Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right. – Henry Ford
Most of you have heard this quote before, and I am sure many of you have shared this quote with your students – I know I have. The flip side to this quote is that it also refers to how you feel about the capabilities of others. If you truly believe the people in your lives, including your students, are not capable of doing something, they won’t be able to do it. This is a limiting belief in your ability to teach and inspire and in the capabilities of your students that keep you performing at the same level as before without making progress. For example, have you ever said or heard someone say “this student has an IQ of 80 and will never be able to meet grade-level expectations,” or “this student has an IEP and therefore will not meet grade-level requirements” These restrictive statements determine the teacher and the student will fail before they even get started. If you honestly believe a student can’t do something, you will never take the actions to make sure they succeed. Let me explain how this mindset works, and what actions you can take to fix it.
First let’s tackle the fixed mindset of student abilities. When you believe one of your students is not capable of meeting grade-level expectations because they have a low IQ or learning disability you have already taken the first step toward failure. Many educators will do everything they can to make sure they meet the needs of their special education students including following modifications in the IEP and working with the resource teacher to help meet any accommodations students require, however, still maintain a belief that those students cannot perform at the same level as their peers and will unknowingly treat them as such. What if you believed wholeheartedly that this student can meet grade-level expectations and you believed you were the one who could help him or her reach that level? The answer is, you would start taking action towards meeting that goal. But, how?
The most important step is to actually believe in yourself and your students. You need to change the way you talk about your abilities. Instead of saying “I can’t get through to this child,” or “I don’t know how to teach this child to succeed at this grade-level,” you need to ask yourself “what can I learn about this student’s abilities,” or “how can I introduce the curriculum to this student at his or her level?” You also need to change the words you use when you talk about the abilities of your students. Instead of saying “this student can’t do this grade-level assignment,” say “this student can do this part of the assignment,” and then hold him or her to that expectation. To start this process, you need to start by asking yourself the right questions. Some of the questions I ask myself are “what can this student do,” “what skills does this student already have,” and “what level is this student currently performing at?” Once I find the answers to these questions, I am ready to create lessons or materials that will help me meet the needs of my students. The following is an example of how I have used this information to modify curriculum I am currently teaching to make sure all my students are performing at grade level expectations.
I am currently teaching sixth-grade science and social studies, and I have students who are reading at a first-grade level according to their Lexile score. However, I believe they are capable of learning sixth-grade concepts, so I take the main ideas from each chapter and rewrite them in a lower reading level. I read the new excerpt from the book to my students, then I make them read it to me. I follow this with the student giving a verbal summary of what they read, and finally, they need to write a journal entry. The rest of the class is expected to read the same chapter (at grade level) and then write a journal entry. My students reading at a lower level are expected to do the same assignment as their grade level peers and are exposed to the same information. The only difference is they are exposed to it in a way that ensures comprehension.
The transformation of truly believing in yourself and your students won’t necessarily come right away. There are so many factors in the world of education that affect you and your students daily. Some days will be messy and some lessons and activities won’t work out the way you hoped they would. That is life. Just take the lessons learned from those experiences and keep moving forward and you will see growth in yourself and your students. Start with yourself, walk into your classroom tomorrow and remind yourself that you are the difference your students need to achieve success. Believe in yourself, believe in your students, and success will follow.
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