CM Magazine: Keep Growing: How to Encourage Students to Persevere, Overcome Setbacks, and Develop a Growth Mindset.

________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number . . . . November 10, 2017

cover
Keep Growing: How to Encourage Students to Persevere, Overcome Setbacks, and Develop a Growth Mindset.

Joey Mandel.
Markham, ON: Pembroke, 2017.
126 pp., pbk. & PDF, $24.95 (pbk.), $21.95 (PDF).
ISBN 978-1-55138-320-0 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-55138-921-9 (PDF).

Subject Heading:
Character-Study and teaching (Elementary)-Activity programs.

Professional. Kindergarten-grade 8.

Review by Amy E Dickerson.

**** /4

excerpt:

The mindset that you adopt, fixed or growth, affects the way you act and respond to daily challenges It determines whether you walk away, give up, and complain, or you attempt to meet the challenge with a positive and optimistic attitude. (p. 9.)

Mandel addresses topics that are quite timely in our education system – supporting students to develop skills to support resilience and perseverance when faced with challenges, and how to cultivate a growth mindset. In assisting our students to adopt a mindset that celebrates mistakes as learning and to accept that difficulty and challenges are a regular part of everyone’s lives, we help them to understand that problems are solved through trial and error and that learning is a process, not a product.

Each chapter discusses key elements of supporting student growth in self-regulation and adopting a positive mindset, and each concludes with specific tools and strategies. These strategies are accompanied by curriculum-connected and easy to administer activities for students, often accompanied by black-line masters.

Mandel focuses on the importance of identifying challenges, recognizing the severity of problems and the ways in which we respond to these challenges. By learning to reflect upon our daily trials and the way in which we respond, we can identify ideal ways to consider future challenges to better support our growth. She discusses the importance of adopting if/then statements to support perseverance in the face of difficulties and the development of a growth mindset. As well, the importance of communicating with parents and guardians is discussed, along with ways in which to involve students in taking the lead in this communication.

Information and strategies can be adjusted for any age group, and rubric-style goals are included at the end of Keep Growing with specific age-appropriate examples. A comprehensive resource list is also included.

Highly Recommended.

Amy E Dickerson has been teaching since the autumn of 2013 and is presently completing a Master of Education degree at Nipissing University in North Bay, ON.

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