Foster Growth Mindsets with Free Learning Centers!

Growth mindset… it’s one of my favorite movements to sweep across the education world in recent years. After reading Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools by Mary Cay Ricci, I decided to create a Growth MindsetPowerPoint and a set of partner plays. When I finished those items, I thought I was done creating for this concept. However, I was recently inspired to create some growth mindset stations, and make them available for free to our blog readers. (Exciting update: I converted these activities to Google Slides. You can now choose between the printable version and the digital version!)

Foster growth mindsets within your students this year with these five FREE learning centers. Teachers choose whether they want to use the printable forms or the digital versions that utilize Google Slides.



Growth Mindset Station #1: Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

Fostering a growth mindset begins with teaching students the difference between having a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. With this activity, students read each statement and determine which category it fits with most closely. 
One of five FREE growth mindset learning centers! Students will sort statements into two categories: fixed mindset and growth mindset.



Growth Mindset Station #2: How the Brain Builds Pathways

This station is based upon what researchers have discovered about how our brains operate. Researchers have discovered that when we learn a new skill or piece of information, pathways are created in our brain between neurons. These pathways are weak at first, but become stronger as we repeat and practice the skill. To show how these pathways become thicker and stronger with repeated practice, I created the following visual. Students begin by using a colored pencil or marker to color the neurons shown in each brain. Students then glue (or tape) thread on the first image, ribbon on the second image, and then yarn and rope (or chord) on the last two images to connect the neurons.
One of five FREE growth mindset learning centers! Students learn how pathways are created between brain neurons... and how practice makes these pathways stronger.

Growth Mindset Station #3: Mistakes and Failures

Dealing with mistakes and failures in the most positive way possible is the focus of this second station. Students read the scenarios on the two cards. At the bottom of each card, students are instructed to write about the event from the perspective of a person with a fixed mindset in the first speech bubble on their worksheet, and to write about the event from the perspective of a person with a growth mindset in the second speech bubble.
One of five FREE growth mindset learning centers! Students explore how to deal with mistakes and failures through a growth mindset.

Growth Mindset Station #4: Self-Talk

As we teachers know, positive self-talk is powerful. A few upper elementary students do this automatically… it’s simply how they think. Many students, however, need to train their brain regarding positive self-talk. Negative self-talk happens all too easily. Replacing that negative self-talk with positive self-talk is the focus of this station. Students simply replace the negative statements shown in the left column by writing positive statements in the right column. If there is enough time, I also allow my students to cut Xs out of construction paper and glue them on top of the negative self-talk thought bubbles.
One of five FREE growth mindset learning centers! Students explore how to replace the negative self-talk associated with fixed mindsets with the positive self-talk associated with growth mindsets.

Growth Mindset Station #5: Criticism vs. Feedback

Another thing we teachers know is that the ability of students to differentiate criticism from feedback is an ability that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. When students arrive at this station, they read the scenarios on the two cards. At the bottom of each card, students are instructed to pretend that they are talking to the classmate described in the scenario. They are to write what they would say to help that classmate view the teacher’s (or coach’s) remarks as feedback rather than criticism.
One of five FREE growth mindset learning centers! Students explore how positive feedback can be perceived as criticism, and how that attitude can be changed using a growth mindset.



If you’d like to try using these stations in your classroom, click HERE to download! Also, be sure to check out Meg's post about growth mindset

Also, feel free to check out my PowerPoint and partner plays- just click on the images below. These stations would be an excellent follow-up activity after working through the PowerPoint with your students. The stations line up with the 5 main topics covered in the PowerPoint. Both of these activities are available in printable and digital versions.

Growth Mindset PowerPoint and worksheets. This file includes directions on how to split this PowerPoint into a 5-day mini-unit... perfect for back-to-school time. Five growth mindset worksheets are also included!