Here is the first (of hopefully many) installments of the Freshman Academy blog. This site is meant for parents and teachers of freshman students to learn what we are studying in Executive Functions and help build off the lessons both in their regular classes and at home.
For EF teachers:
1. I have updated the lesson plan #2 for this week to include the scenarios and grit scale (see LMSA Executive Functions page)
2. Please review the goal maps students made last week as well as the goals they make this week and let the house teams know if you see issues we should address with the student or our classes as a whole.
If you are interested, here is my thinking behind the first four lessons that I created.
Belief #1: All our students want to be successful in school.
Belief #2: Most (maybe all) our students have a sense of self deeply wrapped up in the belief that they are smart.
What I have begun to see (but not feel like I have adequately addressed in the past) is that some students are far more resilient than others when they are confronted with the new challenges of high school (or academic center). Some students redouble their efforts and seek out help while others redefine themselves as "not as smart as they thought they were" or redefine school as "stupid" and "irrelevant." Both of these latter responses lead to students who no longer feel in control of their own learning and, therefore, no longer in control of their own success. They have a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset (see resources to better understand this idea)
So...
Inspired by a talk given by Chris Lehmann, principal of Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, I realized that if we want our students to know and be able to do something, we must fit it purposefully into our curriculum (this also applies to empathy, good citizenship, communicating productively, etc). In the past we have started the EF curriculum without giving students the framework of understanding why we are doing what we are doing to help them override the parts of their brain that are not developed enough to help them achieve long-term goals.
Lesson one was meant as an introduction (but can't be the last time we say it) to what teenage cognitive development. It was meant to connect them to their long-term goals but also explain why their brains may undermine their ability to achieve those goals if they do not work to overcome their brain's limitations.
Lesson two is meant to talk about efficacy in relation to academic (and other forms of) resilience. Students begin by participating in a challenging team building exercise called "traffic jam" where they might get frustrated and quit, start yelling at their teammates, or take on leadership roles to help the team meet the goals of the game. It is meant to simulate our level of resilience when faced with a challenge. Then students take the grit scale test and score it. This will help students understand the connection between their responses to challenges on the way to achieving their goals. Finally, students will learn about the concept of internal vs external locus of control and identify both in written (hopefully relevant) scenarios that I created to help them see how they take the power to change, adapt, and respond away from themselves. Finally, students will set three goals for the week that are always related in some way to the long-terms goals they made in lesson one.
Lesson three will build off both of the prior lessons in terms of showing the benefits of delaying gratification to achieve a goal. Students will read the excerpt from Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence about the Marshmallow Test and discuss the long-term implications of being able to delay gratification in order to achieve one's goals. (see the Judy Willis webinar for more about this idea and how critical it is to student success)
Lesson four will return to the idea of resiliency. While some of you may see this as redundant, I believe that repetition to the point where students are slightly annoyed is the first sign that our message is becoming more than just words. I would love to see resiliency being discussed all over school. I can't think of a better gift to give a child than the development of academic resiliency. Our students show resilience in so many other ways that it is easy to see they can develop the same characteristic when it comes to school.
Resources:
Carol Dweck's book Mindset is a great look at the fixed vs growth mindset and how we can promote and sustain the latter.
How can resisting immediate gratification and long-term goal setting be developed in students (webinar by Judy Willis...she's amazing)
