POOR

STUDENTS,
RICHER
TEACHING

MINDSETS THAT RAISE STUDENT

ACHIEVEMENT

ERIC JENSEN
Copyright © 2017 by Solution Tree Press
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Title: Poor students, richer teaching : mindsets that raise student achievement / Eric Jensen.
Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and
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Identifiers: LCCN 2016026186 | ISBN 9781942496519 (perfect bound)
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Edmund M. Ackerman, President
Solution Tree Press
President: Douglas M. Rife
Editorial Director: Tonya Maddox Cupp
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 Acknowledgments

I am indebted to many but most importantly my wife, Diane. I am also

enormously grateful for the saintly patience of Douglas Rife and the passion
and expertise of Copy Chief Sarah Payne-Mills. Kudos to my colleague
LeAnn Nickelsen, who also gave me fabulous help. I also appreciate the
cover-design responsiveness of Rian Anderson. Finally, this book is
dedicated to all U.S. teachers who work with high-poverty students with
passion, courage, and a commitment to help them graduate college or career
ready. Props to you pros; you make an irreplaceable difference for all of us!

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers.

Jeff Dillon
Superintendent and Elementary Principal
Wilder School District
Wilder, Idaho

Kristine Humer
Reading Resource
Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy
Chicago, Illinois

Susan Kessler
Executive Principal
Hunters Lane High School
Nashville, Tennessee

Samuel Lehman
Fifth-Grade Teacher
Terence C. Reilly School No. 7
Elizabeth, New Jersey

Carol Null
Kindergarten Teacher
Pemetic Elementary School
Southwest Harbor, Maine
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download the free
reproducibles in this book.
 Table of Contents

About the Author

Preface
Introduction
1 The New Normal

PART ONE
WHY THE POSITIVITY MINDSET?
2 Secrets of the Positivity Mindset

3 Boost Optimism and Hope

4 Build Positive Attitudes

5 Foster Control, Choice, and Relevancy

6 Change the Emotional Set Point

7 Lock in the Positivity Mindset

PART TWO
WHY THE ENRICHMENT MINDSET?
8 Secrets of the Enrichment Mindset
 9 Manage the Cognitive Load
10 Develop Better Thinking Skills
11 Enhance Study Skills and Vocabulary
12 Build Better Memory
13 Lock in the Enrichment Mindset
PART THREE
WHY THE GRADUATION MINDSET?
14 Secrets of the Graduation Mindset
15 Support Alternative Solutions
16 Prepare for College and Careers
17 Lock in the Graduation Mindset
Appendix A: Rich Lesson Planning
Appendix B: Running Your Own Brain
References and Resources
Index
 About the Author

Eric Jensen, PhD, is a former secondary teacher from San Diego,

California. Since the early 1990s, he has synthesized brain research and
developed practical applications for educators. Jensen is a member of the
invitation-only Society for Neuroscience and the President’s Club at Salk
Institute for Biological Studies. He cofounded SuperCamp, the first and
largest brain-compatible academic enrichment program, held in sixteen
countries with over sixty-five thousand graduates.
Jensen has authored over thirty books, including Teaching With Poverty
in Mind, Tools for Engagement, Engaging Students With Poverty in Mind,
Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain, Bringing the Common Core to Life
in K–8 Classrooms, and Different Brains, Different Learners.
To learn more about Eric Jensen’s in-depth teacher workshops and
leadership events, visit Jensen Learning (www.jensenlearning.com).
 Preface

This book is about mindsets. How do I qualify to write a book about

mindsets and poverty? I did my dissertation on poverty. I have worked
successfully with over two hundred Title I schools in the United States. But
there is something else you should know about me. This journey actually
began in my early childhood. That’s when I learned firsthand about
adversity and mindsets.

My mother walked out on my two sisters and me when I was two. My

dad struggled to raise three children. My first stepmother (of three total)
entered my life when I was six. She was violent, alcoholic, and abusive. She
made my home life a living nightmare for nine years (from ages six through
fifteen). She threatened me daily, and I became a survivor who focused on
dodging continual abuse through hiding, staying away from the house,
living with relatives, and eating dog food for snacks. And that’s the G-rated
version. The viewpoint I learned from my father was, “Stop complaining,
and focus on what’s important.” For me, that meant survival.
Most adults around me were dysfunctional, and my best friends also had
abusive parents. Within weeks of my father’s second marriage, my oldest
sister moved out to live with the neighbors. My other sister moved out of
the house and lived in the garage for nine years. When things got too
dangerous, my father moved my sister and me away. We lived with my
grandmother for a few months (I went to a new school) and my aunt and
uncle (another school), and then we lived on our own (another school). My
stepmother would “promise to be good,” and each time we returned home,
the violence would start up, and we would move out again. I went to nine
schools and had 153 teachers. I was truant often and arrested twice. My
daily mentality while sitting in the back of a classroom was about safety; I
was asking myself, “What will it be like when I go home today?”
Why am I telling you this? First, I know what it’s like to grow up in a
toxic environment. I have had a loaded, cocked gun held to my head and
heard, “Do what I tell you, or I will shoot.” I acted out in class and got in
trouble often. My K–12 grades were terrible, and I finished high school
with a C+ average. The odds of me succeeding in life at that stage were not
good. Second, this book is personal for me, and I am hoping to make it
personal for you. You must understand the mindsets of those who grow up
with adversity and, more important, learn the new mindsets to help your
students succeed.
The next time you have a student in your class who acts out, who is
frustrated by how your class is going, remember: I was one of those
students, and I took it personally when a teacher did not help me succeed.
When my teachers did not help me, I just stopped putting in the effort. You
see, I was in school mostly because it was the law and my friends were
there. But my teachers chose to teach. They chose to be at my school. They
chose the subject and grade levels. On top of that, they were being paid to
help me graduate. The choices you make do matter a great deal. These
choices come from a teaching mindset, and that’s what this book is about.
On the flip side, when teachers cared about and helped me, I worked
hard and had a good attitude. While my own K–12 experience was not good
overall, a few good teachers gave me hope, and slowly, I began to turn my
life around. Their mindsets were different. I felt the impact of relationships
and good teaching. Your students need you because your teaching really
does matter more than you think it does. I know you are likely to be
underpaid, underappreciated, and undersupported. But you still have to
make choices every day of your life. So, will you help students graduate?
I realized early in life, even with a gun at my head, that I had a choice.
And you do too. You always have a choice. You can choose to get better at
your daily work practices, you can make smart decisions, and you can build
your skill sets and help students graduate. Or you can realize this is not your
fight and give up. Some staff may have already given up, even though they
come to work each day. That’s a loss for both the teacher and students.
 If you don’t know how to do your job well, it can be painfully hard. But
in this book, I’ll introduce new mindsets and show you how to teach
differently. You’ll start loving your job again. By the way, I’m not telling
you the path of changing mindsets is easy; I’m telling you that it can be
done, it’s worth doing, and you can do it. I promise this resource will be
part of your success. Let’s get started!
 Introduction

The title of this book, Poor Students, Richer Teaching, suggests a rich and
poor dichotomy. But it is also about something that many poor students are
not getting: richer teaching. Here, the word richer means full, bountiful,
and better than ever. Teachers can make a difference in students’ lives with
richer teaching. They can ensure all students, regardless of background,
graduate college and career ready.

All of us have narratives in our head about teaching. In this book, I

invite you to think of your work as richer and abundant. Teachers who
struggle with poor students might have mentalities that reinforce scarcity,
blame, and negativity. At school, there are poor narratives that educators
circulate, often in subtle ways, sometimes throwing them in with a true
statement. For example, a teacher may say, “Last year, I just couldn’t make
any progress with Jason. You know, those students just don’t get any
parental support, so what can I do?” Notice how the teacher ends with a
story about why he couldn’t make progress. In this book, you will discover
the rich strategies that high-performing teachers use to defeat these
narratives and help students succeed.
Year after year, your K–12 Title I school culture either reinforces
hopelessness and assumptions that the deck is simply stacked against you or
it fosters optimistic possibilities and successes with uplifting narratives. I
could fill this book with stories of real high-poverty schools that are
succeeding, as I have done in other books. Yet, how many schools would
you need to read about before you say, “OK, that’s enough. I believe it”? I
hope reading this book helps to reframe any negative narratives you
struggle to carry.
About This Book
In a moment, you’ll dive into the first chapter. But first I will give you
an overview of the resource in your hands. Books for educators typically
just tell teachers what to do. This one is different because in chapter 1, I
explain why the suggestions in this book are relevant, important, and most
of all, urgent. Chapter 1 is about the new normal in the United States,
making it the why of this whole process. Once you finish chapter 1, my
guess is that you’ll be on board for the rest of the book.
Then, the book moves forward into its major theme—developing the
powerful tool for change: mindset. A mindset is a way of thinking about
something. As Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck (2008)
explains, people (broadly) think about intelligence in two ways: (1) either
you have it or you don’t, or (2) you can grow and change. In the areas of
intelligence and competency, you may have more of a fixed mindset (stuck
in place) or a growth mindset (capable of changing). Those with a fixed
mindset believe intelligence and competency are a rigid unchangeable
quality. Those with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and
competency can develop over time as the brain changes and grows.
This book broadens and deepens the mindset theme to many new areas
of student and teacher behaviors that you’ll find highly relevant. The book
continues in three parts, each highlighting a mindset.
Part one covers the positivity mindset. In chapters 2 through 7, you’ll
home in on your students’ emotions and attitudes. Each chapter focuses on
building your own rock-solid attitude of academic optimism in both your
students and yourself. If you’ve ever put a mental limitation on any student
(don’t worry, we all have), these chapters are must-reads. You’ll also see
that brains can change, and you’ll learn why positivity is so critical to your
job. You’ll learn the science behind hope, optimism, and gratitude. Without
these life skills, you’ll start losing students as they give less and less effort
and sometimes even drop out. Your new, rock-solid positivity mindset will
help your students soar.
Part two introduces the enrichment mindset. Chapters 8 through 13
focus on building breakthrough cognitive capacity in students. You’ll see
the clear, scientific evidence that shows, without a molecule of doubt, that
change is possible. A big problem for students from poverty is their mental
bandwidth, often known as cognitive load. Your students need a way to run
their own brains better or this cognitive load makes them more likely to
misbehave and struggle academically. Many students never get the skills of
capacity building, but you can ensure yours build memory, thinking skills,
vocabulary, and study skills.
Part three includes the graduation mindset. Chapters 14 through 17 help
you focus on the gold medal in teaching: students who graduate job or
college ready. Each chapter centers on school factors absolutely proven to
support graduation. You’ll learn the science of why these factors can be
such powerful achievement boosters. Plus you’ll discover a wide range of
positive alternatives to what your students are doing at school.
Appendix A will help you put the implementation pieces in place. You
get lesson-planning tools that show you how to design lessons with poverty
in mind. Fostering the graduation mindset is the ultimate goal of this
process. Appendix B offers some tips on the important process of running
your own brain.
This book accompanies Poor Students, Rich Teaching, which covers
four other mindsets to help students succeed. I have written four books on
poverty, and there is still much more transformative and practical
information for me to share. The topic is that wide and deep. As you dive in
to the upcoming pages, remember this: any resource on helping students
from poverty will elicit a wide range of responses.
As you read this book, it will be up to you to pause and reflect often.
Any single chapter can make a difference in your work. Ask yourself not,
“Have I heard of this before?” but instead, “Do I already do this as a daily
practice?” and “Do I do this well enough to get the results I want or need?”
The fact is that all of us can get better. This book can take you down that
path. Are you game?
 CHAPTER 1

THE NEW NORMAL

You have seen many changes in the United States in your lifetime. In this
chapter, you’ll discover the new normal. We typically say something is
normal meaning it’s just fine and pay less attention because we often take it
for granted. We also say things are normal as if that is a good thing. But
now I invite you to see the new normal as a threat to your job and your
future. Poverty and mindsets (the topics of this book) play a big part of this
new normal. No, this is no doomsday scenario. It is about what has already
happened. You must know about this before you walk into your classroom
again.

Hard Evidence of the New Normal

The economic changes are deepening and widening at an accelerating
rate. Poverty in the United States is getting worse, not better. The new
normal is this: we now have a majority of students in public schools who
qualify as poor based on school data (Suitts, 2015). In the five most
populated states (California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New York), 48
percent or more of public school students are in poverty (Suitts, 2015).
Pause and wrap your head around this.
But it gets worse. In 2009, in the fifty largest urban school districts in
the United States, the average four-year graduation rate was a jaw-dropping
53 percent (Swanson, 2009). This new normal is a mindset game changer
for everyone, especially educators. The trend is not our friend.
 Also part of the new normal is the disappearing middle class. Gone are
many good-paying jobs that required a high school diploma and hard work
(manufacturing, mining, automobiles, oil and gas, and more). Technology
(robots, automated websites, and smartphones) has replaced people for
many of those jobs. Trucking is the most popular job in twenty-nine states
(Bui, 2015). But Mercedes has successfully tested driverless eighteen-
wheelers; those trucking jobs may be eliminated soon too. Imagine that: the
number-one job in over half the states will be automated (Bui, 2015).
Often poverty occurs when the cost-of-living increase does not keep
pace with inflation and real wages for the middle class and poor go down.
Real middle-class annual wages (adjusted for inflation) have declined
dramatically, from $57,000 a year in 2000 to just under $52,000 in 2014
(Economic Policy Institute, 2014). That means the average U.S. household
has lost nearly 10 percent in wages to inflation since 2000. Even for the
declining middle class, life has gotten harder.
Inflation consumes any increases to the consumer paycheck as the
purchasing power of the dollar diminishes. The U.S. government
continually changes the measuring index for inflation by adjusting the
consumer price index. Using the government’s original measures from
1986, inflation averages 9 percent annually (ShadowStats.com, 2016). Has
your paycheck gone up 7 to 13 percent every single year? If not, no wonder
you feel poor.
This is the new normal, and you’re not alone. Roughly 76 percent of
Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, with essentially zero savings
(Bankrate, 2012). The number of people on food stamps has doubled
between 2008 and 2014 (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and
Nutrition Service, 2016). About half of all children born in 2015 will be on
food stamps at some point in their lives (Rank & Hirschl, 2015).
Over half (51 percent) of all American workers make less than $30,000
a year. The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet
almost 40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a
year (Social Security Online, 2016). See figure 1.1 for a breakdown of the
new normal workforce.
Source: Social Security Online, 2016.

Figure 1.1: The new normal workforce in America.

