Some students have never seen themselves as successful. They show they persevere in their everyday lives, but when it comes to academics, they give up quickly. This session will explore ways to cultivate academic grit including strategies and fun classroom activities that capitalize on students’ life experiences.

Grit can be difficult to teach, and it can be argued that it cannot be taught. However, the goal is not to teach grit, it is to help students apply the grit they already have to their work in class and to individual assignments.

This session presents two things: specific activities that can be used in the classroom, and best practices, all of which can be implemented the next day. The best practices include establishing high expectations, creating positive environments, generating opportunities for student choice, effectively providing feedback, and creating an awareness of grit.

Participants will:

• Learn strategies to use in the classroom to instill grit, perseverance, and resilience toward reaching short and long-term goals
• Engage in and learn how to develop classroom activities that help develop a positive academic mindset
• Be made aware of and learn how to avoid the pitfalls of “teaching grit”.

This session will begin with an explanation of Carol Dweck’s and Angela Duckworth’s work on mindset and grit, respectively. It will redefine grit and look at strategies successfully employed by both academia and industry to help empower students. These include strategies set forth by teachers and researchers including Jo Boaler, Bob Sullo, Paul Tough, and Tony Wagner.