlight right now and even when performance standards become more salient effort will still reign supreme, at least in my book.
So please look for a report card of sorts to come home with the 4th - 8th graders this Friday.
There is no grade, only some numbers and a line graph showing how many minutes your child has worked on his or her math homework.
You should look at sessions that begin after 3:15 pm and see how long they last. Fourth graders should put in 15 minutes a night for 5 nights a week. The time requirement for each grade goes up by 5 minutes from there except for the 8th graders who stay at 30 minutes per night.
Please discuss these reports with your children and sign them. I would appreciate receiving them back on Monday.