Let me summarize this for you. From 2000 to 2014, the share of adults
living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan
areas. Think about that; in almost 90 percent of the United States’ metro
areas, the middle class is shrinking (Pew Research Center, 2016).
Fifty-seven cities and municipalities have filed for bankruptcy since
2010 (Governing, 2015). The United States has borrowed too much, and we
already owe more than we can ever repay. The government is unlikely to fix
it itself; there is no precedent in world history of any country ever climbing
out of debt as deep as ours. Poverty is here to stay, and it is getting worse.
Wrap your head around this new normal. This is not temporary; all U.S.
residents are at risk.

What More Poverty Means to You

Working with students from poverty means you’ll need to deeply
understand what is going on around you. Every day at work, fresh empathy
is a good place to start. Then, you can improve your teaching with better
mindsets and strategies. The effects of poverty on any human being are
truly staggering. This book is all about how you can mitigate the adversity
that students face and enrich them.
In short, poor students are different because their brains are different.
The brain’s neurons are designed by nature to reflect their environment, not
to automatically rise above it. Chronic exposure to poverty affects the areas
of the brain responsible for memory, impulse regulation, visuospatial
actions, language, cognitive capacity, and conflict (Noble, Norman, &
Farah, 2005).
Evidence suggests the brains of children from poverty are more likely to
differ via four primary types of experiences: (1) health issues from poor diet
and exposure to toxins and pollutants, (2) chronic stress, (3) weaker
cognitive skills, and (4) impaired socioemotional relationships (Evans &
Kantrowitz, 2002). While not every single child from a household with a
low socioeconomic status will experience all of these factors, the majority
will.
This means that you’ll see behaviors that show the effects of toxins
(poor memory and distractibility) or chronic stress (learned helplessness,
apathy, hypervigilance, and in-your-face aggressiveness). In a classroom,
you’ll also see the results of less exposure to cognitive skills (deficient
vocabulary, poor reading skills, and weak working memory) and impaired
socioemotional skills (poor manners, misbehaviors, or emotional
overreactions). Teachers who do not know what these behaviors really are
may inappropriately judge a student as lazy, unwilling to follow directions,
a poor listener, low achieving, and antisocial. This may foster classroom
friction, a huge achievement gap, annoyed students, and even dropouts.
And worse yet, the teacher may blame the behavior on the student.
You may know someone who has the impression that people don’t
change. In other words, some people spread lies like, “A student who is a
troublemaker at age eight will always be one.” This is an example of a toxic
mindset. The fact is, humans can and do change. When they don’t change, it
is often because others have given up on them, their daily environment is
toxic, or others are using an ineffective strategy that doesn’t help. Every
single staff member at your school should know that the human brain is
designed to change if you give it a chance.
What the New Normal Means to You
I shared with you some economic facts of the new normal not to depress
you but to provide an opportunity for you to develop a different
understanding of poverty. It is no longer a micro problem for the poor, nor
is it an outlier or something to ignore. If concerns about the United States,
your paycheck, or your retirement, and the love of your students, do not
motivate you to make changes, you are in the wrong profession. Poverty is
the new normal in America. Only the most effective mindsets will help you
succeed.
This is a sobering new reality. It is not a doomsday scenario or
pessimist’s dire prophecy; it already happened. This altered reality requires
us to be smarter and more agile. More of the same will no longer work.
Now, how does poverty connect with mindsets?
As an educator who works with schools all over the United States, I’ve
heard just about every story there is about why students supposedly can’t
succeed. In rural Kentucky, I hear about coal mine closings that influence
student career hopelessness. In New Mexico, I hear about how immigration
fosters low expectations in students. In Hawaii, I hear about the beach
culture that supposedly makes students more interested in surfing than
learning. These are the devastating community-driven narratives that are
killing the chances for student success.
Do you see the pattern? The stories at your school that are told and
retold shape students’ expectations. When the stories are upbeat, affirming,
and hopeful, the students and staff reinforce a positive message. In
successful schools, staff members try to redefine their new normal.
Mindsets matter a great deal, especially when addressing poverty. This
book will help you identify the useful and powerful mindsets that can
accelerate positive change to alter the future for your students.
There is one last thing before we jump into the strategies.
In most sports, the team that scores the most points (or goals, runs, and
so on) wins. This scoring system is simple and easily understood. In our
profession, the scoring system that decides a winning classroom strategy is
called the effect size. This number is simply a standardized measure of the
relative size of the gain (or loss) in student achievement caused by an
intervention (versus a control) (Olejnik & Algina, 2000). See figure 1.2.

Source: Vacha-Haase & Thompson, 2004.

Figure 1.2: Effect sizes made practical.

Researchers simply measure the difference between doing something

and doing nothing. Ideally, one uses an experimental group (using a new
strategy) and a control group (using an existing norm). The strongest
analysis includes large sample sizes and multiple studies with varied
population demographics. Then, you know your data are very, very solid.
This is important to you, so please lean in and read closely.
This is all about your teaching.
Effect sizes are a common research-based way to measure the impact of
a strategy or factor. While any intervention could have a negative effect
size, most classroom interventions (teacher strategies) are positive.
Classroom interventions typically have effect sizes between 0.25 and 0.75
with a mean of about 0.40 (Hattie, 2009). One full year’s worth of academic
gains has a 0.50 effect size, and two years’ worth of gains have a 1.00 effect
size. This means that effect sizes above 0.50 are just the baseline for
students in poverty. Teachers have to help students catch up from starting
school one to three years behind their classmates. It takes good instructional
practices for effect sizes to be well above 0.50.
Why do you need to know this?
What if, by just replacing one strategy you already use (for example,
saying “Good job!” to a student) with another (a far more effective one, like
“Your studying really paid off. Great job building your skills!”), you could
get five to ten times the positive effect on student achievement? I will show
you how to do that in this book. Think about the impact you can have every
single workday by switching out less effective strategies with more
effective strategies. In fact, I’m going to invite you to slowly replace those
things you do that are sort of effective with strategies that are ridiculously
effective. Yes, I am on a mission to help you become so effective that it
changes the course of history for your students. But before we get started,
let’s summarize.

Quick Consolidation
The new normal is here. Poverty is increasing; it is not a temporary
downtick in the U.S. economy. Things are getting worse, not better. The
new normal means you’ll be seeing more and more students from poverty.
It also means that we’ll collectively have to boost graduation rates of those
from poverty.
When students don’t graduate, they are more likely to end up in the
juvenile justice track, require food benefits, or become unemployed. This,
again, is no prediction; it is already happening. This book is a wakeup call.
New mindsets are essential to success.
Yes, I can guarantee that the future will be bumpy, tough to predict, and
unsettling. Something will likely replace the curriculum standards again
(and again). We will probably see continued political, economic, and local
educational pressures. But if you’re ready, it’ll be a bit easier to manage.
Plus, you’ll be someone who thrives while others are just trying to survive.
Welcome to the world of richer teaching. Let’s get started.
 PART ONE
WHY THE POSITIVITY MINDSET?
 CHAPTER 2

SECRETS OF THE POSITIVITY

MINDSET

Here you and I begin with a crucial way to think of your job: the positivity
mindset. Students from poverty often come from homes where positivity is
rare (Hart & Risley, 1995). But you have got to be the daily source of a
student’s “mental vitamins.”

You may have heard teachers’ comments about how students from low-
income families are harder to teach or have behavior problems. (You may
have uttered—or perhaps just thought—them yourself.) When working with
students from poverty, it’s important to understand that other factors
influence their behavior. The most important trait you can sharpen is your
empathy, not sympathy. Those with empathy feel others’ pain.
Alternatively, those with sympathy feel sorry for others. To become both
positive and empathic, you’ve got to understand what’s really going on.
This chapter will provide that insight for you.
Student behaviors, as you may predict, often start at home. Higher rates
of acute stress and trauma are more common in families from poverty. You
need to know this because many students’ behaviors that may be disruptive
(or even offensive) may be a result of things at home that are completely
out of a student’s control. Persons in poor households have more than
double the rate of violent victimization than those in high-income
households (Harrell, Langton, Berzofsky, Couzens, & Smiley-McDonald,
2014). Additionally, a poor mother’s history affects students’ behaviors in
your classrooms. For example, poor African American women report high
rates of rape—far more than Caucasians, Latinos, and Asians. This sexual
assault, in turn, causes adverse mental health effects, such as depression,
guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, and avoidance
(Ullman, Townsend, Filipas, & Starzynski, 2007). When moms have been
traumatized, every day is a struggle to try to remain loving, calm, grateful,
and caring. Their children often come to school with chronic stress. You
have to be different and teach differently.
For immigrants, the trauma can come from the stressors and adversity
that emerged from a dangerous border crossing, detention, and deportation
threats. Now, you can add the problems of undocumented citizenship status,
separation from family, and of course, extreme poverty. Immigrants report
trauma from fear, depression, loneliness, sadness, and chronic stress
(Crocker, 2015). If you don’t address these issues with positive self-
regulation strategies in your classroom, students can feel overwhelmed and
their classroom behaviors will be seemingly crazy. And students are
unlikely to graduate career or college ready.
For your students, it is just how it is. Actually, it would likely be a
shock if most students from poverty came to school with any sense of hope
and optimism. Instead, many teachers, some of whom are ignorant about a
student’s history, blame bad attitudes on the student. Students didn’t choose
their DNA, parents, neighborhood, or culture. Begin your day with
empathy. Yes, you can change student attitudes, but you have to start by
caring.
There’s another source of stress for your students: racism. When your
students of color feel society’s bias against them, judgment from their
teachers, or exclusion from the middle-class and upper-class world, it
commonly generates chronic stress (Kim, Neuendorf, Bianco, & Evans,
2015). In addition, when students of color live on a constant survival track
and often feel forced to respond to everyday discrimination with
anticipatory vigilance, there’s a cost to their health and sanity
(Himmelstein, Young, Sanchez, & Jackson, 2015). This stress and anxiety
change classroom behaviors and learning.
The Positivity Mindset
Developing a positive mindset in your students makes a huge
difference, and in your classroom, it will alter lives. Before we understand
the thinking of teachers with a positive mindset, let’s contrast it with the
opposite mindset. A teacher who struggles with positivity may say one or
more of the following comments. Ask yourself if you have occasionally
heard these comments at school.

• “Of course I try to be positive, but realistically, look at what I’m up

against. Have you seen our students? Do you know where they live,
their friends, and their parents? How are we supposed to succeed
with them?”
• “Positivity is for the deluded. I’m real with my students. I tell it
like it is. Their lives are not positive, so there’s no sugarcoating to
be done.”
• “Listen, our administration doesn’t even care, so why should I be
positive?”
• “I’m a pretty positive person. It’s just that those lazy delinquent
students don’t want to learn, and our blood-sucking administrators
and district morons take all the fun out of our job. I mean, really,
the pay sucks, and they treat us like criminals half of the time. But
mostly I still try to be positive.”

When the comments are written down, they seem mind boggling, don’t
they? As you reflect on comments such as these, consider your own
mindset. Put yourself in a parent’s shoes. Now, if your own son or daughter
had teachers making these comments, how would you feel?
I hit rock bottom several times in life. I bet maybe you have too. I
remember being so desperate, I was writing bad checks weekly just to
survive. I could no longer afford housing, and I was going bankrupt. I had
no one to turn to except my cynical business partner. We became drinking
buddies and soon, we both got worse. I’m telling you this not because I
want sympathy nor am I assigning blame. At that time in my life, I really
needed genuine hope. I have been asked many times, “What turned you
around?”
I have discovered that sometimes to find myself, I had to see what the
opposite of me was like. When I was thirty, I met some amazing positive
role models. For the first time in my life, I saw possibility and regained
hope that I could become someone different and better. But I could not have
told you that I needed them (nor will your students articulate that they need
you). As you might guess, that’s not the mindset we want. The positivity
mindset says, “I am an optimistic and grateful ally who helps students build
a successful narrative of their future.”

The positivity mindset says, “I am an optimistic and grateful ally

who helps students build a successful narrative of their future.”

In contrast with the teachers’ negative comments, there are many other
teachers with a positive mindset who I have heard make comments like the
following.

• “Teaching is my life’s mission; I love to help students succeed. The

satisfaction I get is priceless.”
• “I love my job. Of course, it’s not perfect, but life is what you make
it. I choose my positive energy every day because that’s what my
students need.”
• “I choose to be optimistic because it feeds me and feeds my
students. My job is to supply the hope and faith that they can make
it in this world.”
• “I can’t control what happens to me in life, but I can control my
thoughts and my responses to life. Knowing I have that control
helps make my students and me happy.”

Do those comments sound like the teachers are a bit crazy, or have they
found a way to feel at peace, do good things, and still be pretty happy most
of the time? In short, is there any real proof that either point of view is any
better than the other? Can we say that these viewpoints, although very
different, don’t really matter to the students? Let’s look at the evidence.

A Hard Look at the Evidence

Now, before you respond with an opinion about this mindset (it may
sound a bit delusional or new age), let’s look closely at the scientific and
biological evidence of whether this mindset is valid in your classroom.

The Impact of Positivity on Student Success

Researchers placed microphones in the homes of upper-class, middle-
class, and lower-class families (with permission, of course) for two months
in order to measure positive and negative remarks (Hart & Risley, 1995).
When they analyzed the audio recordings, researchers found that, among
the poor, the ratio was 1:2 (one positive for every two negatives—
reprimands, criticisms, and so on). In middle-class homes, the ratio of
positives to negatives was the reverse: two positives for every one negative.
How did the upper-class families do? They heard six times more positives
than negatives (Hart & Risley, 1995, 2003). Figure 2.1 illustrates this
disparity.

Source: Hart & Risley, 1995.

Figure 2.1: The effects of socioeconomic status on positive to

negative comments.
 This study shows that income level does correlate with household
differences in emotional positivity. Students from poverty do not need
negativity from peers, parents, or teachers. They need a positive
environment every day. If you want students from poverty to behave, learn,
and grow like well-behaved people, treat them better. You want to make
your classroom the best place to learn on earth.
Do students’ feelings predict success? Studies show positive emotions
influence cognitive flexibility and perseverance, both powerful traits in
those who achieve academically (Liu & Wang, 2014). The poor, however,
more commonly feel hopeless or overwhelmed (Behnke, Piercy, & Diversi,
2004; Honora, 2002). This means that in your classroom a positive mindset
is essential for you to have. Your students must learn to see their world
better if they’re going to succeed.
Why should you care about fostering a positive classroom climate?
Studies show that induced positive emotions widen attention (Rowe, Hirsh,
& Anderson, 2007). When we are upset, we narrow our attention and focus
on the bad. Positive emotions increase and broaden the behavioral options
(Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). They foster intuition (Bolte, Goschkey, &
Kuhl, 2003) and creativity (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987). To
summarize, positivity fosters hope, cognitive flexibility, attention span,
intuition, and creativity. Do those sound like traits you’d like in your class?
See figure 2.2 for an example of positive and negative class cultures.
Figure 2.2: High positivity versus low positivity.

