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Edutopia
Using Retakes to Nurture Growth Mindset
Offering students the chance to redo assessments and assignments can
improve their self-perception—and the quality of their work.
By Kimberly Hellerich
October 5, 2020
Students with a growth mindset embrace challenges by stretching
themselves. With a growth mindset, students see mistakes as learning
opportunities, and they learn from feedback. Instead of feeling like
they’ve failed the task, students realize that they haven’t met the
expectations... yet.
This past year, I showed students Carol Dweck’s TED Talk “The Power of
Yet.” When discussing the video, students shared reactions relating to
reworking assignments in my class. The idea of “yet” resonated with
them.
When applied in a classroom, a growth mindset approach helps students
progress. It allows all students, no matter where they are located on
the continuum of mastery, to improve. Also, as Zaretta Hammond points
out, growth mindset fits within culturally responsive teaching, since
“students must believe they can succeed at learning tasks and have the
motivation to persevere through challenging work.”
A growth mindset fosters student motivation, since people grow when
they persist with challenging work. A teacher who embraces what Hammond
calls a “warm demander” approach—characterized by a strong rapport with
students, high standards, and support of productive struggle—helps
students realize that effort is worth the work.
RETAKES AND GROWTH MINDSET
For the past two years, I’ve offered multiple opportunities for my
ninth-grade students to develop a growth mindset through retakes and
the option to reworking assignments. After returning any assignment, I
give students the chance to rework errors and earn additional credit
within a two-week window.
For vocabulary assessments, students can correct their errors by
rewriting on a separate paper, with the potential to earn up to half of
the points they lost. If some errors still exist in their corrections,
I offer another opportunity to make the corrections and resubmit. It’s
important to me that students understand that their learning is most
important, and placing an emphasis on continuous reworking helps model
growth mindset.
I also provide opportunities for students to submit specific
assignments for feedback, so that they can revise prior to the due
date. For instance, when we transitioned to distance learning in March
2020, I encouraged students to submit any portion of their summative
assessments early for feedback. I believe an approach that offers
continuous opportunities to rework is just as possible in distance
learning as when teaching students in the physical classroom.
STRATEGIES FOR PLANNING FOR FALL 2020
Whether engaged in traditional classroom or remote teaching, I intend
to focus on developing a growth mindset in my classroom this year in a
variety of ways.
Survey: My beginning-of-the-year survey includes several questions
regarding growth mindset, such as: How likely are you to take advantage
of an opportunity to rework or submit work early for feedback? What
would make you more likely to take advantage of the opportunity to
rework or resubmit work? How would you describe your approach to taking
on challenges and receiving feedback?
Opening up this dialogue gives me an accurate read on where students
are at the beginning of the year. This won’t be the only time I have
this conversation, though; holding both community circle conversations
and individual conferences throughout the year will help my students
and me examine ways that a growth mindset can continue to support
learning.
TED Talk: I will show Carol Dweck’s TED Talk to engage students in a
class discussion about her notion of the relationship between mindset
and self-perception. I will use this to reinforce students’ own use of
growth mindset language so that they internalize the concept of “yet.”
Self-reflection: I will reflect on my own language and attempt to
incorporate more teacher-initiated growth mindset language, so that
students understand how challenges support continuous growth. I will
share my own experiences as an adolescent, a doctoral student, and a
teacher, highlighting points at which I benefited from having a growth
mindset—or how I could have benefited from having a growth mindset.
Continued growth mindset orientation: I plan to continue to offer
students retakes and the opportunity to submit assignments early for
feedback. I will continue to gather feedback via surveys to gauge
perceptions of the effectiveness of this.
Embracing a warm demander approach: I will strive to be the warm
demander that Hammond describes—so all students realize that putting in
the effort is worth the work.
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