Growth Mindset Goals: Keeping My “Selfie” on the Right Path

Are you looking for fresh ways that your students can monitor their progress towards growth mindset goals?  This growth mindset activity for kids infuses some technology, a bit of pop culture, and a dash of fun.

If you’re like many other teachers, you’ve incorporated growth mindset concepts in daily lessons and activities.  Your hope is that the concepts marinate long enough for your students to absorb them.  As you continue to delve deeper into growth mindset concepts, it is important for yours students to take time to reflect on their own growth.  Not sure how to go about that?  Never fear…. Growth Mindset “Selfie” Goals are here!  This quick and easy activity is a great way for students to reflect on their own path towards achieving a growth mindset.

When you begin talking to your students about growth mindset goals, you might want to review some of the basic tenets of growth mindset.  For this reason, I’ve included a concept sheet to aid in their reflection and to stir their thinking about the goals they’d like to achieve.

Essentially, your students will either draw a selfie or take one with a camera and then choose areas of strength and areas of improvement.  The questions on the printable are designed to help students reflect on their growth.  I’ve included one goal page with sentence frames and another page that allows students to create their own sentence frames.

Here is a list of sample sentence frames that your students could use:

• I am good at…
• I have been working on…
• When I get frustrated, I….
• The growth mindset concept I’ve improved on is…
• In the last month, I’ve gotten better at….
• The growth mindset concept I’m still working on is….
• The growth mindset concept that I struggle with the most is….
• I am helping myself improve with that concept by….
• In a month from now, I want to be able to….
• When I make mistakes, I feel….
• The best part about making mistakes is…

You might want to include this reflection exercise in your lesson plans once a month (or once a quarter).  In order for this activity to be effective, it is important for students to revisit their goals periodically during the year.

How Should Students Talk About Growth Mindset Goals?

Students should be writing and/or verbalizing specific shifts in their thoughts, actions, and feelings.  “I’m trying harder” isn’t good enough.  “I’m spending 30 extra minutes studying spelling during the week” is a much more specific and observable way to describe progress.  Keep in mind that part of growth mindset is about shifting the mindset itself.  Sometimes students will describe a shift in feeling or thinking (we can’t assume it is always behavioral).  Unfortunately, those descriptions don’t always lend themselves to being measurable unless the student uses some sort of scale.  For example, “my level of frustration during math went from a 9 to a 6 in the last month because I’ve chosen not to give up when it gets really difficult for me.”  When it’s possible, ask students to use observable and measurable goals.  If that’s not possible, students should describe specific shifts in thinking and feeling which indicate progress towards the goal.

Need More Information?

If you need more information about growth mindset before you use this activity, check out 10 Things You Need to Know About Growth Mindset.  You can also find popular and effective growth mindset activities for your students here.

Go ahead and snatch up your copy of this activity

You might be interested in these posts:

Growth Mindset Picture Books

Using Affirmations to Shift Student Mindset

The Top Four Ways to Foster Grit in the Classroom