You may be thinking that a positive mindset will never go over well
with your students. But you’d be mistaken. We can learn a positive mindset
as a type of cognitive control (versus feeling like a victim without choices).
This trait (or lack thereof) makes a significant difference in the brains of
students from poverty (Noble, Norman, et al., 2005; Noble, Tottenham, &
Casey, 2005). How do we know this?
Researchers tested whether ninety-four students at an urban, high-
poverty public middle school could learn and actually apply a
metacognitive strategy for positivity (Noble, Norman, et al., 2005; Noble,
Tottenham, et al., 2005). There were two groups: one control and one
experimental group. The researchers taught students in the experimental
group how to convert positive thoughts and images about a desired future
(goals) into a self-regulated behavior change (that is, cognitive self-control).
It’s a simple but powerful strategy consisting of goals, implementation
intentions, and a plan of overcoming obstacles.
Over four consecutive quarters, students in the experimental group
improved their report card grades, attendance, and even classroom conduct
compared with students from the control group (Duckworth, Kirby,
Gollwitzer, & Oettingen, 2013). These findings suggest emotional and
cognitive control strategies hold considerable promise for helping
disadvantaged students improve their academic performance.
Students are powerfully affected when you teach positivity. Frequent
positive emotions support a defense against adversity (Fredrickson, Tugade,
Waugh, & Larkin, 2003). Pause for a moment; how much of the day do
your students spend feeling positive? A positive classroom environment can
reduce your primary stress indicators like cortisol (Steptoe, Wardle, &
Marmot, 2005). Increasing the neurotransmitter for positive affect
(dopamine) leads to strong improvements in learning (Knecht et al., 2004).
In short, a positive classroom helps your students behave better and
improve their mindsets. It paves the way for them to achieve more.
But there’s an even more compelling reason to raise the positivity level.
Any high-anticipation goal stimulates our brains to produce noradrenaline
and dopamine, the positive neurotransmitters of anticipation of excitement
and pleasure (Fredrickson et al., 2003). You don’t actually need to reach the
goal to feel good (although it’s nice). This is why highly motivating and
challenging classrooms work.
Remember, you are more than what your genes dictate. Simply put,
DNA is not your destiny. You have about twenty thousand genes, many of
which the environment can influence (Clamp et al., 2007). So what’s the
relevance of this number? You have fewer genes than a grape plant or a
chicken (thirty thousand–plus genes each), yet the human species built the
Egyptian pyramids, space shuttles, the Great Wall of China, and the iPhone.
Once again, a student’s genes are not his or her destiny. This is true for you
too.
Epigenetics, the capacity of the environment to impact genes, is
revolutionizing how we see the nature-versus-nurture debate. This capacity
allows the environment to influence whether a gene stays silent
(suppressed) or becomes turned on (activated). In fact, chronic stress is an
example of an everyday experience for your students that can and does
influence gene suppression. For example, childhood trauma increases the
risk of bipolar disorder (Aas et al., 2016). That’s why it’s important to be
empathetic. This is powerful science that backs up the impact of the
positivity mindset and the upbeat classroom climate.
 A comprehensive meta-analysis of 121 studies examined the
associations between racial discrimination and mental health (such as
depression and anxiety), lack of well-being, and physical health. Racial
discrimination was present in 76 percent of all adverse outcomes (Priest et
al., 2013). The daily effort to deal with being called a minority (someone
“less than”) as well as seeing the middle class and upper class as unlikely
paths are debilitating stressors for many people (Berger & Sarnyai, 2015).
That negativity is often reality, and hope is rare. If you truly want students
to succeed in a middle- or upper-class world, help them develop the psyche
to survive and thrive. That’s why it is so critical that you infuse your
classroom with daily hope and optimism. Saying, “I will influence student
attitudes” is critical for their success.

The Impact of Positivity on the Brain

Fortunately, the positivity mindset is teachable. You can learn it, and
you can teach it to your students. In a powerful study of ninety-six diverse
schools with a random sample of teachers, positivity makes a significant
contribution to student achievement. The research focused on developing
classroom optimism. Any teacher who said things like, “You’re not going to
get an A in my class,” acted counter to the research. This study factors in
controls for demographic variables and prior student achievement (Hoy,
Tarter, & Hoy, 2006), and the students still did better than before with their
new mindset. Another study finds a long-term positive behavior
intervention changes into a positive thinking-skills intervention (Cohn &
Fredrickson, 2010).
Another study uses two existing positive interventions that increase
general happiness (gratitude and acts of kindness) in an academic context.
These positive psychological interventions fostered positive emotions and
improved academic engagement (Barbarin et al., 2013). Whenever students
feel better emotionally, good things happen.
Biologically, two neurotransmitters are associated with improved affect:
dopamine and serotonin. Both of these, when maintained at moderate
levels, have important functions in the school context. For example, higher
dopamine levels lead to greater learning (Volkow et al., 2004), working
memory (Shellshear et al., 2015), cognitive flexibility (van Holstein et al.,
2011), and effort (Beierholm et al., 2013). Do those sound like qualities
you’d like in your classroom? You can bump up your students’ dopamine
production with voluntary gross motor activity, novelty, surprising and fun
activities, and anticipation of a rewarding event.
Serotonin levels are associated with other good outcomes: increased
production of new brain cells (Klanker, Feenstra, & Denys, 2013) and better
attention, learning, mood regulation, and long-term memory (Meneses &
Liy-Salmeron, 2012). You can increase your students’ serotonin production
in a classroom with increased calmness, feelings of control, and the use of
predictable rituals, camaraderie, and cooperation—a safe environment. You
may guess that your class needs some of each, dopamine and serotonin.
Your brain does not produce them at the same time, so your teaching can
help you use the energy of novelty and the calmness of predictability.
Healthy classrooms have a rhythm to them, moving from novelty to
predictability.
Noradrenaline is a powerful neurotransmitter that can foster better focus
and long-term memory (Hurlemann et al., 2005). Fast energizers, high
levels of urgency, excitement, and perception of risk stimulate increased
noradrenaline. For example, when students present in front of their peers
under a deadline, they feel urgency, excitement, and at risk. Your teaching
influences the production of several neurotransmitters. You have more to do
with how your students behave than you previously thought. See figure 2.3
for how these slow-acting chemicals affect your class.
Figure 2.3: How brain chemicals change your class.

Noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin are just a few of the

neurotransmitters at work in your students’ brains while you’re teaching.
You need them on your side to succeed at your job. The point is, don’t look
at your class and think the students are being negative. Roll up your sleeves
and influence how your students feel. The evidence is on your side.
Quick Consolidation
I introduced you to the science behind classroom feelings because many
of these causes and effects are invisible to the untrained eye. Now you
know why it is so important for students to want to be in your class. You’re
now getting a sense of the deep levels of change that come about when
students feel good in class and school. The content you’re required to teach
will always be in transition; changing standards are a given. The one
reliable, unstoppable force in your class must be you using a positive
attitude, tone, climate, and sky-high expectations each day. In the following
four chapters, you’ll read about four strategies to promote a positivity
mindset in your classroom.

1. Boost optimism and hope.

2. Build positive attitudes.
3. Foster control, choice, and relevancy.
4. Change the emotional set point.
Positive affect in school contributes to more kindness, better health,
increased participation, fewer absences, and greater achievement. Turn to
the next chapter to learn how to boost optimism and hope every day.
 CHAPTER 3

BOOST OPTIMISM AND HOPE

The positivity mindset focuses on building both optimism and hope. I’m
inviting you to focus this year on building these traits in students because
they may ensure your students’ success well beyond graduation. You’ll be
developing positivity, hopefulness, and a sense of capacity for lifelong
challenges. Those underpinnings of a solid life can make a positive attitude
become real. Your positivity needs a basis; you must sustain it and
continually find the hidden goodness in nearly everything.

You’ll want to provide both the academic and life skills to sustain hope
and optimism. Here you’ll learn some of the proven ways you can start this
process with your students.

Teach Optimism and Hope Building

Optimism and hope are different. Hope is an orientation of spirit. It is
the certainty that something will ultimately take a turn for the better,
regardless of the outcome. A hopeful person often has a low level of
personal control and yet lives knowing that his or her life is in good hands
(Bruininks & Malle, 2005). This is relevant; because the poor often feel less
in control, building hope is powerful.
Optimism requires a belief that things will get better due to the efficacy
of one’s own progress (Bailey, Eng, Frisch, & Snyder, 2007). It is also
about perspective; one can learn to see the good side of nearly any event or
person. Optimism and hope are both teachable traits (Seligman, 2006).
Optimistic students with hope are more cheerful and work harder. They
make teaching more fun and perform better. If you don’t teach this, who
will? See table 3.1 for what hope and optimism sound like.

Table 3.1: Differentiating Hope and Optimism

Hope Optimism

“I know good things will “Due to the efficacy of my own

happen. It will all turn out for the progress, things will get better.”
better.”

“Bad things have happened “I learned what I did wrong in the

before; I’m sure it will be all past. I know just what to change, so
right in the end.” I think it will be better tomorrow.”

“Some things we just don’t have “I have been working on this for a
control over. We just have to while. I think I got it right. Next
trust everything’s going to be week, it’s going to be amazing.”
OK.”

You are about to read some simple, easy-to-implement classroom

strategies. These may seem very familiar to you. They may trigger
memories of strategies you have heard of or may have used before. But
knowing about a strategy does not raise student achievement. I have a
simple request for you. Read each as if it is the very first time. Then, ask
yourself, “Am I actually doing this on a daily basis to the best of my
ability?”
Here are your four strategies for optimism and hope.

1. Model optimism daily.

2. Build hope daily.
3. Build students’ self-concept and effort levels.
4. Develop hope relentlessly.
 Model Optimism Daily
When you are optimistic, you believe there are no negative events. You
simply think that most negative events are temporary, limited, and
manageable. Notice how this model also assumes you can take potential
action to ensure you will survive. For many students, optimism is the only
way they can begin to see the world differently. Model optimism for
students every day in every way you can think of. Your smile, confidence,
and energy are powerful. Roll up your sleeves and start showing your
students the life skills to have a great day, every day. When a student asks,
“How ya doing?” answer with phrases like, “Never been better,” “I’m living
my dream,” or “It’s a great day to learn!” Then, add, “And, how about
you?” Show them what it’s like to love your job and help others and how to
ignore the negativity of bad news. Be the model of the teacher who loves
teaching. Modeled optimism can be contagious. Consider the following
strategies.

Teaching Perspective
Perspective helps students gain the real power of optimism. Teach your
students how, upon hearing or reading a news story, to look at different
sides of it. For example, say the headline reads, “Six inches of snow
predicted tomorrow; school will be closed!” Ask students who would be
happy about this and who the weather might hurt.
Simple activities in which students take different sides of a topic help
them build alternate points of view and see the positives in each situation.
In this activity, two students pair up, and the teacher gives a scenario. You
might try scenarios like these.

• You got a low score on a test. How could you use this to your
advantage?
• You didn’t get accepted to your first choice for college. How could
that be a good thing?
• You didn’t get the job you wanted. How could that be a positive
thing?
 Students alternate giving pros and cons. Share a few examples from
your own life to make the activity real to them. Invite questions so students
start to process this internally.

Using Word Nutrients

As a role model for students, choose words that are like supplements to
students’ brains. Word nutrients are daily words and actions that feed
positive attitudes. Be sure to share the “seed of something greater” attitude
with your students. When students enter the room, instead of saying “Hi,”
say, “It’s stupendous to see you today!”
Word nutrients are also part of a powerful writing activity. Here’s how it
works.

1. Students brainstorm ten positive words or phrases as a class.

2. Then, students write for three to five minutes about something good
that happened last week.
3. Then, they write about something troubling to them. When students
reflect on mistakes or bad things, it is a good, diffusing activity
(Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Dickerhoof, 2006).
4. Finally, ask students to choose a positive word for the day and use it
at least five more times that day.

Do not grade these; the very act of writing about their lives has been
shown to be positive (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006).

Overcoming Setbacks
All of us fail. What counts is what we do after we fail. When you fall
down, get up. That’s the secret; never give up. Give classroom examples of
how you have done this in the past. Then, have students share examples
with the whole class, and ask, “How will you deal with it?”
Using quick-writes is a powerful way to help students understand
themselves and see the world differently. Have students write for three to
ten minutes on overcoming setbacks, such as “How might I solve a problem
I’m having?” “How can I improve my grade on an upcoming test?” It’s
important for students to reflect on times where they’ve failed but refused
to quit.
Let them start the process of problem solving instead of feeling
powerless. Most important, allow students to share what they wrote in small
groups or in front of the class.
There are countless resources available for building a positive,
behavior-changing daily attitude with your students. One of my favorites is
Jack Canfield’s (2015) The Success Principles. Most of the chapters are just
five to ten pages. Read just one chapter per week. Take what you read and
adapt it for your students. You can foster the positivity to overcome
setbacks. See figure 3.1 for a sample poster to hang in your classroom.

Figure 3.1: Overcoming setbacks.

Build Hope Daily

Building hope daily is not a check-the-box activity. This is a constant
process of instilling a lifelong sense of possibility for something good.
Begin with building a relationship based on respect and empathy for your
students. This alone can create hope. Now, here are some specific strategies
to build hope over time. You’ll want students to practice new skills in class
weekly, so they see that they are growing and improving.

Giving Daily Affirmations

Every day, affirm your students’ goodness, positive energy, and success,
and work to create a classroom climate where peers do the same to each
other. Encourage your students to turn to their neighbors and say things
like, “You’re on fire today!” “You rock!” “Love your attitude, girl!” Getting
peer and teacher affirmation are hope builders.
 Teaching Goal Setting
Teach your students to set daily, weekly, and yearly goals. Make
progress visible; it may inspire students. Teach students how to assess
progress, get feedback, and correct their courses in order to score higher.
Give each student a handout (or use a tablet) with room for his or her
weekly, monthly, and annual goals. Underneath the long-term goals,
students can write their weekly goals and strategies. Managing your destiny
is a hope builder. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for the online-
only reproducible “Managing My Destiny.”

