Each week, I listen to my kindergarten son read from a bag of books he brings home on Fridays from school. Some books are familiar--he cruises right through them. Some are relatively new to him and, of course, he stumbles on some words. Just the other day when this happened, he got extremely frustrated, and he wanted to stop. In that moment, I had to make a decision--persist with the reading in "teacher mode" or take this opportunity to look at the bigger picture. I opted for the latter--for a bit.
We talked about riding his bike, building with Legos, playing Minecraft--things he loves. I asked him to think about what is "easy" to him. He said they all are. I asked him what he wants to become good at, and he said swimming and reading, but they are "too hard." Of course, the obvious connection between his preferred activities is that he's good at them because of hours of relentless practice. We talked about how "practice makes progress" (not perfect--that's not a realistic standard) and reading and swimming would soon be easy for him too--with practice and persistence. Later that day, he tackled the challenging books again with a can-do attitude, and he was all for the idea of signing up for swim lessons. For my tentative learner, these are big leaps!
His struggle got me thinking more about the 16 Habits of Mind we are working to instill in learners throughout TCAPS. Persisting is listed first: "Persisting: Stick to it: Persevering in task through to completion; remaining focused. Looking for ways to reach your goal when stuck. Not giving up."
I did a little searching and found this article about fostering persistence in children--it's worth the read.
We talked about riding his bike, building with Legos, playing Minecraft--things he loves. I asked him to think about what is "easy" to him. He said they all are. I asked him what he wants to become good at, and he said swimming and reading, but they are "too hard." Of course, the obvious connection between his preferred activities is that he's good at them because of hours of relentless practice. We talked about how "practice makes progress" (not perfect--that's not a realistic standard) and reading and swimming would soon be easy for him too--with practice and persistence. Later that day, he tackled the challenging books again with a can-do attitude, and he was all for the idea of signing up for swim lessons. For my tentative learner, these are big leaps!
His struggle got me thinking more about the 16 Habits of Mind we are working to instill in learners throughout TCAPS. Persisting is listed first: "Persisting: Stick to it: Persevering in task through to completion; remaining focused. Looking for ways to reach your goal when stuck. Not giving up."
I did a little searching and found this article about fostering persistence in children--it's worth the read.
So, how does this all relate to the work we're doing in kindergarten? Quite closely. Without question, getting frustrated with a task and saying "I don't know how" or "I can't do this" are some of the biggest barriers or students face each day. Recently, my mini-lessons in Reading and Writing Workshop have directly focused on persisting with the task, even when it's hard. Of course, in kindergarten we make this fun! I get very theatrical as I model reading a book, getting stuck on a word, and slamming it closed, exclaiming, "That's IT! This is too HARD! I'm DONE!" Then I ask the class if that's OK. Of course they tell me no, not to give up, to try something. We even have a character for that--"Tryin' Lion," who helps us in both reading and writing when stuck reading or spelling words. And it's not just a mentality we practice through academics. Block castles get bumped and fall down, drawings don't turn out the way we wished, we lose count when counting a set of objects, our zippers get stuck on our coats, we can't get the laces just right on our gym shoes...you get the idea. I try to first get a child to calm down when they get upset or frustrated: "Take a deep breath. Walk away from this for a moment. Get a drink of water and come back to it. Work on the picture for a few minutes and then come back to writing words." Then they're usually ready to tackle the hard work, after which I try very hard to praise the effort, not the outcome! This takes practice, as it's easier to say the basic "good job" than to name what the child's done specifically and offer praise. For example, "Wow! You sure took your time stretching the sounds in those words and writing them! You got a lot of words down on your paper today! Way to stick with it!" or "Those zippers can be tricky. I noticed that you tried three times and then finally got it!" If the moment is right (at times, students are exhausted after the effort and don't want to talk anymore), I will ask the student to reflect: "How did it make you feel when you solved that on your own?" or "What could you try next time before you get so frustrated?" If you've gotten this far reading this post...thanks! And, I have a suggestion for parents--praise your child's efforts, whether the end product is right or wrong. Honoring their effort is actually more important than recognizing that they did something without error--in my humble opinion--if we are to teach them how to persist! |