Rephrasing for a growth mindset

Students learn to rephrase negative statements into positive thoughts to encourage a growth mindset.

Year Level

7-10

Duration

5 minutes

Type

  • In class activity
  • Online learning

SEL Competencies

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social awareness

Learning Intention

To highlight to students that the language we use can encourage a growth mindset.

Key Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • utilise positive language to encourage a growth mindset
  • recognise the importance of language in developing a growth mindset.
Activity 01

Instructions 5 min

  1. Explain to students the power of language in encouraging a growth mindset and achieving goals.
  2. The teacher makes two columns on the whiteboard:
    Column 1: ‘Things I may say to myself…’
    Column 2: ‘Things I will say to myself…’
    The following are some suggestions for statements that you can write in column 1:
    • ‘I can’t do it.’
    • ‘This is too hard.’
    • ‘I’m just going to fail. Why bother?’
    • ‘I’m not smart/fast/strong enough.’
    • ‘I give up.’
    • ‘That’s good enough.’
  3. Ask students to offer alternative statements that are more encouraging and facilitate motivation to learn skills and achieve goals.

Debrief

Students feed back their suggestions to the class.