Encouraging Dreams
Ask for your students’ dreams and visions of their own future. Help
them find their voices, paths, and strengths. Consider asking the following
introspective questions to get students to think about the future and current
strengths.

• What would make my own life amazingly great?

• Where do I want to be in five, ten, or even fifteen years?
• What am I already good at?
• How could I help others?
• What kind of person do I want to be?
• What would I be doing?
• Who would I need to help me?
• What do I need to get there?
• When will I start reaching my dreams?

You affirm their dreams when you allow them to draw, sing, or share
with others. Instill a class rule: “No dream killers.” As students share their
dreams with others, they may or may not get peer approval. But they will
get support from their teacher—you! Fostering dreams is a hope builder.

Displaying Daily Progress

 Continually point out and display progress. Students need to see that
they are improving and getting closer to their goals, or they may give up on
themselves. Post class progress reports (as a whole) and team progress
reports. Getting better is a hope builder.

Sharing Success Stories

Success stories are important. Show and tell them stories of students
just like them who have already made it and how they made it. Google
“amazing students” or “teens who make a difference,” and there are
thousands of students who are already changing the world. One fifth-grade
teacher had banners from universities from all over the country on the walls
of his classroom. Underneath each college banner were the real names of
former students from his class who went to that college. Seeing real results
from your own class is a hope builder.

Finding a Cause
Help students find a cause where they can donate their time or expertise
to others. At age nine, Katie Stagliano started donating vegetables to
homeless kitchens. Today, her organization, Katie’s Krops
(www.katieskrops.com), helps thousands. This service can help the elderly,
a charity, or an individual student with unusual challenges. For many, it
becomes a life-changing experience. Helping others is an empowering hope
builder.

Assigning Real-World Jobs

Ensure that all jobs that students do at school have real-world job titles.
Even for first graders, never give students a job title like line leader. Have
you ever, in your lifetime, had a student come up to you and say, “When I
grow up, I want to be a line leader”? Of course not! Raise the bar for
expectations. Change every classroom job into a real-world job. For
example:

• Line leader = tour guide

• Bathroom monitor = security
• Pet keeper = zoologist
 • Paper monitor = materials handler or logistics
• Aquarium keeper = marine biologist
• Caboose = security

Connecting school to the real world and careers is a hope builder.

Including Affirmations of Hope

Class posters and placards should contain affirmations of hope (for
example, “The harder I work, the luckier I get”), and students should read
books about hope and successful role models. For example, consider A
Mighty Girl (www.amightygirl.com) books, which focus on girl-led titles
for all ages.
Each day, a different student can be responsible for writing and sharing
a positive affirmation for the class. Keep these fresh, and rotate them
around the room. Over time, let students contribute their own affirmations.
Affirming capacity is a hope builder. See figure 3.2 for a sample class
poster including an affirmation of hope.
Figure 3.2: Sample class poster.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a reproducible version of this figure.

Build Students’ Self-Concept and Effort Levels

Most teachers who struggle with students will tell you that their students
act out in class, don’t do their homework, are disrespectful, and are often
tardy. Now ask the high-performing teacher what’s wrong with those same
students, and you’ll hear, “I love my students! They work hard, work
together, and are getting better every week.” What’s different: the students?
No, strong teachers purposefully choose to affirm student strengths.
They choose to build student self-concept and effort levels. The struggling
teachers choose to break down students, making them feel small by
pointing out their flaws (as if no one else has flaws). To help your students
grow, make it your mission to find and develop their strengths. This does
not mean you are blind to their weaknesses. It means building them up
enough that they can deal with error corrections and helpful feedback.
Here’s how you can do it.
 Using a Power Minute
At least once a week (it’s usually best on a Monday or Friday), have
students share something about themselves in a power minute. Consider the
following topics.

• One strength they have

• Someone they care about
• Someone they have helped recently
• Something they admire in others
• How they helped a friend lately
• A goal or milestone they have reached lately

Don’t ask all students to share in a single day; stretch the activity out
over a few months. To keep the activity fresh, rotate how you do it, and
keep the sharing under four minutes. For example, students can share in
four ways: (1) on paper or in a journal, (2) to their study buddy, (3) within a
cooperative learning group or team, or (4) with the whole class. Remember
to respect their privacy, and give them time to become comfortable with
these powerful self-affirmations. Also, remember to praise effort, choices,
strategies, and attitudes, as a student can manage each of these. Never
praise or showboat about a student’s intelligence or how smart he or she is,
as this is an ineffective form of feedback (Mueller & Dweck, 1998; Rattan,
Savani, Chugh, & Dweck, 2015).

Listening Without Judgment

Teach others (and yourself) to listen without judgment. Be the listener
that you wish others would have been for you as a student. Sometimes
students are clumsy at giving feedback, but they still have useful things to
say. Listen past the negative feelings, and ask yourself, “Is there anything I
can learn from what this student said?”
In short, before you react, get defensive, or get angry, pause to listen.
Search for the most actionable jewel of change. Ask yourself, “Can I learn
anything, even if it’s what not to do?” This attitude of always learning will
help your students grow. For example, if a student says, “You don’t make
any sense,” take the feedback as a gift. Say, “I’m sorry. Would you suggest I
say it differently, go slower, or maybe draw it out?”

Affirming Student Strengths With a Connection

Use attribution in your affirmations. Attribution is connecting the cause
and effect of an action to the outcome. Always affirm their strengths with a
connection. It’s not enough to say, “Eric, you really write well” (Rattan et
al., 2015). Say, “Eric, when you add practical strategies, I understand better
what you are talking about. Plus, that strategy will help with your dream of
publishing a book.”
It’s also helpful to make the connection as detailed as possible: “Eric, I
like how you supported your argument here in this paragraph with evidence.
That skill may help you reach your goal of being an author.” When students
hear you (as an authority figure) affirm their effort and connect it to how
that strength will do some good in the world, students take more pride in
their strengths and work harder.
One thing to keep in mind is how much a student’s understanding of
effort and ability is dependent on age. Nicholls and Miller (1984) describe
four levels of attribution theory.

• Level 1 (from five to six years old): Students do not understand

the difference between effort and ability or cause and effect.
• Level 2 (from seven to nine years old): Students attribute
outcome purely to effort.
• Level 3 (from ten to eleven years old): Students can distinguish
between ability and effort but will often still mix them up.
• Level 4 (twelve years and older): Students clearly understand the
difference between effort and ability.

While attributing a success or failure to a trait that we have some

control over (like effort, attitude, or strategy) remember to ensure your
comments are developmentally appropriate.

Creating a Classroom Directory

 Some teachers help students create a classroom version of Facebook,
where students list two to three of their strengths and include details about
their friends and family so the class gets a sense of who they are. This class
directory can be a three-ring binder or posted online to the classroom
webpage of the school’s site. Using this information, some teachers create a
classroom experts directory, so students know who to go to when they need
help. Students can be the in-house experts on fixing technology, clothes
purchases, trivia, sports, games, and yes, even classroom content.

Develop Hope Relentlessly

In figure 2.1 (page 16), you saw that the poor hear far more negative
comments at home than the middle or upper class. Many students have also
learned how to become defensive and sarcastic from their teachers. Please
refrain from using the following negative expressions, and consider the
positive alternatives.

• Old way: “How about if you show up on time tomorrow, for a

change?”
Positive way: “You’ve been on time twice this week. I love seeing
you on time!”
• Old way: “Shock me, and bring in some homework tomorrow.”
Positive way: “Eric, I would love to see your homework tomorrow.
I’m hoping you remember that your homework is not graded. I just
want you to take a few minutes to practice what we do in class. It
helps your brain sort out the learning and save it for later.”
• Old way: “You are doing it this way because I said so!”
Positive way: “We do this because it is safer, and it includes
everyone else in the room.”
• Old way: “Eyes up here! I want everyone to see how Eric is sitting
up straight, ready to learn. You all please do this too.” (Students
dislike being compared to other students.)
Positive way: “Right now, we’ve got 40, 50, now we’re already at
60 percent and going higher with a great ready-to-learn posture.
 Let’s keep going to 100 percent.”
• Old way: “You’re never going to graduate. Not with how (lazy,
stubborn, annoying, or tardy) you’ve been in my class.”
Positive way: “Could you hang out for just a moment after class?”
Then, after class, you say, “I like having you in my class. Have you
ever thought about what you want to be doing in five, ten, or fifteen
years? Maybe we can take a few moments on another day and flesh
out some ideas. Are you OK with that?”

Consider using such positive sentiments with the following strategies.

Supporting Dreams
Why not ask students what they want to be doing ten years after they
graduate? You have no idea who a student might become. Consider Monty,
a high school student from Salinas, California (Canfield & Hansen, 2013).
It is a predominately low-income area, where most of the employment is in
agriculture. In English class, his teacher asked him to write about his life
dream for ten years after graduation. Monty wrote a seven-page paper,
detailing how he wanted to own a two hundred–acre ranch with a four
thousand–square-foot house where he could train thoroughbreds. His
teacher gave him an F on the paper. Why? He said that his dream was
unrealistic (after all, he was poor). The teacher told Monty that part of the
assignment was to be practical, and his dream was totally impractical. He
offered Monty a chance to rewrite his paper. After thinking about it
overnight and talking it over with his dad, Monty returned to class and told
his teacher, “I’ll tell you what; you keep the F, and I’ll keep my dream.”
When students do share dreams, don’t criticize or judge them; accept and
support them.
By the way, Monty did get his dream. Today, he owns a two hundred–
acre ranch in Solvang, California, where he raises and trains thoroughbreds
as well as offers training for other horse trainers from around the world.
Monty is the original horse whisperer. He does have a four thousand–
square-foot house and has written multiple bestsellers. He has trained
horses from royalty, and a movie was made about his life. Not bad for a
student whose teacher thought his dreams were too big. What would you
say to a student of yours who wants to be a billionaire, rap mogul,
president, doctor, neuroscientist, or astronaut? Here’s the right answer: “I
love your dream! Let’s sit down and make a plan.”

Building Strong Relationships

Relationships matter. Very few things foster hope and optimism for
students like quality relationships with adults. Healthy relationships allow
each party to see that they are worthy and capable. Strong adult role models
can be the rock in a student’s life. I am absolutely sold on the power of
relationships because they are what changed my own life. Here are the five
best areas to target relationships at your school.

1. Teacher to student: Learn three things about every student besides

his or her name. Make each student, even the most difficult one,
into your greatest ally with friendship and listening. Ask students to
write a paragraph titled, “What I wish my teacher knew about me.”
2. Teacher to teacher: Work to create a schoolwide culture of
friendship, trust, and collaboration. Use these magic phrases with
other staff: “I am sorry,” “I appreciate what you did,” “I agree with
your premise,” “Thank you so much,” “Can I give you a hand?,” “It
was my mistake. How can I make it right?,” and “I respect what
you did.”
3. Student to student: Set a weekly target to make 50 percent or
more of student time collaborative. This can help students make
more of an effort and improve their behavior and achievement.
Because affiliation and status seeking are important to students,
collaboration can allow for both. Ensure students have mentors,
study buddies, and teams to work with. Help each student feel like
an important part of your class with inclusion, roles, and support.
Start the year with get-to-know-you activities, and use names in
class to build camaraderie and teamwork. Have students write a
one-page paper on “What I wish other students knew about me.”
4. Staff to the community: In the first four to six weeks of school,
visit the homes of your students. When staff do this, it’s a way of
saying to parents, “You’re important, and your child is important.”
 At the secondary level, select one to three students from each class
to visit.
5. Teacher to parents: Be part of the Parent/Teacher Home Visit
Project (www.pthvp.org). When your school commits to this, you
are likely to see miracles. Parents are usually blown away when a
teacher visits their home. It shows the teacher’s depth of care, and
as a result, the parent often reciprocates. Does your school offer
events that parents and others in the community may be interested
in, such as arts performances, science fairs, and parent workshops
on how to help children succeed? Start up a weekly Parent
University, and help parents “graduate” from your school with new
parenting strategies, cooking ideas, stress tools, and other skills to
make their lives easier.

Quick Consolidation
I have come to understand why daily optimism and positive energy
work so well. It’s more than engagement. It’s more than a coping tool or
happy face in the classroom. Teachers who build a positivity mindset rewire
their students’ brains in profound ways, even affecting their genes
(Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).
You learned several ways to strengthen students’ points of view and
daily positive outlooks. For many students, losing hope means the game is
over—students may drop out. What you have seen so far is this: students do
not create their own attitudes in a vacuum. They get them from others,
including you. The good news is that you have students in a nearly perfect
situation (trapped, in a good way) to influence their brains. Use these
positive strategies every day, and you’ll start seeing and hearing positive
students over time. Your own attitude should be, “Take charge; my students
are going to develop great attitudes, and positivity will come from me every
day!”
Where can you start today?
 CHAPTER 4

BUILD POSITIVE ATTITUDES

The transformation of your classroom culture continues with a look at some

research on building positive attitudes. We started with boosting skills that
have a strong research base: optimism and hope. Now, we build on those
traits with a focus not on oneself but on others. These are social traits that
change lives.

• Gratitude building
• Service work and acts of kindness
• Personal responsibility and self-regulation

Gratitude Building
Let’s start with gratitude building. Occasionally, teachers raise their
eyebrows when I talk about gratitude, as if they think that gratitude is
something only the elderly ask of their grandchildren: “Be grateful for what
you have!” Actually, it is a transformative human trait, and here’s the
research that proves how powerful it is.
In a study with 221 early adolescents, having a grateful outlook was
associated with enhanced self-reported optimism and life satisfaction and
decreased negative affect. The most significant finding is the robust
relationship between gratitude and satisfaction with school experience
(Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008). This is the key for you; model an attitude
of gratitude. Gratitude affirms what we experience is good. Through
gratitude, we see there are good things in the world. Gratitude grants a gift
to those receiving it and invites us to see how others have supported us.
This makes gratitude both personal and social. Studies suggest that this
“find, remind, and bind” attitude that is part of gratitude can change your
life (and your students’ lives) for the better. In our relationships, it’s
important we remind others of our gratitude, which helps us connect better
(Algoe, 2012). Most of your students have not yet learned this skill. Yet,
this gratitude-building process builds new brain pathways that protect us all
from stress and negativity by fostering relationships and appreciation
(Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008). Let’s begin by building an emotional bank
account stacked with gratitude. See figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: The emotional bank account.

