Determination
January's Character Trait of the Month
Learning and Life Competency Skill Sets
- I know myself.
- I am aware of skills, behaviors, and attitudes that help me.
Self Management:
- I identify, express, and manage emotions.
- I exhibit self-regulation.
- I demonstrate perseverance and resilience.
Social Efficacy:
- I communicate and problem solve effectively.
- I demonstrate empathy and respect.
- I foster healthy relationships.
- I am assertive and I self-advocate.
- I cooperate and participate.
- I demonstrate civic responsibility.
Academic Efficacy:
- I invest in quality work.
- I organize to learn and study.
- I set goals and self-assess.
Conversation Starters About Determination:
- How do you think making mistakes helps you achieve your goals?
- What are some of the ways you can use your “Inner Coach” from Zones of Regulation to help you be determined?
- What is a goal that you have been determined to reach? Did you reach it? If so, what helped you along the way?
- Who is someone you think is successful? What might that person have been determined to achieve to become successful?
Determination, grit, and perseverance make for the ability to push through challenges.
The key to being determined is motivation, positivity, and the courage to see things through to completion no matter the setbacks. Fostering an attitude of not giving up and being resilient helps students develop independence.
Considerations for Read Alouds:
- Character Trait read alouds are a great way to connect students with other staff members in the school and can be incorporated into specials.
- If you would prefer to use a video version of the story through the links below, all YouTube videos can have the closed captions turned on and put into English, Portuguese, or Spanish.
Determination Themed Book Possibilities:
Determination Read Aloud Book Info and Links
- Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13: Helaine Becker
- The Dot: Peter H. Reynolds (Spanish) (Portuguese)
In this story by Massachusetts author Peter Reynolds, an art teacher encourages Vashti to make a mark, a dot, prompting Vashti to create a wide range of dot paintings. She works through her fear and finds her determination to display her work at the school art show and inspires a young boy to make his own unique mark. This book shows how a growth mindset contributes to the determination to accomplish a goal.
- The Very Busy Spider: Eric Karl (Spanish) (Portuguese)
In this story A spider, blown by the wind to a fence post near a farm yard, begins to build her web and cannot be distracted from the task at hand--not by the horse, cow, sheep, goat, or dog. But when the rooster asks if she wants to catch a pesky fly, the busy spider is able to catch it in her web immediately!
- Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah: Laurie Ann Thompson
In this true story people dismissed Emmanuel because of his deformed leg, but his mother’s belief gave him the courage and determination to be himself. As he got older he became a cyclist, eventually cycling 400 miles across Ghana to promote the message that disability is not inability.
- The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: Julia Finley Mosca
This true story shows the determination of Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin is an accomplished scientist, author, and speaker on autism and animal behavior. The biographical story written with rhythm and rhyme concludes with a lesson and a letter from Temple herself.
- Wilma Unlimited: Kathleen Krull (Spanish)
This true story of Wilma Rudolph tells a lifetime of determination. It is a biography of a woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.
- The Curious Garden: Peter Brown
- Gobi: A Little Dog with a Big Heart: Dion Leonard
This true story tells about Dion running a 177-mile race in the Gobi Desert. Dion discovers a little dog running with him. Through trials and tribulations, they finish the race together. Dion names the dog Gobi and takes him home to Scotland.
Finding Gobi - Video on the true story of Gobi
- Jabari Jumps: by Gaia Cornwall
In this story Jabari is determined to jump off the diving board but his confidence wanes as he nears the ladder. His patient father reassures Jabari that it is okay to be scared. With new determination he climbs the ladder and jumps.
Questions for Picture Books About Determination:
- Why was it difficult for [character] to be determined? What were the obstacles?
- What characteristics did [character] have that made them able to show determination?
- Why was it important that [character] show determination?
- Do you think [character] could accomplish their task by themselves?
- How can positive relationships with others help us preserve in difficult situations/tasks?
- What does it mean to show determination or to be committed?
- How does having determination make a difference to your work or achieving your goals?
- When you try something new how does being determined help?