Persisting
Teaching Persistence
Costa and Kallick of "Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum" define persisting as being comfortable with ambiguous situations and the ability to analyze a situation and use system and structures in place to apply multiple strategies. My students are learning to do just that in their writing and reading. My students have been exposed to the term "persistence" initially through our school-wide creed we recite daily. Below is the creed my students learned on their first day of school. This creed gave them initial exposure to the term "persistence." This creed is important for students to internalize because it's explaining how to show our core values at home and in their community. Students are able to understand what they are learning at school can be applied to all settings to help them and others.
Costa and Kallick of "Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum" define persisting as being comfortable with ambiguous situations and the ability to analyze a situation and use system and structures in place to apply multiple strategies. My students are learning to do just that in their writing and reading. My students have been exposed to the term "persistence" initially through our school-wide creed we recite daily. Below is the creed my students learned on their first day of school. This creed gave them initial exposure to the term "persistence." This creed is important for students to internalize because it's explaining how to show our core values at home and in their community. Students are able to understand what they are learning at school can be applied to all settings to help them and others.
After the creed was introduced, I began to build relationships with my students and saw their reactions when faced with challenging work or new situations. I knew persistence was a habit and mindset I needed to explicitly teach. To teach the term and build a common language, I introduced "persistence" in a morning community meeting. I use a curriculum called Kimochis to guide community meetings. Kimochi means "feelings" in Japanese. This is a social-emotional curriculum for students to express feelings, work through conflicts, and build foundations for social and emotional conflicts. These lessons are not only applicable in school settings but provide students with skills to use outside of school and aid to their personal growth. Kimochi uses stuffed animal like characters to "role play" scenarios to explain how to act when facing a challenge or new situation. Each character has its own traits and strengths. The characters used in the persistence lesson include Huggtopus who shows responsibility and taking initiative to try new things when something seems challenging or is not working. The lesson focuses on the feeling of being frustrated and explaining to not give up and try another strategy. Kimochi lessons take place on the carpet where I sit with students to deliver the lessons and students get to interact with the Kimochi characters. This lesson explains to not give up when frustrated and showing students there are always new strategies to use when something is not working. I know this Kimochi lesson was effective because I hear students tell other students to show persistence when something is hard, or to not give up. I also connect showing persistence with positive incentives, for example when I see a student showing persistence they can "clip up" and I specifically state what they did that showed persistence.
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This is the Kimochi lesson that teaches the term persistence and goes through scenarios where someone may give up, but instead persevere. This lesson is effective because it also connects feelings associated with habits and mindsets that are important for students to be able to identify and express.
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Students enjoy engaging in Kimochi lessons and love the visuals and characters the lesson include. Below is a picture of me delivering this lesson and an anchor chart giving examples of positive self talk.
Demonstrating Persistence in Reading
Being able to show persistence includes the ability to choose from multiple strategies to solve a problem or work through an ambiguous situation. Students need to know the strategies to pick from and the most appropriate strategy for the situation. As my students are learning to read, I have seen them face challenging situations where they often want to give up or wait for me to read to them. Instead of feeling defeated I have explicitly taught reading strategies for students to use when faced with an unknown word. Students choose which reading strategy to use to show persistence in their reading, instead of giving up or waiting for the answer.
Being able to show persistence includes the ability to choose from multiple strategies to solve a problem or work through an ambiguous situation. Students need to know the strategies to pick from and the most appropriate strategy for the situation. As my students are learning to read, I have seen them face challenging situations where they often want to give up or wait for me to read to them. Instead of feeling defeated I have explicitly taught reading strategies for students to use when faced with an unknown word. Students choose which reading strategy to use to show persistence in their reading, instead of giving up or waiting for the answer.
To the left are the reading strategies I have explicitly taught during phonics and guided reading. The first is sound by sound, if a student does not know a word they first try to sound it out. Next, flip the vowel is for vowel patterns or a magic e. If sound by sound does not make sense students look for vowels and use their patterns they know to read the word. Another strategy to read through a word is chunky monkey, students look for digraphs and blends to chunk together to read a word fluently. Last, students look for smaller words within a word and put them together to read the entire word. These were taught during phonics lessons and reinforced during guided read.
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At this point in guided reading students are reading independently and I am listening for them to use the appropriate word solving strategies and for fluency. If I hear a student mispronounce a word, I pause them and have them go back to choose which word solving strategy to use. I have flashcards with each strategy for students to choose from. Since this has become a routine, I keep the cards out and students choose which strategy they think they should use for reading. Students are showing persistence by not reading over or skipping a word, but choosing the proper strategy to use because they want to know that word and read with fluency. Students do not only talk about showing persistence but model persistence in their own ventures to support their personal growth. Students want to be fervent readers and feel successful in meeting their goals, which require students to demonstrate persistence.
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Student Reflections
Through lesson plans, reading strategies, and follow up, students have learned and practice how to show persistence and why it is important. Students enjoy the results from when they do show persistence, such as reading challenging books and sounding out the words to get to their next reading level, or completing all their homework without crying because now they know how to do their homework. Below are writing samples of students who have showed persistence, what they did, and how it helped them or others.
Through lesson plans, reading strategies, and follow up, students have learned and practice how to show persistence and why it is important. Students enjoy the results from when they do show persistence, such as reading challenging books and sounding out the words to get to their next reading level, or completing all their homework without crying because now they know how to do their homework. Below are writing samples of students who have showed persistence, what they did, and how it helped them or others.
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Conclusion
Through explicit lessons, practice, and application students have grown into persistent scholars. They are receptive to to feedback and know when something is challenging they work through it instead of giving up. Students are able to connect their feelings to being persistence and have internalized when they do persevere they feel proud and know they can meet their goals or accomplish anything they set their minds to.
Through explicit lessons, practice, and application students have grown into persistent scholars. They are receptive to to feedback and know when something is challenging they work through it instead of giving up. Students are able to connect their feelings to being persistence and have internalized when they do persevere they feel proud and know they can meet their goals or accomplish anything they set their minds to.