To start building this emotional bank account every day, share with your
students something that you are grateful for (your health, family, job,
friends, the weather, and so on). Students need to see an adult showing
gratitude; if you’re not grateful, they’re less likely to buy into the attitude
they need to learn.
Your openness will, over time, help students to become more
comfortable sharing their gratitude with others. If your students like and
respect you, they’re more likely to see building gratitude as something good
that they’d like to try out. An expert in gratitude at the University of
California, Davis, shares these research-based tips for your gratitude
process (Emmons, 2007; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). Share them with
students.

• Keep it personal: Focusing on people to whom you are grateful

has more of a positive impact than focusing on things for which
you are grateful. Think about others’ support, sacrifices, and
contributions.
• Start with a goal: Set a positive, grateful goal in a personal or
classroom journal. Motivation to become more satisfied and joyful
helps add value to the journaling.
• Favor depth over breadth: Elaborating deeply about one thing is
better than glossing over many things. Focus on what is surprising
and unexpected. Think of facts about your life, such as advantages
and opportunities.
• Use a take-away-the-goodness strategy: Reflect on what your life
would be like without a certain positive event (versus all the
positives).
• Reflect on the good things weekly: Writing once a week will
facilitate greater boosts in happiness than writing three times per
week (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). As your brain adapts, when
you expect a good thing every day, it can lose its impact. “Let’s
journal about one thing that happened this week at school for which
we’re thankful.”
• Keep the gratitude process fresh: Once students have learned to
share daily gratitude, mix up the process, using the following five
strategies.
a. Sharing with a buddy—Students share their feelings of
gratitude with a partner.
b. Using a journal—Students write their feelings of gratitude
in a gratitude journal.
 c. Starting small—Students share just one small thing (in
detail) that they are grateful for with a peer.
d. Sharing in a circle—Students share in a small circle, which
affirms the value of gratitude. After each speaks, others
thank him or her. This reinforcement establishes that
gratitude is good, especially when it’s shared, which creates
group norms.
e. Making a poster—Students can work with a partner or a
small team to create a poster. Alternatively, create a gratitude
poster that students can add to over time. Students sign it,
see it, and take pride in it (see figure 4.2, page 38).

Never think that student attitudes are outside your influence. You can
and do influence them every day. But beware: if you do one of the gratitude
activities as a simple time filler, you are highly unlikely to get any good out
of it. Make the activity happen for five to seven minutes a day, three times a
week, for two to six months. Constantly tweak the activity to keep it fresh
with just enough novelty to prevent student boredom. Increase the challenge
and complexity of the activity so the process becomes a worthwhile mental
journey instead of a mindless routine.
Now we’ll take a look at how service work and acts of kindness support
the positivity mindset.
Figure 4.2: Sample gratitude poster.

Service Work and Acts of Kindness

Research shows that daily acts of kindness create changes in the lives of
the giver and receiver (Otake, Shimai, Tanaka-Matsumi, Otsui, &
Fredrickson, 2006). In fact, kind people experience more happiness (Otake
et al., 2006). Many programs that build student character include the simple
strategy to help students become net givers instead of net takers.
One study found that the biggest boost in happiness was when people
piled up three to five acts in one day instead of stretching them out over
time (Layous & Lyubomirsky, 2014). Pick just one day a week for extra
kindnesses like those mentioned in this section. This experience seems to
intensify positive emotions, creating a much greater emotional high. See
figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3: Stack up the kindness.

Service Work
Service work means simply doing public work. Why would students
want to do this? Read “12 Reasons Community Service Should Be
Required in Schools” (Online College, 2012) to learn the benefits of
community service for students.
Where would you or your students start? Use the following as sources
for ideas.

• Local and national news: Look for the stories on existing projects
that others are doing, like a book drive. Many of them could use
help.
• Local animal shelters: Volunteers are used for animal support
tasks, such as cleaning cages, answering phones, or making shelter
waiting rooms a nicer area.
• Parks, community orchards, and beaches: Environments always
have needs that students can fill. Students can plant trees, clean up
unsightly areas, or do beach trash pickups.
 • Seniors and nursing homes: Many senior citizens would relish the
time and help as would a private nursing home where volunteers
are also needed. Contact the recreation director who plans
activities.
• Agencies: During the holidays, students can work with agencies
that need temporary help. There are many agencies that need food
or gifts for deserving families. Your students can ask for donations.
• Military families: Look up organizations that ship packages to
troops, such as Operation Gratitude (www.operationgratitude.com)
or Operation Troop Support (http://operationtroopsupport.org). Get
donations and support our troops.

Look for agencies that experience pervasive challenges, for example,

shelters that feed the homeless daily need fresh vegetables. This problem is
something that a school can eliminate by raising crops and donating the
vegetables. (Visit http://katieskrops.com to learn how one child began
growing and donating fresh cabbage to a local soup kitchen and how others
have joined her.) If your students want to broaden their reach, visit
www.dosomething.org/us/campaigns to read about what others are doing
and find an already operating campaign. (Visit
go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to access live links to the websites
mentioned in this book.)

Acts of Kindness
In a study of nineteen elementary classrooms, researchers asked
students to perform three acts of kindness per week over the course of four
weeks. Students who did so experienced significant increases in peer
acceptance, which translated to better behaviors (Layous, Nelson, Oberle,
Schonert-Reichl, & Lyubomirsky, 2012). This sounds good, but what about
adolescents?
At the secondary level, another study had similarly good findings:
students who engaged in daily acts of kindness behaved better in school and
strengthened their resolve to improve academically (Ouweneel, Le Blanc, &
Schaufeli, 2014). Acts of kindness are easy; simply invite students to try
these out while at school.
Consider using the Magic Three strategy and creating lists to stack up
your acts of kindness.

The Magic Three

The Magic Three strategy uses the words respect, agree, and appreciate
to defuse and de-escalate any situation. When a student experiences
conflict, students start arguing, or a student starts shouting or gets upset,
here’s what to do. Remember, others need to feel that their voices are heard
first.

1. If you want them to listen, you go first and say, “I respect (your
right to say that, your feelings, the work you put in, your passion, or
how you feel about that).”
2. You can also say, “I agree with (your position, strategy,
understanding of the topic, or problems).” You may not agree with
their strategy, but you can agree with their intention (the need to
change a rule or system).
3. Finally, you can say, “I appreciate (the hard work you put in, the
way you care about this, your commitment, or you wanting to talk
this through).”

Notice how these openings—respect, agree, and appreciate—slow

things down, soften the tone, and let the student know that you do see good
in him or her. Once students feel they’ve had a chance to be heard, you can
have a much more productive (and less combative) conversation.

Acts-of-Kindness Lists
Empower students to create their own acts-of-kindness lists so they can
do the things they’ve chosen for themselves. Here are some suggestions to
help students get started.

• Letting another student go ahead of you in line

• Taking garbage to the trash can
 • Sharing a favorite song
• Helping someone at lunch
• Helping a friend fix something
• Helping another student with homework
• Sharing food or movie ideas
• Getting a tissue for someone who needs it (like after a sneeze)

Ensure students acknowledge each other publicly (if they give

permission) as well as privately for their kind deeds. Over time, this will not
just help students feel better about themselves but just may transform your
school culture.
Next, we look at the role of personal responsibility in building attitudes
of gratitude and contributing to the positivity mindset.

Personal Responsibility and Self-Regulation

Many truisms become part of people for so long that it is easy to forget
how powerful they are and the effect they have. For example, it’s likely that
years ago, someone said to you (or you figured out), “It’s not what happens
to you in life that shapes your future, it is how you deal with what
happens.”
In other words, you’re not always responsible for what happens to you
in life. But you sure are responsible for how you respond to what happens.
You will feel frustrated, receive criticism, fall down, get hurt, fail, and
endure bad luck. There’s no shortage of real-world examples. When Amy
Purdy (Amy Purdy, n.d.) was nineteen, she contracted meningococcal
meningitis. She lost her spleen, kidney function, the hearing in her left ear,
and, due to septic shock, both of her legs below the knee. But, as I’ve
stated, Amy realized she wasn’t responsible for what happened to her. She
wasn’t going to shrink from life. As a double amputee, Amy became a
Paralympic snowboarder, a best-selling author, motivational speaker,
clothing designer, and an inspiration on Dancing With the Stars. When bad
things happen to you, say, “Welcome to the club called humanity.” We all
experience our unique lives, full of pain and joy. Amy’s attitude helped her
be a success.
When you learn to regulate your intentions, you become a player, not a
bystander. You become a force to be reckoned with because you manage
your emotions and have a better work ethic. Your students can deal with
this process by mastering how to run their own brains, learn from real-
world examples, reframe to stay positive, handle negatives constructively,
and choose their battles.

Running Your Own Brain

An important way for students to take personal responsibility over their
actions and commit to a positive mindset is learning how to run their own
brains. Simply teach your students the following skills. (See appendix B,
page 163, for a more in-depth look at running your own brain.)

• Share with your students simple strategies to de-stress (tense up

and release, take a walk, take slow deep breaths, or redirect
attention to something more fun).
• Teach students how to resist bad temptations (distract yourself,
reframe it, move your feet quickly past the situation, or have a
prepared way of saying no).
• Coach students on how to deal with bad feelings (talk it out with a
friend, go work out, write out how you feel, or take time to reflect
on whether reconciliation is possible).
• Instruct students how to deal with negative feedback. If you don’t
teach them how to respond, they’ll never get better (take some time
to sort it out and ask for suggestions to improve).
• Teach students how to engage in constructive self-talk. Role model
it, and then give them a weekly assignment with a partner (“Man, I
let myself fall behind, but I have to get caught up. I have to start a
new habit today” or “I feel bad I forgot about my assignment. I
should’ve written it down. I need to make an effort to write down
everything I have to do”).
 Another way students can run their own brains is through self-
regulation. Teach students the following skills.

• Resisting impulsivity
• Assuming good in others
• Paying lengthy attention
• Learning from mistakes
• Complying with adult requests, as appropriate
• Deferring gratification
• Managing stress
• Managing negative self-talk
• Being patient before getting angry
• Thinking before responding
• Having situational awareness

Role modeling is key to teaching students how to run their own brains.
Consider the following teacher-student conversation.

Teacher: You’ve got a great attitude about learning. What’s needed to help get
you to proficiency is a more locked in, focused effort until you’re done.
As I said, you’ve got a lot going for you. Now, tell me what you heard
me say.
Student: I heard you say that I ain’t working hard enough.
Teacher: That’s part of it. I said two things. First, I appreciate your attitude, and I
like that about you. Second, a more solid effort will help you get the
grades that will help you graduate.
Student: Well, what if I don’t care whether I graduate or not?
Teacher: Your high school diploma simply gives you more choices in life. You
want your own car? A diploma helps you get the job that buys the car.
You may not like certain classes in school, but school helps you develop
and nail down habits like everyday attitudes, job skills, people skills, on-
time habits, and work effort. In school, we practice learning and
accomplishing things. Why? You can use them in your life and get paid
for them in your job. Does that make sense?
Student: Yeah, I get it. I just don’t feel like doing this.
 Teacher: I get it too; that’s part of growing up. You won’t like everything in the
world that you have to do. I don’t like washing my car, taking out the
trash, or paying bills, but I do it. Tell you what; let’s meet for three
minutes after class, and I’ll help you make a plan that might save you
some time. Can you meet me halfway on this?

Learning From Real-World Examples

Share a real-world role model’s quote or book with students. Choose
someone who takes personal responsibility for his or her actions and writes
about how to do that; think again about Amy Purdy (page 41). Your
students need to know they are not alone. Successful people have learned to
be responsible because that is what works in life.

Reframing to Stay Positive

Teach the skills of reframing to stay positive. Students can learn to say
to themselves, “Maybe I am having a bad day” instead of “My life stinks”
or “I didn’t do well on this test” instead of “I’m an idiot.” Find a way,
mentally, to refrain from judgment or criticism and instead see another’s
point of view. Teach students that sometimes the source of the negativity is
a constant, and it’s best to spend less time around it.

Handling the Negatives Constructively

Post the sign What to Do When It’s Not Working in your class. The sign
should have a simple five-step process that every student can follow: (1)
take a deep breath, (2) say “I can do this,” (3) list three things to do
differently to help lead to success, (4) try out your best of the three choices,
and (5) evaluate progress and either continue or go back to step 1. Visit
go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download a free reproducible of this
sign.
When you criticize a student, often he or she has no clue how to behave
or respond. The student may not have been taught the right skills at home,
or chronic stress could be dominating his or her behaviors. Neither of those
are the student’s fault. Stop telling students what to do. Teach them how to
behave, or they will counterattack or go silent. Without teaching them how,
students will get in trouble over and over and soon the suspensions will
follow. Unless you help, they may drop out.
 Some students don’t have the skills to speak their mind, but it’s
important for the teacher to stand up for them and be polite and civil about
the situation. Encourage upset students to say, “Listen, I am sorry I messed
up. I just didn’t know what else to do. Help me out, and please tell me what
you want me to do instead of telling me what’s wrong.”

Choosing Your Battles

Teach your students never to argue with a constantly negative or angry
person. Role model this with your students. In class, when things get out of
hand with a student, simply say, “I respect your point of view and
appreciate what you’re saying. It does sound like you and I have to sort
some things out. Let’s do this privately a bit later so the rest of the class can
move forward.” Otherwise, both of you will end up feeling worse in the
end. Listen to what the student said, but if nothing applies to you, let it go.
If the shoe fits, pick it up and try it out. If it doesn’t, leave it alone. Simply
breathe in good thoughts, and breathe out the stress. You and your students
have more important things to do.

Quick Consolidation
Every time I read about or visit with high performers, I learn something
profound. These teachers are a magnificent walking database of insights
and solutions. A surprising focus for these teachers is on the power of
emotions and how they impact others. You may be one of many who
already tap into this powerful tool. In this chapter, you got several key
strategies proven to help students become more positive.

• Gratitude building
• Service work and acts of kindness
• Personal responsibility and self-regulation

After all, no matter how good your students get, unless you help them
internalize those strengths and feel good about themselves for a solid
reason, they will always have paralyzing doubts that hold them back.
 CHAPTER 5

FOSTER CONTROL, CHOICE, AND

RELEVANCY

This chapter continues to fill your toolbox with tools for building the
positivity mindset. When students are in a positive state of mind, they have
fewer behavioral issues and better academic results. Control, choice, and
relevancy are core factors that suggest the potency of what I call the
invisible teaching velocity—a process so subtle that other teachers may
miss it when watching rich teaching. It’s easy to miss these strategies.
Why? They may seem inconsequential, but they are not. When you give
students more choice and control over their daily experiences and show
them the relevancy of what they’re doing, you can reach them emotionally
and personally. But why do these three work so well, and why should you
care? That’s the topic of this chapter, but first you’ll want a brief bit of
background.

