The key to success - Perseverance?

Our first marking trimester is coming to a close and we have been busy at school. The students have really taken to our revised writing process and the products coming from classrooms at all grade levels are impressive. Most grade levels are finishing up their narrative writing pieces and will soon start more expository and information pieces.

I recently spent some time with our paraprofessionals training them and having discussions with them about how they support students in the writer's workshop model. Much of our focus was on how much effort students need to apply and how they need to understand that writing is a process and a final product evolves from multiple drafts, revisions, edits, and conferences. These conversations really focused on one key word; perseverance.

The timing of this conversation for me and our staff was perfect. There has been a great deal of recent research on the subject of student perseverance or even more simply put, grit. I recently attended a Think Tank group with other administrators at Merrimack College co-facilitated by my principal colleague Rob Ackerman from The Lane School in Bedford, MA and Dr. Joanne Gurry a Professor at Merrimack College. The focus was on developing grit and perseverance in students. The current surge in research was conducted by Paul Tough and is reflected in his new book "How Children Succeed" and by Psychologist Carol Dweck on the Growth Mindset. The basis of the research identifies grit and perseverance as the essential character trait of successful students and adults in life and that those who maintain a growth mindset as opposed to fixed mindset about learning from our mistakes are equipped to succeed.

I have recently been witnessing perseverance in our students, not only in writing but in other subject areas such as science. These are some pictures of our students in grade 1 and grade 3 exploring a science problem and continuing on with the lab until they are able to determine the conclusion. The facial expressions and looks of concentration and determination tell the story.

The National Common Core standards for Math and ELA, which Massachusetts has incorporated, frequently reference student perseverance. Most notably in the 8 Practices of Math, it states "Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them." Our staff has recently spent several hours at staff meetings and grade level data meetings examining these 8 practices of math and what they should look like in our classrooms.

The concept of having students become aware of their perseverance and think of it as an accomplishment by itself, has our staff thinking. We have always recognized effort and have praised students for their hard work, after all, effort is one of our defining characteristics in our C.A.R.E.S. acronym. But should we closely examine how we define effort and begin to think of it as perseverance? Although I don't think the acronym C.A.R.P.S. quite has the same marketing power with kids, I think our common language and discussions with students can be specific about what effort really looks and feels like. Wouldn't it be great to hear from a 2nd grader, "I really persevered with that math problem and it feels good to finally solve it."

I know I will be looking for examples of perseverance by students and adults in the coming months and I hope we can celebrate these examples together.