Growth Mindset and Motivation TIPR

Describe how your cooperating teacher teacher develops and promotes true growth mindset in his/her instruction, assessment, and/or procedures. Describe how the teacher and/or school motivate students. Give specific examples of both extrinsic motivators and how they are developing and promoting intrinsic motivation. Include information from specific motivational theories (e.g., Maslow's Hierarchy, Self-determination Theory) and cite specific examples.

My cooperating teacher promotes growth mindset by centering instruction around succinct but specific writing techniques that we overtly tell students can be added to their "toolboxes" to become better writers. He activates intrinsic motivation by giving open-ended prompts that allows students to practice writing on something they are personally interested in. In terms of cognitive arousal, this can sometimes overstimulate them (topics such as a disastrous date or preferred superpower often turn into discussions with friends rather than producing writing). He uses the assignments themselves and the points they're worth as the extrinsic motivators. While failure to do the assignment doesn't seem to have an outward negative effect on their willingness to learn, there also doesn't seem to be much that is challenging them. There aren't any goals outside of getting the assignment completed and passing the class. In terms of Goal Theory, if there are any challenging goals they seem to be just passing the class, which is easily done with plenty of time to still mess around on their phones. Very few students seem to have low self-esteem/self-efficacy. For the most part they believe in their ability to complete the assignment, they are simply determined that it isn't relevant or worth learning about (beyond the bare minimum needed to turn the assignment in).

How does the teacher design lessons in a way that challenges students to engage?

Lessons typically follow the structure of a brief 2-minute lecture detailing the concept to be learned that day, followed by going over examples as a class before turning the reigns over to students to create a piece of writing in line with the concept. The examples given are often entertaining and welcome students to give multiple answers. For instance, in teaching participle phrases pictures of animals and sports activities were projected and students shouted out dozens of adjectives describing them. They then have to take that same process of analyzing an action/image and apply it to their own writing. 

What does the teacher do during class to further challenge students to engage?

Though the examples we go over as a class usually show no big challenges, applying the concept to individual writing is often a big barrier for students, and they easily get distracted away from finishing the assignment. The teacher and I take this time to walk around to groups who seem lost or distracted and give them the framework for the concept again. For instance, he'd ask "what's your topic?" The student would say "my last lacrosse match" and we'd ask them to describe what it was like. As the student told him about it, he'd point out details that they sounded particularly invested in or that stuck out to him. He'd then suggest that as a great starting point, and the student would get to writing it down quickly before they forgot it.

What does the teacher do to build mutual respect and rapport with the students?

The previously mentioned example is a great way the teacher builds a rapport with students. Chatting with friends and phones are a constant deterrent to the lessons, but the teacher is good about picking his battles. Sometimes I think he's too lax about it and students take advantage of his generosity and walk all over him. But he's very good at coming by a group that's on Reddit and trying to curb whatever they're watching into the assignment ("you could write about that" is a constant suggestion). He's not seen as dictatorial and students have an understanding that he wants them to learn the concepts so they can succeed in school.

Student Needs

What are these students' mindset and motivation needs? What more could or should be done?

I've heard more than one student yell out "what are we learning about in here that's so important?" Relevancy and real-world application are lacking in the class because the goal is always just to complete the assignment and get your points. Students grasp individual concepts but don't retain them, necessitating long units that review a few points repeatedly (though I don't mean that to suggest this is out of the norm for any age-group of learners). The Expectancy vs Value is fairly low, since students don't discern there is much value in what they'll learn and there's thus no need to remember it behind the paper or worksheet they're doing this week. I think calling attention to real-world applications could help with this, any way to contextualize the concepts outside of what happens in the shielded classroom. Sometimes the "examples" section of the lesson hints at this, but I think it could be more overt.

Plans for your Lesson

How will you address these needs when you teach your mini-lesson to this class?

I want to be able to present the value of the concept I teach on and weave real-world applicability into the formative assessment. Though I'm not sure which concept I'll be teaching yet, I want to make my lesson slightly more interactive. Perhaps I'll put individual groups in charge of a certain element of the concept, putting them in a position to become experts on their microtopic so they can adequately present on it.