Sanguras - Grit in the classroom: building perseverance for excellence in todays students

Grit in the

Classroom

Grit in the

Classroom

Laila Y. Sanguras

Library of Congress catalog information currently on file with the publisher.

Copyright 2017, Prufrock Press Inc.

Edited by Katy McDowall

Cover and layout design by Raquel Trevino

ISBN-13: 978-1-61821-633-5

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To begin, I need to thank every former student for being my inspiration and for teaching me how little I know. From that first day of school in Hood River, OR, to my last in Coppell, TX, I tried my very best with every one of you. I appreciate every time you challenged me to be better than I am. You, my wacky middle schoolers, fascinate me.

I also want to thank my children who have taught me so much about the importance of grit. Whats more is that you now have proof that Mama wrote a book and at least one person bought a copy, so Ive got some street cred now. I love you all more than more, Brycen, Hayden, Emma Kate, Anika, Beckam, and Cole.

I need to give a literary head nod to my editor, Katy, for being amazingly patient with me and for believing in this nontraditional, yet educational, book. Thank you for not thinking Im crazy.

Finally, I want to thank my husband. From our brainstorming walks at the beginning to the celebratory toasts at the end, youve given me the belief I needed in myself that I could do this and the support I needed to get it done. Lets grab some books and hit the beach, babe.

From pretty much my first day as a teacher in a small Oregon town, I started asking, why? Why wont they do their homework? Why dont they care about this stuff? Why cant I motivate them?

I never doubted why I was teaching or why I was there, but I just couldnt figure out why I struggled to engage some of my students. I tried everything I could think of, I experienced little to no success, and then I went to graduate school. I studied motivation at Portland State University in Portland, OR, and then went on to focus on coping, resiliency, and mental toughness at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. And then, many years later, I was sitting in a staff meeting in a suburban Texas town and was shown Angela Duckworths 2013 TED talk on grit.

In her talk, Duckworth (2013) described the challenges of teaching math to middle school kids. (No kidding, right?) She noticed that the students who performed the best in her class werent necessarily the smartestthey were the ones who worked the hardest. As a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth and her research team studied teachers, salespeople, and West Point cadets in order to learn more. Interestingly, they found that grit was the best predictor of success. Not IQ, prior achievement, or great hair... but grit.

The problem, according to Duckworth, was that educators have been too narrowly focused. Although we are really good at measuring achievement, she argued that we needed to consider how grit can be assessed and improved in our students if we really wanted to build their stamina and increase their likelihood for success in school and beyond.

I was completely inspired after watching Duckworths talk. Her ideas made sense, which I appreciated as a teacher, and they were supported by research, which I valued as an educational psychologist. I wanted to do more, however, to inspire other teachers the way I was inspired during that staff meeting. So, here we are. Ive outlined practical ideas for how teachers, parents, and administrators can work together to recognize and instill grit in their students.

This chapter provides a framework for the pages ahead. Were going to rewind to the 19th century in order to examine intelligence and how the conception of this construct has changed over time. Were also going to dissect grit so that we can study each component in depth. And thats only !

In as a guide to help you work with parents, ensuring a streamlined approach to building grit in students. And finally, the last chapter is all about grit at the school level and how campus staff and administrators can work together to build a gritty school culture.

Each chapter ends with final thoughts and discussion questions to help you consider practical ways you can apply these ideas to your classrooms. I also included a compilation of resources at the end of the book that I hope is helpful to you. By the last page, if Ive done my job well, you will be inspired and equipped with the knowledge you need to prioritize the building of grit in your students.

Beginning with Sir Francis Galton in the late 1800s, psychologists have been enamored by the individual differences that make up varying levels of intelligence. Studying intelligence began as a very practical matter: Educators needed to identify which students would need special help in school, and the military needed to quickly assess the abilities of its recruits. There were even some years when scientists toyed with the idea of limiting procreation to those who met certain intellectual criteria. Im not kidding.

You are likely familiar with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, a five-factor instrument that assesses fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory (Roid, 2003). The scales have undergone five iterations since 1916 and are frequently used to determine appropriate special education interventions.

Most recently, Howard Gardners (2000) theory of multiple intelligences started discussions centered on the myriad ways we can demonstrate intelligence. Gardner identified the following learning styles: visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical-mathematical. His research inspired an explosion of ideas in the teaching world. Teachers tailored their instruction to the learning styles of their students, but even still, they continued to struggle with motivating their students and increasing their achievement.