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Please find below our daily SolBe Family update letter containing helpful resources and exciting projects to explore while we all do our part to stay home during this pandemic. Subscribe here to receive updates.

June 23, 2020

SolBe Families,

Making mistakes can be great! Today, we are exploring the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) benefits of fostering a growth mindset in our children. This has been a popular concept in recent years. Professor Carol Dweck is considered the “mother” of the “Growth Mindset” movement. She states “A growth mindset is when students understand that their abilities can be developed,” (Dweck, 2014). This is in contrast with a “fixed mindset,” which insists that intelligence and ability are inherent and cannot be developed or grown. 

Help your child learn how to change “I can’t do it” into “I can’t do it…YET!” 

A growth mindset is a wonderful launching pad to encourage continuous change and learning. If we are successfully able to steer children away from a stagnant or “fixed mindset,” we will be able to more easily share, learn, and implement all aspects of SEL.

Now, more than ever, openness to change, learning, and growth is absolutely essential.

How do we introduce Growth Mindset in Social-Emotional Learning?
Change or adjust your language!
Fill your vocabulary with growth mindset-related words and phrases.
  • “Make mistakes!”
  • “Embrace the challenge!”
  • “Feedback will help me grow and learn.”
  • Use “yet” statements…”I can’t do it…yet” or “I am not good at this…yet!”
  • “I am making progress!”

There is an element of self-talk that is also valuable here. Try to push that little voice in your own head to use a similar vocabulary. If we are treating ourselves kindly and approaching the adult world with a growth-mindset lens…our kiddos will imitate our words and actions and will develop a similar outlook.

Praise the Process!

This one can be tricky! It is ever so important to focus your praise on the process, not solely the outcome. Here are two examples Annie Brock uses in her book “Phrases for Growth Mindset:

“Fixed Mindset          vs          Growth Mindset            

You’re so smart           vs           I like how you used different

                                                   strategies to figure out these problems

 You’re wrong              vs           That didn’t work out for you. How 

                                                   could you approach the problem differently?”

  Books to Pair:
Helpful Resources:

 

More resources to follow in the coming days. Feedback and more ideas welcome!

Above all, be well and stay healthy!

The SolBe Team