Creating a Growth Mindset Through Personal Portfolios
Help me give my students the ability to have a growth mindset in Individuals and Societies by creating portfolio binders of their work throughout the school year.
Remember what it was like to enter middle school? Instead of 1 teacher and 20 students you were confronted with 10 new teachers, new expectations, bells every 45 minutes and kids you'd never seen before entering each one of your classes. It's an intimidating memory for most and as a 6th-grade teacher I do my best to transition students to their new educational reality. The goal is to meet new people, collaborate to solve real-world problems, and become self-motivated learners.
My students come from a variety of public, private and magnet elementary schools in an urban setting outside of Hartford, Connecticut.
They've made the decision to attend the International Baccalaureate middle school, which allows them a smaller setting, unique perspective on learning, and rigorous academics. My students push themselves each day to meet the expectations they've made for themselves.
My students represent cultures from across the globe. In individuals and societies (social studies) we travel around the world and through time to discover history. Students come from every continent with varied backgrounds, experiences, and traditions. It's exciting to be part of a classroom culture where we can truly learn from one another. It's a privilege to be their teacher.
My Project
All students want to see themselves grow as learners. In my 6th-grade Individuals and Societies class students are engaged in a variety of learning activities as they travel around the world and through history. Students save their work during each unit and after the conclusion of each of our four units of study, students look back at all they have achieved. Before embarking on the next unit, students choose work they are proud of to save in a folder stored in the room. In the folder students also save summative assessments and other benchmark examples.
Individual portfolio binders will elevate the importance of their student work and progress towards academic goals during the school year.
By creating a formal portfolio student investment in progress towards achieving academically according to IB (International Baccalaureate) standards will increase.
Having a growth mindset is an important component of the learning process that I incorporate in the classroom every day. Its never a question of "if" students can complete a task or accomplish a goal, its a matter of "when" and "how" they will. Student portfolios prove to students that their hard work, focus, and dedication equal academic and overall growth. With sections for Summative Assessments, Benchmark Assessments, and Unit Work I'm Proud Of, students will see their progress during the school year. My hope is that in seeing their progress clearly, they will be empowered to do even more to become invested in their education and future goals.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Buccheri and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
