Habits and Mindsets Observation and Analysis in My Classroom

In my classroom, Habits and Mindsets have been explicitly taught, demonstrated, and

referred back to during lessons and throughout the day since the beginning of the year. I wanted

to have a broad vision in the beginning of the year to expose my students to different types of

Habits and Mindsets, so I chose 7 out of the 16 to teach and display in my classroom. I have

created posters that are displayed above the board in front of the room so that I can frequently

refer back to them and so that the students can also begin to practice and make them their own.

In this observation and assessment opportunity, I was able to have a deeper understanding of

my students’ understanding and ownership of some of these Habits and Mindsets.

Some of the Habits and Mindsets that we have been practicing in my classroom are:

persisting, managing impulsivity, taking responsible risks, finding humor, and remaining open to

continuous learning. In the beginning of the week, I gave my students the pre-assessment from

“Habits of Mind: A Curriculum for community high school of Vermont students” (2005) by

Johnson, Rutledge, and Poppe for the Habits and Mindsets listed above. From this assessment,

I learned that 100% of my students answered “Most of the Time” to the statement “Learning in

important to me”, which is one of the questions asked for remaining open to continuous

learning. This was great to know and I see my students taking their learning seriously on a daily

basis, so it was a good confirmation on my students’ attitude towards their education. However,

majority of my students did not have confidence when it came to persisting and managing

impulsivity. More than 80% of my students answered “Not Yet” for the following statements for

persisting and managing impulsivity: “If something isn’t working I don’t just give up, I think about

different ways of solving problems”, “I develop a plan before I start work and I see the

importance of this”, and “I spend time thinking about ways to improve my learning plans”. This
was an interesting result because the observations that followed this assessment showed clear

evidence of what my students are developing independence in and what they need to continue

to work on.

The week long observation that followed the pre-assessment was done during lessons,

independent work time, RTI, recess, and daily routines such as morning work and dismissal

time. Most of my evidence were found during lessons and independent work time. One thing

that I noticed from the beginning was how engaged the most of the class was during lessons

and independent work time. Students participated in all activities from choral reading to

accountable talks throughout the lesson and completed all work. As I learned from the

pre-assessment, this showed my students and I do take their learning seriously, and think that

learning is important for them. I can say that my students are developing independence in

remaining open to continuous learning, or growth mindset.

On the other hand, when faced with a difficult word problem in math on multiplication or

a reading comprehension question on theme, students tend to give up relatively quickly. They

result to coming to me to say, “I don’t get it” and wait for the answer to be given to them. When

asked to try it again or to problem solve, many of them tend to sit there for another 5-10 minutes

without trying other methods, and end up turning in their paper blank. I have noticed that this is

a concerning habit that I am seeing in my students, especially with the state-wide testing just

around the corner. Another big takeaway from this observation was that my students jump into

their final draft or work without a plan of action. Because of this, most students forget about

major pieces of the assignment that were on the rubric. For example, for the informative writing

summative assessment, students did not take their time to take notes and create a treemap

before writing their draft, so they ended up missing key components in their writing such as topic

sentences for each paragraph and text evidence to support their main idea from the sources.
These close observation takeaways made me realize that my class must focus on these two

Habits and Mindsets: Persisting and managing impulsivity.

By the end of the school year, my goal is for students to independently show persistence

through their work and manage impulsivity through careful and effective planning. The result of

attaining these goals will have big gains for my students as they prepare for the state-wide

testing and for 4th grade. As the year progresses, the content of their learning gets more and

more complex, so students need to be able to persist when faced with difficult problems. As

mentioned in “Describing 16 Habits of Mind” (2000) by Costa, “Efficacious people stick to a task

until it is completed. They don't give up easily. They are able to analyze a problem, to develop a

system, structure, or strategy to attack a problem” (page 2). This also ties into managing

impulsivity because students must be able to come up with a plan and implement their plan

independently to complete complex tasks; “they intentionally form a vision of a product, plan of

action, goal or a destination before they begin” (Costa, 2000). I believe that students with these

two Habits and Mindset can be successful in any content area or life challenges that they may

face because persistence and effective planning are life long skills that can help them through

difficulties. My hope is that as they practice persisting and managing impulsivity in the

classroom, students will begin to utilize these Habits and Mindsets outside of school as well.
References

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2000). Describing 16 Habits of Mind. Retrieved from
http://www.habitsofmind.org/sites/default/files/16HOM2.pdf

Johnson, B., Rutledge, M., Poppe, M., & Vermont Consultants for Language and Learning.
(2005). Appendix C: Pre- and post-assessments of Habits of Mind. ​In Habits of Mind: A
curriculum for community high school of Vermont students​ (pp. 101–104). Retrieved from
http://www.chsvt.org/wdp/Habits_of_Mind_Curriculum_VT_WDP.pdf