Evidence for Control, Choice, and Relevancy

We have all heard a teacher say that his or her students don’t try, work
hard, or put out effort. If you’ve had those thoughts before, this chapter is
for you. The three items in the chapter title—(1) control, (2) choice, (3)
relevancy—actually occur sequentially in a well-run classroom.
When students feel stressed, they crave control. When my wife gets
stressed, she will relish doing housework because it helps her feel some
mastery (control) over her life. For me, I do garage and yard work. Having
control lowers stress. Once you have control, you want choice. But not all
choice is good choice; it has to be relevant. Let’s begin with a review of
what is common among students from poverty.
In a classroom at a high-poverty school, you’ll often see tense dynamics
over classroom control. Teachers want to control their students so they
don’t get out of line. Students want more control so they are pushing
boundaries and often starting conflicts. But you’re reading this book so that
you can make your work life more effective, so lean in and focus on this
next paragraph.
As we’ve discussed, students raised in poverty typically experience both
acute and chronic stress at higher levels than middle- and upper-class
learners (Evans & Schamberg, 2009). In addition, those from lower-
socioeconomic statuses typically have fewer coping skills and face more
stressors, longer-lasting stressors, and more severe, intense stressors (Evans,
2004). There are only two primary behavioral responses to chronic
stressors: (1) hypervigilance (high level of alertness, being edgy and angry)
or (2) learned helplessness (detached and demotivated; Maier & Watkins,
2005). Have you seen students in either of those two states?
This means you often have edgy, stressed students showing up at
school. Now, let’s tie this to our chapter title. A student’s perception of
control over stress is a potent coping mechanism that may convey resilience
because feeling more in control lowers stress (Yehuda, Flory, Southwick, &
Charney, 2006). That’s why control and choice are key.
Choice and control are critical because your students need them both,
but they rarely get them. Remove these from a school setting, and you will
lose your students. Stress and control are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
But feeling more in control lowers stress (Yehuda et al., 2006). It’s a breath
of fresh air. That’s why your students crave more control at school; they are
rarely getting it at home. Helping your students feel control over a stressor
reduces the behavioral and neurochemical consequences of future
uncontrollable stressors (like threats from their neighborhood, peers, or
home; Amat, Paul, Zarza, Watkins, & Maier, 2006; Baratta et al., 2009).
This phenomenon is called behavioral immunization, meaning you can
actively reshape your students’ stress circuitry. For example, giving
students a mildly stressful event (like speaking in front of peers) can
immunize the student, thereby strengthening resistance to subsequent
stressors. Such a boost to a student’s immunological memory can increase
stress resilience. You must ask yourself every day, “How do I empower my
students with a balance of stress and control so they feel alive and ready to
take on tough academic and social challenges?” This is where relevance
comes in. When students feel invested in what they’re learning, if they
understand how it applies to their lives (or you remind them of their dreams
and related goals you mapped out with them), they’re experiencing
increased control.
When control increases, a sense of personal efficacy also increases.
Another study shows that students who perceive that their classrooms
accept and encourage their autonomy in the first few weeks increase their
engagement throughout the course, rather than withdraw from it (Hafen et
al., 2012).
I cannot be any blunter: help your students gain more control over their
daily lives in your class. Perceived control (the belief that your actions can
actually make a difference in your life) typically develops throughout young
adulthood. In school, task performance increases when students find value
and have interest in the content (O’Keefe & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014).
Learning to give away control to your students will help keep you from
struggling with students from poverty. Keep asking yourself, “How can I
engage students more, give them more control, and help them develop
leadership and autonomy?”
One salient way we can define all learning at school is through the
choice filter. Students learn either by choice or compliance—either it’s the
student’s idea (he or she chose it) or it was someone else’s (a teacher’s,
parent’s, friend’s, or so on). The brain saves choice learning pretty well,
because it’s more likely to be behaviorally relevant, but not compliance
learning. If the brain chooses to learn something, it finds it more relevant.
See figure 5.1.
Figure 5.1: Choice versus compliance.

Granting students choices and control over the content and when they
study it can enhance long-term memory (Murty, DuBrow, & Davachi, 2015;
Voss, Gonsalves, Federmeier, Tranel, & Cohen, 2011). (See chapter 12,
page 103, for more on memory.) This is powerful research; when students
choose, they are more likely to form strong memories.
This also tells us that gimmick-free choices are important (such as
allowing them to choose any topic to write about). Your students can tell
instantly when teachers use bribes, punishments, or rewards to coerce them.
Initially, a student’s response might be, “How do I play the game to avoid
pain or gain pleasure?” Ultimately, it is the strength of your relationship
with students that will help with their decision making (“That’s not a good
choice, but I like her, so I’ll roll with it”). In the short term, some reward-
based strategies might work, but be cautious about assuming all students
like rewards. You run the risk of students saying, “I didn’t really have a
choice. I was conned.” They will always correlate rewards, in the long haul,
with loss of control. There is no real choice if students cannot make a free,
uncoerced decision about the learning. Allow students to choose a topic to
learn, the type of presentation (such as PowerPoint, lecture, or a skit), and
the week in which to present it. Stop using concrete rewards (like points for
prizes or parties), and start with what matters most to students: a feeling of
control, choice, and meaning (relevance). For example, selecting a student’s
mathematics or science project to appear in a fair is both relevant and status
building. It is how we feel that is most important to us.
Students feel more in charge of their lives when they get to choose. A
secondary mathematics teacher gave his students one hundred problems to
start a semester (Soloveichik, 1979). He also gave them choices about when
to do the problems and whether to do the problems. Most students
completed all of them each semester (Soloveichik, 1979). Students are more
likely to love mathematics when they understand how to do the problems,
when it is a social activity, and when they get choices.
It’s critical to “sell the choice” by drawing attention to it and the
benefits of having it because otherwise, they won’t see it or appreciate it.
Your goal is to make the choice sound good so that students are excited
about being able to choose. For example, say something like, “Hey, we are
about to do something, but first, I have an idea. How many of you would
like to have a choice on whether you work alone or with a partner so you
can do things your way? (Hands go up.) Great, I thought so. How many
would rather choose from among three project ideas instead of me assigning
one to you? This time, you do get a choice, so go ahead and get started.”
When students share their choices, honor them. Never diminish
students’ choices. If a student makes a poor choice, say, “I would never
have guessed that you would choose that. Tell me more about your decision.
How did you come up with it?” This shows that you care. On a practical
note, remember to be mindful of your voice volume and tonality. Never yell
at students or embarrass them in front of their peers. Certainly avoid
sarcasm and threats to your students, since both may trigger the stress
response.
Figure 5.2 offers strategies for control, choice, and relevancy. The
following sections describe these in more detail. Then, we’ll take a look at
control, choice, and relevancy in action in a real classroom.

Quick Writes
Some teachers struggle to come up with choices all day. One of the
simplest strategies is also one of the most powerful: writing. Through
writing, students have a chance to express their voice. It also builds
vocabulary, formalizes thoughts, and organizes ideas. It’s a concrete
takeaway to show parents or store at home. These all contribute to a more
positive mindset because students feel more in control so their stress goes
down. Quick writes allow students to use choice for a short time. They
choose their own words and can solve a problem. Three groups of students
wrote about either a positive or negative emotional event for fifteen minutes
over three days (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006). At the end, which do you think
felt better, emotionally?

Figure 5.2: Strategies for control, choice, and relevancy.

If you predicted it was those who analyzed a negative event, you’re

correct! Students who wrote about and analyzed negative experiences
actually improved their well-being. Those who both wrote about and
analyzed their happiest moments reduced their well-being relative to those
who replayed these moments only (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006). The
takeaway is that it’s better to enjoy the good moments (replay without
analyzing) and analyze the bad moments for a better mood. This is a simple
but powerful tool that can help students influence their own attitudes.

Suggestions Box
A suggestions box is another form of choice; give students the right to
communicate their needs, voice an opinion, or make requests. Encourage
this input before class, during class, in notes you write, and during one-on-
one time. Ask, “What do you think?” or “How do you feel about this?”
Then, ask, “How could you let others know what you care about?”

Self-Assessments
Involve students in assessments. Give students access to the scores and
the potential follow-up strategies to fix any problems. Students can discuss
with their teacher the 3Ms. They are: (1) What is my milestone? (Where am
I right now or what score did I get?), (2) What is my mission? (How can I
get 100 percent on the next quiz or test?), and (3) What is my method to get
there? (What’s my plan to fulfill mission?). When your students can
effectively self-assess, they feel an important sense of control over their
lives.

Class Jobs
Grant autonomy through class jobs. Remind students weekly that they
always have a choice in life; they are their own bus drivers.

• Ensure students have key roles in class. These could include stretch
or energizer leader (fitness trainer), announcement maker (news
anchor), team leader (group manager), summarizer (writer or
reporter), logistics manager, and others.
• Give overt choices about when students can accomplish a task,
with whom they will do it, which format the work will be done on,
and what the deliverable will be. Just don’t make any two of those
choice variables at the same time.

Social Activities and Projects

 There are two main types of social activities: those inside or outside of
class. In-class activities include the use of problem-based learning, small-
group presentations, and teamwork on segments from a text, lesson plan, or
class-related website. Each requires and fosters the use of positive social
skills. Outside-of-class projects include mentoring other students,
participating in school-culture projects (banners, gardens, or events), or
doing community work (spending time with senior citizens, people with
disabilities, or the homeless). The beauty of outside-of-class activities is
that students make choices, use some control over their work, and sculpt it
for greater relevancy.

Control, Choice, and Relevancy in Action

Here’s what one successful high school mathematics teacher at a high-
poverty school does to give his students a sense of choice, control, and
relevancy (Irish, 2012). First, he introduces gutsy goals—that is, big, long-
term goals—by posting the mathematics score that students need on the
college entrance exam to be eligible for a scholarship. Second, to track the
progress of his mathematics classes, he posts the nearby competitor school’s
scores. Using his class’s test scores, he scores students at the advanced,
mastery, basic, approaching basic, and unsatisfactory levels. He then shares
the competitor’s scores.
He has taught students how to evaluate their scores and set actionable
goals for the next test. The students have chosen to keep track of their own
scores. When it’s time for students to share, he hears, “I got basic, but I
want mastery next time. I need to ask more questions in class” or “I got
advanced on the bowl game (recent quiz), but my partner did worse. I need
to make sure I’m helping him when we are doing class activities.” This
activity shifts ownership of learning from the teacher to the students.
Students can feel both autonomy and freedom to make choices. Notice how
this sense of autonomy he has fostered in his students drives their effort and
growth. This is what supporting choice, control, and relevancy is all about.

Quick Consolidation
 You saw two primary behavior responses to chronic stressors: (1)
hypervigilance (such as alertness, edginess, or anger) and (2) learned
helplessness (detachment and demotivation). You can either get frustrated
with students’ behavior or take action to help them and make your own
workplace a positive environment. Choice, control, and relevancy are
connected. Give your students relevant choices and help them develop
autonomy over their daily experiences. Most typical middle- and upper-
class students will get tastes of choice, control, and relevancy at home. But
students raised in poverty typically experience fewer of these, which can
generate helplessness and anger. The solution is to be mindful of these
success factors. These invisible factors are not typically in your standards or
lesson plans. But they should be. Can you start this process? When can you
begin?
 CHAPTER 6

CHANGE THE EMOTIONAL SET

POINT

Going back hundreds of years, two of the biggest mistaken beliefs include,
“The Earth is flat” and “Brains can’t change.” Today, we know better. The
Earth is round, and brains can change. In fact, the so-called set point for
weight management (feeling full) can be changed, as well as your tolerance
for pain (the ouch tolerance), your happiness (joy), and your stress level.
The emotional set point signifies a person’s most common emotional state.
For some, it is frustration and anger. For others, it is calmness and joy. The
good news is teachers can alter a student’s emotional set point.

What’s the relevance of this? We now know that we can help students
who were considered incorrigible, lazy, or aggressive. It just takes the right
mindset and skill set. When you do this, you are a richer teacher. The
problem is most people don’t have the mindset or know how to change the
set points, so their usual (and false) conclusion is, “Maybe it is just not
possible to change these students.” This conclusion is a huge mistake for
two reasons. First, the teacher is robbed of the joy of transforming a student
into a healthy adult who will find work, meaning, and success. Second, the
student (whom the teacher has given up on) becomes relegated to a life
absent of the joys of transformation, change, and meaning.

Evidence Behind the Emotional Set Point

 The majority of school-age students living in poverty is exposed to
multiple chronic stressors including violence, family turmoil, separation
from family members, and substandard living environments (Evans & Kim,
2012). Students are also more sensitive to social stress (Sripada, Swain,
Evans, Welsh, & Liberzon, 2014).
The human brain adapts to the chronic stress by creating a new normal
set point. While it is a coping tool, this also sets up the brain for problems.
Examples of new set points for stress are hypervigilance (aggressive, in-
your-face behavior) and hyporesponsiveness (learned helplessness). But
you can help change this rewired brain if you know how to do it. It is all
about the emotions.
Emotions run our brains, particularly those of school-age students. Our
behaviors rely on connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
Classroom behaviors that connect with emotions include learning (Delgado,
Nearing, LeDoux, & Phelps, 2008; Milad et al., 2007) and regulation
(Goldin, McRae, Ramel, & Gross, 2008; Lieberman et al., 2007). These are
both critical for success because coping well requires interplay between
cognition and emotions. Coping well reduces reactivity to stress in school,
which can lead to academic success (Adler, Conklin, & Strunk, 2013).
The good news is that this set point for happiness is adjustable, and
changing it is transformative for students and you too. Long-running
research surveys show that personal and economic choices matter more for
happiness than genes (Headey, Muffels, & Wagner, 2010). You can change
your students’ happiness set point but only if you know how to do it. The
key is consistency rather than holding a random event per week or month.
See figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Change students’ happiness set point.

Why are emotions so important in the classroom? The answer may

surprise you. When people are grumpy, they occasionally make poor
decisions. When depression, anger, or irritation is one’s semi-permanent life
state, he or she may often make poor decisions. When you teach students to
make better choices, and foster a better emotional climate, the student’s
emotional set point changes. This is not simple to do, but it is well worth it.
Improved emotions can foster better decisions, and better decisions can
foster improved emotions.
When students succeed and feel good at school, their daily happiness
improves. But it turns out that the type of happiness they’re feeling is what
matters (Catalino & Fredrickson, 2011). There are three types of happiness,
and each has a very different effect on your students, both at a practical
level and even at a genetic level (Catalino & Fredrickson, 2011).

