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Puxi Campus Grades 4&5: The Power of Yet

September 18, 2020

Education is not only about imparting knowledge but also developing students’ good qualities. In the fast-changing society, we expect students to gain new knowledge and skills and, more importantly, to cultivate positive learning attitudes and realize their inner potential. This raises a new task for all the fourth and fifth grade teachers at SHSID, which is how to encourage students to develop growth mindsets by embracing challenges, conquering obstacles, and celebrating mistakes as learning opportunities.

GROW and GRADUATE are the fourth and fifth grade core value acronyms, respectively. The ‘G’ in both acronyms represents “Growth Mindset”, which is the first and foremost core value in fourth and fifth grade. In the Personal Growth class, the students discussed the importance of growth mindset and how to train our brains to think more positively.

In fact, each one of us has already been furthering our personal limits since birth. When we were babbling new words and toddling our first steps, we were moving outside of our comfort zones. Teachers used these simple examples to reveal the deeper lesson that it is only when we welcome and face new challenges that we can become stronger. Our brains are this way as well in that they also need to be challenged and trained.

The students played a simple game that revealed the fact that doing more difficult things makes our brains more excited and so they’re more fun! What the kids needed to do was to find the triangle in two pictures. Compared to the first picture, which was very straightforward, the second picture required much more time to find the shape. However, when the students finally found the hidden triangle, the class erupted with excitement and joy.

Later, the class held a brainstorming activity. Students needed to find the mistakes as well as suggest solutions to those mistakes in the math problems, logic puzzles, English words, and pictures. This activity helped the kids enjoy challenges and understand that making mistakes is not a bad thing. Finding mistakes and learning from them makes us stronger!

Teachers used different ways to help the kids recognize the differences between growth mindset and fixed mindset. By watching the ClassDojo cartoon, students learned how to keep a positive mindset when facing obstacles; by completing a survey, students analyzed and evaluated their levels of growth mindset; by using the word “yet” in the sentences, students learned how to transform fixed mindsets into growth mindsets.

At the end of the PG class, students applied growth mindset into actions. Fourth graders wrote down goals that they can’t complete yet but want to accomplish. They also thought of the steps they could take to achieve these goals and shared these steps with their classmates. Fifth graders wrote down the things they can do well as well as the lessons they’ve learned from their mistakes and failures. Their learning experiences also involved creating lovely decorations for the hallway.

The students show their growth mindset in every aspect of their daily school lives. Let’s see what they shared.

“Growth Mindset”, as the first lesson of the core value acronyms, establishes a positive attitude at the beginning of the semester and teaches students to welcome obstacles and problems in the future.

（Written by Wu Yin Pictures by G4&5 Teachers）