Ch6 & 7 Grit and Culture
Final Chapters of the book
Resilience
Integrity
Tenacity
Grit
Grit is defined by Hoerr as tenacity, perseverance, hanging in, not ever giving up. Angela Duckworth calls grit a "combination of passion and perseverance for very long-term goals."
Successful people see failures as obstacles not walls. How can we help our students maneuver obstacles and take down walls? How can we help them see that others success is not effortless, but the result of hours and hours of effort and response to setbacks?
Failure is a bruise. NOT a tattoo!
Teaching attitudes about what it takes to succeed in life and school is what it takes to succeed. Any potential students have is just that, potential, unless we teach them how to work digilently to persevere through frustrations and improve from failures.
I want to know more about his parent night that the author held. He had a Parent Education Evening on grit (with higher attendance than around academic content).
Hoerr talks about "good grit" and "smart grit". Good grit is using grit for the right purposes. Smart grit means we recognize when stopping is wise because the gain is not worth the cost. Boy, that's a tough one. Constant reflection. I wonder if that's why so many don't succeed or get swallowed up by the job or the task and lose relationships - they don't see the cost to their gain? How does one weigh that without a crystal ball?
I am concerned that some of our students just accept failure and avoid frustrations because it's a norm for them and they don't see success as a realistic possibility. How can we provide MEANINGFUL successes (not just a token trophy) to give them a taste and hope?
Angela Duckworth - 4 psychological assets of grit
1. Interest
2. Capacity to engage in deliberate practice (what deliberate is and what it is not)
3. A sense of purpose (how what they do is meaningful)
4. Hope
Hoerr's steps for developing grit
1. Establishing the environment - physical and psychological
2. Setting expectations
3. Teaching the vocabulary related to grit
4. Creating frustration (intentionally)
5. Monitoring the Experience - time to teach grit is when student wants to quit
6. Reflecting and Learning - after the experience, reflect on how they felt and what they did
There is a great frustration chart to help with reflection and compare reflections across time and experiences from Fostering Grit:
Frustration Level - The Work is.... - How I'm Feeling
1 - Easy - No problem!
2 - OK - I'm in good shape
3 - Hard - I'll figure it out.
4 - Very difficult - Not sure I can succeed
5 - Too hard! - I want to quit.
Strategies for developing grit
He lists so many, but a few stood out for me:
- introduce term "good failure"
- working from protests, ask students to set goals
- show examples (like Nike's failure commercial with Michael Jordan - among others)
- provide specific opportunities for students to learn something new and hard (but fun!) so they can consciously work on grit (like juggling - ha!)
- discuss whether the characters in books or articles are exhibiting grit
What situations do I put myself in to work on my own grittiness?
Giraffes Can't Dance
Hatchet
Thank you, Mr. Falker
Ch 7 Culture is the Key
"Culture is the common core that creates belonging, influences our behaviors, and shapes who we become." From Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch.
6 Components of Culture
1. Mission - what the organization will do
2. Values - guidelines for behaviors
3. Practices - how the mission will be achieved
4. People - getting, keeping, and developing the right individuals
5. Narrative - stories that convey culture
6. Place - functionality and appearance
There is a great chart on pg 137 that has guiding questions in each area to think and plan for the components
P144. Graph of student engagement: (picture a four square grid with engaged students being challenged and love it while bored are unchallenged and hate it. Interesting that entertained isn't engaged.
Grind Engaged challenged
Bored Entertained unchallenged
Hate it Love it. (Looks like a grid in book)
"Culture is the key to our effectiveness and growth. Educators must work collaboratively and tenaciously to create a school culture that prepares students for a future in which the only constant will be change" p155