1. Spontaneous happiness: The enjoyment to be found in the

moment (ice cream, a surprise of a beautiful flower opening up, a
smile, a gift, a kiss, or sunset)
2. Hedonic happiness: The pursuit of pleasure for its own sake (being
addicted to video games, online shopping, unhealthy foods,
gambling, excess TV, or hoarding)
 3. Eudaimonic happiness: The joyful satisfaction of long-term
pursuit of worthwhile goals (becoming part of an athletic team that
has a good season, learning a tough new skill, building something
relevant, or leading an interesting project)

See figure 6.2. You might think, “Happy is happy. It’s just a matter of
how mild or intense.” But there’s more to it than that.

Figure 6.2: Three types of happiness.

To understand how and why these tie into teaching, it’s important to
know how your brain responds differently to each of the three happiness
types.
The first type of happiness is spontaneous joy as from a surprise
(running into a good friend, eating a meal that turned out better than
expected, seeing or smelling a beautiful flower, or watching your hapless
team win at the last second). The primary distinction here is that the joy is
unplanned and unpursued. In the classroom, it could happen when a teacher
surprises her students with a joke, a fun energizer, a funny story, or an early
departure. The brain’s response is the release of dopamine, the
neurotransmitter of pleasure.
 Hedonic happiness is distinguished by two qualities: (1) it is a planned
pursuit, and (2) the person seeks pleasure as the outcome. This is known as
a hedonic experience, which is often, but not always, part of our everyday
lives. You may know people who have dangerous hobbies such as
gambling, unrestrained cravings for fatty or sweet foods, or alcohol
addiction, or even just spend excessive time on the Internet, shop
compulsively, or constantly gossip about peers. This hedonic pleasure has
some problems. In the classroom, you might reinforce hedonic happiness
with the chronic use of material rewards such as bribes of sweets and treats
or points redeemable for more rewards.
Again, the primary distinction here is that people plan and look forward
to a predictable outcome from the experience. Do you reward yourself with
food when something good happens? Do you promise good things to your
students if they behave right? That’s a likely mistake (Disabato, Goodman,
Kashdan, Short, & Jarden, 2015). The brain’s response to a prediction of
reward is the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter of pleasure (Sharot,
Shiner, Brown, Fan, & Dolan, 2009). But after several times, the brain
habituates to the reward, meaning that once the reward happens, it releases
no dopamine. The pleasure response diminishes, and the rewarded behavior
becomes a letdown. This type of happiness becomes harder and harder to
achieve. This is one reason why drugs are so addictive.
Humans can become addicted to anything: drugs, sex, sugar, fats, cars,
shopping, and crime. Addiction is a biological state that drives the organism
with a compulsive engagement to receive the rewarding stimuli, despite
adverse consequences and a loss of control over the behavior. In the
classroom, students can become driven to get a teacher’s reward, in spite of
it being bad for the student.
The third type of happiness is eudaimonic (pronounced you-day-monic).
Eudaimonic happiness leads directly to meaningful goals—just as
graduating (see the graduation mindset on page 121). Make it your goal to
foster an emotionally positive classroom climate. Happier students work
harder and are far more enjoyable to teach. This happy state comes not from
consuming but from producing something. It’s the byproduct of a sustained
effort in working toward something bigger than you: seeking purposeful
and meaningful goals. It’s the pursuit of big goals and mastery learning.
This type of joy actually fuels the drive to achieve and helps the body thrive
too. In fact, it’s even associated with increased gray matter in the brain
(Lewis, Kanai, Rees, & Bates, 2014). While there are some anatomical
exceptions and limitations, increases in gray matter (brain mass) and white
matter (myelin coating on connecting tissue between cells known as axons)
are associated with a higher brain functioning. In other words, it is
fabulous!
Those who found happiness by pursuing the greater good (long-term,
eudaimonic, purposeful goals) had a lower level of inflammatory gene
expression and strong antiviral and antibody gene expression (Algoe &
Fredrickson, 2011). This is a dramatically healthier profile, and the benefits
include better school attendance for the secondary students in the study.
These individuals are more likely to stay healthy, avoid drugs, and exhibit
greater resilience (Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, & Conway, 2009).
Wouldn’t you wish these benefits for your students?

How to Change Students’ Emotional Set Points

There are two ways to change students’ emotional set points: intensity
(like trauma, obviously not a good idea) or relevant duration (language
learning). In your classroom, this means you’ll be doing relevant things
over time. You can use meaningful projects, focus on the end product, tie
feedback to quality, and reinforce what is working. For example, K–12
students who work hard for long-term goals (like high school graduation)
may find meaning and joy in the process. Additionally, strong social ties,
the capacity to derive meaning, and personal growth are common
correlations for eudaimonic state (Ryff, 2014).

Use Meaningful Projects

Assign work projects that last longer than just a week or two. It turns
out that adolescents (grades 6–12) who focus over a semester or a year on
eudaimonic (long-term) pleasures have less risk of depression (Telzer,
Fuligni, Lieberman, & Galván, 2014). Ideas for you include relevant
project-based learning, service work, or team assignments with
collaboration over weeks and months. When you help your students do
meaningful, relevant projects (versus only short worksheets), they have a
better chance of getting healthier and happier! High-performing teachers do
these consistently.

Focus on the End Product

Start an assignment by first focusing on the end product. That means
you’ll want to get buy-in to the end goal and then strengthen the intensity of
the value. Tell students about the benefits, have them draw a picture of how
they’ll feel, ask them to share the benefits with a neighbor, and post up a
colorful picture of students succeeding at the project. Next, move on to
concentrate on the process. That is, the hook to involve students may be a
gutsy goal, and it also helps with relevancy (see page 45). But once students
get into the process, then you can focus on the quality of the work. That’s
where the satisfaction is.

Tie Feedback to Quality

Students need to learn what great work looks like. They also need to see
that their teachers care about the quality of their work, not how fast they can
get it done. Show great quality sample student work to your students so
they know what you want. Circulate the examples and post them in the
class. This ties their emotional satisfaction to a more lasting event, product,
or service.

Reinforce What Is Working

Ensure that you keep students in the game with simple reinforcers.
These include smiles, affirmations, celebrations, written feedback, team
bragging, shared individual success, partner comments, personal
interactions, and acknowledgments of quality work. This approach echoes
what researchers know: positive reinforcement works better than negative
reinforcement (Nelson, Demers, & Christ, 2014).
The eudaimonic state of happiness is an everyday mood-generating state
that works magic in your school. Students will attend class more when they
are sick less often. They try harder and succeed more often in school. This
cycles positive energy and hope back to the teachers, who in turn feel
affirmed and rewarded. This powerful process is invisible yet powerful
(Algoe & Fredrickson, 2011).

Quick Consolidation
There are several types of happiness. The serendipity of a simple,
surprising happy moment is, of course, still a great idea. But the pursuit of
pleasure for pleasure’s sake is not very good for our well-being. The long-
term pursuit of meaningful goals is actually more than invigorating; it’s
healthier and more positive than short-term pleasure seeking.
This is why tough projects and goals can work miracles with your
students. If you reflected on each of these earlier, you have already started
the process for a high-achieving classroom. These create a highly positive
classroom climate. Your students will love coming to school when you
sustain these in your work. How can you get started on these strategies?
 CHAPTER 7

LOCK IN THE POSITIVITY MINDSET

How do you get students to develop a rock-solid positive attitude? Every

highly successful teacher has to find his or her own way. One special
education teacher at the elementary level in the Midwest is typically the last
resort for her students. Josalyn Tresvant (The New Teacher Project, 2013)
teaches fifth graders in a high-poverty school in Memphis, Tennessee.
Everything she does is purposeful and designed to ensure that her students
will thrive. To establish relevance, she brings her prior banking experience
to the classroom, showing students why they need to learn mathematics,
reading, and writing.

She starts with developing a new identity for her students. She
addresses them as scholars and cultivates a no-excuses attitude in her class.
She empowers her students to take responsibility for how they’re doing in
several ways. She teaches them to start with themselves, not blame others.
Her students become proficient in technology, and she makes students’ data
available to them so they can see how they’re doing. She encourages
students to develop a positive attitude through accountability,
empowerment, and responsibility. She debriefs students on their progress to
shape their ongoing narratives and develop their identities.
Her students learn about attitudes in many ways during class. She
introduces her vision, the big goal. To help reach it, she teaches students to
reflect on their wins (classroom successes) and challenges (the current
problem to overcome). This helps her students link actions to goals using
attribution thinking: “When I do this, I get that.” As with other high
performers, she “walks the talk” and models what she teaches. For example,
she videotapes her classes and reviews her own work for mistakes or lost
opportunities.
This teacher is a light that shines every day with the positivity mindset.
She continually asks herself, “In what ways can I develop unbridled hope
and optimism and still keep my students grounded in reality?” These
positive attitudes are not only teachable, but countless teachers have already
proven to do an amazing job of teaching them. The preceding chapters have
shown you how to develop them in your students.

Change the Narrative, Change Your Teaching

The narrative is the explanatory description of what is happening in
your class. It includes both your and your students’ lives. You know you
have a choice in life, and you know that you can change your work (and
personal) life by changing your narrative. Are you willing to change your
narrative about success and failures? If so, you can script out a new (and
better) ending.
In the classroom it means you can raise student achievement (even
while putting out the same effort as before) if you first choose to change
your beliefs, attitudes, and mindsets that form the story. Your narrative is
one of the single strongest predictors of how your life unfolds. The
narrative is the ongoing story. When you become fully convinced that you
have a choice in life and don’t have to repeat the past, you realize that you
can change your life story. How can you do it?
In a way, you are writing a novel with your life. You choose where to
work, your life partners, and your friends. At work, you choose your words,
you influence each student interaction, and you make decisions. You don’t
always choose what happens to you, but you do choose how you respond to
what happens to you. You choose to color your day with either emotions of
positive energy, humility, grace, and confidence, or to fill the day with
complaints. Yes, you are choreographing your life. If it were a novel, would
it end well? What mindset narrative do you have? See figure 7.1.
You, as the teacher, are leading students to build a positive narrative.
Josalyn didn’t wake up in the morning and win a lottery. She made choices
that changed lives, again and again. Remember, you don’t always get to
choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond to what
happens to you. She doesn’t get to choose who her students are in class. But
she makes every day great for them. When you wake up each morning to go
to work, you can resolve to help your students succeed by using the success
tools of hope and optimism. In short, never ever let a chance to foster
positivity go to waste. You want to use every opportunity you can to make
your class awesome and help your students on the path to graduation.

Figure 7.1: You are your mindset—the positivity mindset.

Fill in the following blanks with your name and a strategy from this
mindset. Repeat the phrase daily until it’s automatic.
“I, ________, am committing to developing the positivity mindset with
my students every single day. I will begin with one of the strategies
mentioned, which is ________. I will continue this until I have mastery and
it’s automatic. At that point, I’ll learn something new to foster student
success.”

Reflection and Decision

All meaningful and lasting change starts with a mirror. Self-reflect first.
I thought I was positive until I met people who were really positive. Is this
possibly true for you? The positivity mindset is for every teacher. Once you
have it, sharing with students and instilling it daily will become second
nature. What is more important to you: helping your students become more
positive, or feeling comfortable with the old negative mindset?
The most important thing I’ve learned about life is this: you always
have a choice—even when you think you don’t. When your pay freezes for
another year, the state adopts a new set of curriculum standards, you
disagree with leadership at school, and you get students who are not
prepared or ready for your grade level or subject, you still have a choice.
You could complain about how bad things are and do nothing about it. But
that’s not productive.
At the end of the day (or month, or year, or even career), you’re no
better off being a complainer. You are more likely to become bitter and
miserable. Keep this at the front of your brain: you always have a choice. If
you aren’t happy where you are, find a different job in education, move
overseas and teach in an international school, or switch career paths and do
something entirely different. Do what you ask your students to do: focus on
optimism and hope, remember your strengths, be grateful, perform acts of
kindness, and take responsibility for how you react to what happens to you.
You can sculpt your life to be more awesome, or you can feel like a victim,
swimming away from sharks for the rest of your life. It’s your choice.
In other words, pause and ask a big question: “How do I want to invest
the rest of my career?” Are you going to dismiss the hard scientific research
on the power of positivity, claiming that it’s not your thing, or are you going
to make positivity your mindset, starting today? Your decision to develop a
positivity mindset in yourself and students includes (1) creating a new
narrative about your students and yourself, (2) choosing a positivity strategy
to develop with a fierce urgency, and (3) creating a support process to
ensure successful implementation. That support process may include talking
with colleagues, writing notes to yourself, and crafting lesson plans with
your new strategies and narratives. This is the truth about what it takes to
succeed in this tough, gritty profession. You can do this.

Quick Consolidation
The positivity mindset influences many areas of teaching. You get
opportunities to develop and foster positivity through optimism and hope;
positive attitudes; choice, control, and relevancy; and the emotional set
point. The hard work is in choosing, over and over, to do the work. The
work itself is just work—you already do that every day. You’re invited to
do the same amount of work you already do but just a little differently.
Once you begin supporting the positivity mindset, you’ll be growing
students emotionally every day. Next up, let’s build your students
cognitively.
 PART TWO
WHY THE ENRICHMENT MINDSET?
 CHAPTER 8

SECRETS OF THE ENRICHMENT

MINDSET

Like many teachers at the beginning of the school year, I used to notice
myself making those instant judgments about my students as they arrived.
Today, in light of the new research on teacher beliefs and mindsets, I am
embarrassed to admit thinking things like, “I’ll bet she will do really well”
or “He probably won’t do that well.” Even though I thought of myself as
positive and encouraging to my students, in retrospect, I would bet that
students could sense my small doubts. In fact, they were hearing, “My
teacher doesn’t like me or believe in me.”

Your first response may be, “It’s only human to think that way.”
Although you might be right, if your goal is to maximize every student’s
potential, you just dropped the ball. A teacher who thinks this is not
supporting the enrichment mindset. While those with the growth mindset
(Dweck, 2008) say, “We can all grow,” the enrichment mindset broadens
the concept to “We can all grow above and beyond what we thought was
possible.”
The question I should have asked was: “If I actually buy that all
students can learn, why would I put any mental limit on a student?” The
answer is important. When I thought about some students having a
cognitive limitation, the person I was really thinking about was myself.
Yes, it’s true. When a teacher, anywhere, talks about a student’s
cognitive limitations, he or she is commonly talking about his or her own
limitations. Teachers with this thinking are talking about their own inability
to reach and teach students in ways that propel them forward. If teachers
say that they’ll never be able to improve the IQ of a student with learning
delays, that is their own personal experience and history of frustrations.
Students with learning delays are typically behind grade level in speech,
language, memory, and writing skills. But on a larger scale, IQ in learning-
delayed students often improves with the right strategies (Duyme, Dumaret,
& Tomkiewicz, 1999).

The Enrichment Mindset

The following chapters are all about building the enrichment mindset.
To grasp the mindset, we can contrast it with the opposite mindsets—fixed
—of teachers who struggle with growing the capacity of students. As a
reminder, the fixed mindset suggests that personal characteristics are
unchangeable—you either have them (IQ, talent, or a knack), or you don’t.
You may have heard a teacher say one or more of the following statements,
or something similar.

• “If they haven’t learned how to do this by now, they’ll never learn
it.”
• “These students have failed so much before, they already know
they can’t do it.”
• “Some students get it and others don’t. I cover the content. If
they’re ready, they’ll learn it.”
• “You can see it in their eyes. Some students have just given up.”
• “He tried hard, but bless his heart. It’s not going to happen.”

That thinking is dead wrong. As noted, Stanford University professor

Carol Dweck is a pioneering researcher on motivation and, specifically,
mindsets. Surprisingly, she did not begin by studying success. Instead, she
studied failures. To make sense of this mindset, Dweck (2008) made key
distinctions among a range of responses that all of us could potentially have
linked to any particular failure. To Dweck, failure was not the problem; it is
how we handle our failures. It turns out that after you fail is when we see
your character. The enrichment mindset takes the growth mindset further. In
contrast, the enrichment mindset sounds more like the following statements
from teachers.

• “I will learn and grow from my mistakes. Mistakes are feedback

that helps me get better.”
• “My setback tells me to try something different next time. A new
strategy might change things.”
• “I will learn from criticism and never try to avoid it.”
• “I will persist until I succeed. More effort or a different strategy is
justified.”
• “If I keep at this, I know I’ll get it.”
• “I might not be a genius, but I’ll work harder than the next person.”

The bottom line is that your thoughts and beliefs do matter. The belief
changes the decision you make, which in turn changes your behaviors.
Behaviors over time become habits, and those habits become your
character. The enrichment mindset says, “I know brains can change. I can
grow and change myself first. Then, I can build powerful cognitive skills in
my students.”

The enrichment mindset says, “I know brains can change. I can

grow and change myself first. Then, I can build powerful cognitive
skills in my students.”

The enrichment mindset is critical. In short, it is often our mindsets and

our internal narratives about why we were failing that shape our future. All
of us fail at some point. The question to ask yourself is, “How do I respond
to failure, both personally and as a teacher?” Remember, the enrichment
mindset broadens the growth mindset.
A Hard Look at the Evidence
Dweck’s (2008) work predicted that people’s results came about not
because they failed, but because of their beliefs about why they failed.
Understanding failure is critical because every one of us will fail in life.
When we attribute our failures to the faults of others or a lack of our
own ability, circumstances, IQ, genes, or talent, we get discouraged. If we
label our failures as normal, everyday setbacks, and we tie them to
temporary (and changeable) variables, setbacks are likely to fuel us. Those
variables are:

• Lack of effort
• A poor attitude
• Inappropriate strategy
• Lack of tools
• Insufficient experience

Failure at some point is certain, but it is how teachers and students

respond to failure that matters. IQ, talent, and capacity are not fixed and can
be developed. Students should choose to learn from mistakes, grow, and
become better. They have control over their brains, effort, strategies, and
attitude, and can improve all of these.
Here’s an example of how much the human brain can change.
Researcher Harold Skeels (1966) had a different mindset than most.
Although his research is several decades old, it has a powerful impact on
how we see enrichment. He wondered if the devastating results from
suboptimal upbringings in first graders could be reversible. He found a
group of thirteen children designated by the orphanage assessment officer
as unsuitable for adoption based on cognitive levels. These students were
then transferred to, and lodged in, an institution specifically for those with
developmental disabilities. Skeels provided daily enriched learning and
positive social conditions for these students. His enrichment started with
close, positive, caring relationships, and he used social games through the
day. He also carefully documented an alternative control group of orphans
at the same institution who were deemed suitable for adoption. This group
was matched as closely as possible to the experiment’s orphans.
The experiment continued for three years, with a follow-up two years
later. After five years total, his experimental enrichment group had an
average gain of almost twenty-nine IQ points, while the control group had a
loss of about twenty-six points (Skeels, 1966). See figure 8.1. Stop and
think: do you still think brains cannot change? Do you still think IQ is fixed
for life? If so, it’s time to shift your mindset; anything is possible.

Source: Skeels, 1966.

Figure 8.1: Enrichment changes IQ.

This trend continued five years later. The thirty-year follow-up for the
experimental group revealed that grade 12 (high school graduation) was the
median completed grade versus grade 2.75 (about third grade) for the
control group who stayed in the orphanage (Skeels, 1996). Finally, to
emphasize the possible far-reaching implications, the twenty-eight children
from the parents of the experimental group who became parents (the next
generation) had a mean IQ from school records of 104. This shows the
difference enrichment made on the students’ lives. Remember this study in
your everyday work: your students’ brains can change. Are you willing to
give this a try?
You see, it’s limiting when a teacher says, “You can’t do that!” To be
more truthful, a teacher might say, “I wish I knew how to help this student.
She deserves better.” That statement is honest, but most people use the
coping tool to justify or blame others (“It’s the student’s fault”), so they can
sleep at night. But you and I now know better. This is a challenge, but I
suspect you are up for it. Consider the conversation in figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2: Place no limits on students.

Let me rephrase what you just read. You may have heard a teacher
saying, “Kevin’s just not going to get good at mathematics” or “Sheron has
a tough time with writing; it’s just not her thing.” The teacher is really
saying, “I don’t know how to help Kevin or Sheron do better, so I’ll speak
as if no one could ever help him or her succeed.” You can help them
succeed, and I’ll show you how.
Just in case you’re still wondering if students’ brains can change, let’s
review more scientific research on whether the brain is fixed or malleable,
if a growth mindset is teachable, how to respond when students struggle,
and the cognitive differences of students from poverty.

Is the Brain Fixed or Malleable?

Science has refuted most notions of a fixed brain. We know, for
example, that the human brain grows new brain cells every day (Eriksson et
al., 1998). Just as important, research shows that variables regulate this
process, some of which we have control over, such as exercise (Pereira et
al., 2007). Think about that for a moment. Your brain, which typically
might produce one thousand new brain cells every day, could actually
produce more or less than that depending on how you live your life. You are
actively sculpting each student’s brain in class every day!
We know that the cells make new connections from school experiences
(Berns, Blaine, Prietula, & Pye, 2013). Research has shown that IQ can
change (Duyme et al., 1999; Nesbitt, 2009). Nutrition can improve IQ
(Schoenthaler, Bier, Young, Nichols, & Jansenns, 2000). Simply reading a
novel for thirty minutes a day for nine consecutive days creates more brain
connections (Berns et al., 2013). Teaching reasoning changes the brain
(Mackey, Whitaker, & Bunge, 2012). You can boost fluid intelligence—
logical thinking—with repetitive training (Au et al., 2015).
We also know that school experiences with above-average teachers can
raise student achievement in mathematics by as much as two standard
deviations (Ferguson, 1998). Many high-poverty schools graduate 95
percent and more of seniors, so the excuses for failure are getting thinner by
the day (Carter, 2001; Parrett & Budge, 2012).

Can We Teach the Enrichment Mindset?

Dweck’s (2008) research on the growth mindset supports the notion that
our mindset after and before we fail predicts our future results. How does
the research support these claims?
 Mindset researchers tested a specific cognitive enhancement for
preschool-age children (Segretin et al., 2014). They formed two groups, the
experimental and the control group. They gave the experimental group a
four-month growth mindset program. The preK students were told, “Your
brain can change. Your brain can change. You can change and grow. Your
attitude, effort, and strategies will determine your eventual success.” In the
end, the experimental group not only outperformed the control group but
sustained its positive results for years (Segretin et al., 2014). Dweck (2008)
discovered that when presented with a sliding scale of fixed to growth
mindsets, we are likely to fall on a continuum when exposed to various
scenarios. See figure 8.3 for some examples of two extreme ends of the
mindset continuum.

Figure 8.3: Fixed versus growth mindsets.

Next, research with K–5 children using computer games shows that the
growth mindset enhances persistence (O’Rourke, Haimovitz, Ballweber,
Dweck, & Popovic, 2014). And even in the toughest classes (like physics),
secondary students with the growth mindset did better than those with a
fixed mindset (Flores, Lemons, & McTernan, 2011).
In secondary mathematics classes, students with growth mindset
training outperformed those who did not get this training, even two years
after the initial exposure (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007).
Students’ academic performance improves when they are simply exposed to
a growth mindset, even when the teaching itself remains the same.
In one study (Jensen, 2014) with ten high-poverty schools (75 percent
or more students in poverty), half of the schools were high performing (in
the top 25 percent of academic performers in the state) and half were low
performing (lowest 25 percent of academic scores in the state). What was
the difference in these schools? The students were from high-poverty
backgrounds, but the staff at the high-performing schools fostered a better
growth mindset, created a strong school culture, and built cognitive
capacity.
When students struggle, how do they respond? How do you respond?
As we have learned, how we deal with failure can support the enrichment
mindset, if we first have a growth mindset. See figure 8.4 (page 72).

Figure 8.4: Contrast of mindsets.

What Cognitive Differences Do Students From Poverty Have?

As we broaden our definition of mindset, we see the enrichment
mindset fits right in. It’s imperative to take on the challenge to enrich the
following three key areas.
 Researchers commonly associate low socioeconomic status with
differences in performance on a variety of academic endeavors (Farah et al.,
2006; Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, Guerin, & Parramore, 2003; Hackman
& Farah, 2009). These differences usually involve three core
neurocognitive systems: (1) language, (2) memory, and (3) cognitive
control. These cognitive differences occur more among the poor (versus the
middle class) and can reduce school performance. A variety of home,
neighborhood, and school factors contribute to them. The good news is that
strong teaching can moderate all of these differences. The variable here is
relationships.
The first of the three core neurocognitive systems is language. Students
who experience close relationships with their teachers during their early
elementary years have stronger receptive language development (Spilt,
Koomen, & Harrison, 2015). Greater vocabulary allows students the option
of rewording something. The use of rich language allows us to tactfully
avoid conflict, write a paper for school, or empathize with a loved one. But
the poor have considerable vocabulary gaps. The huge gap in early
language exposure between the poor and nonpoor begins as early as
eighteen months (Fernald, Marchman, & Weisleder, 2013). The average
poor student starting school has been exposed to ten to twenty million fewer
words than his or her more affluent peers (Hart & Risley, 1995). The poor
consequently learn language skills more slowly and show delays in letter
recognition and phonological awareness. Both of these factors increase the
risk of reading difficulties (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008).
The second trait is memory, including both long-term and working
memory. (Chapter 12, page 103, explains more about both.) Students from
poor families are more likely to have deficient working memory than the
nonpoor (Evans & Schamberg, 2009). Working memory is a core cognitive
skill, necessary for mathematics, reading, and thinking skills. School-age
children from low-socioeconomic households also develop baseline
academic skills in working memory far more slowly than students from
higher socioeconomic groups (Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga,
2009).
The third trait is cognitive control. This is the capacity to nimbly switch
gears and adjust to new circumstances. In the classroom, this translates to
students changing their strategy on a problem if one isn’t working. On a
macro level, it is about transitions. It is also what helps us survive when
there are different rules in different settings. Students can say such-and-
such to a classmate, but not to a teacher. We learn that if a friend asks if we
like her new jeans, and we don’t, we can shift to the rules of social harmony
and avoid hurting her feelings. These are core life skills, and without them,
life is much more difficult. Poor students struggle more than nonpoor
students with cognitive control (Hackman & Farah, 2009).
This means that unless you teach them the growth mindset and skills for
how to learn, you have just reduced their chances of success. Helping
students with metacognitive skills improves motivation, learning, and future
learning. Researchers introduced a six-hour training session with middle-
school students, teaching them the process skills of planning, monitoring,
and evaluating. When researchers later compared their results to those of a
control group, the students who learned metacognitive strategies performed
better on tests and had higher levels of motivation (Zepeda, Richey,
Ronevich, & Nokes-Malach, 2015).

Quick Consolidation
This chapter introduces the enrichment mindset. Although the growth
mindset is powerful, it can be broadened to include specific instructional
strategies. The single thread through this part is that brains can grow and
change and our students can change. We just have to go first.
We all have to examine our mindsets and, when needed, change them.
On any single day, you have to choose between sharing a negative story or
investing a few minutes of time to help a student with his or her effort,
make the smart choice, and succeed. I have visited hundreds of high-
poverty schools, and the biggest differences are the educators’ mindsets and
actions. Your staff members need to take note of Skeels’s (1966) mindset,
and how he enriched students instead of feeling sorry for them. You must
enrich students like crazy to ensure they succeed. When staff members have
the negative mindsets about a student being a bad seed or not likely to
succeed, the negativity becomes contagious and the student struggles.
 This is your opportunity to show your own capacity to grow and help
students graduate. If you now recognize your own fixed mindset, your
students are not likely to succeed unless you change it. We might call
mindset a soft skill, but that’s no reason to dismiss it. For some, the
difference in mindset is the difference between weak compliance and a huge
motivated effort. Alternatively, the mindset may be the difference between
staying down and getting back up. The bottom line is that mindset affects
each of us differently based on our personal history. Help your students
develop the mindset they need to succeed. The next few chapters contain all
the strategies you need. You’ll never regret your decision.
The following four chapters offer strategies to help you enrich your
students. These strategies include the following.

1. Manage the cognitive load.

2. Develop better thinking skills.
3. Enhance study skills and vocabulary.
4. Build better memory.
 CHAPTER 9

MANAGE THE COGNITIVE LOAD

Before we get started on enriching your students’ brains, you should know
what you’re up against. When I was an adolescent, I remember sitting in the
back of the classroom. My mind usually wandered to questions like, “What
will it be like when I go home after school?” I constantly worried about
what my abusive stepmother would do. Thoughts that centered on safety
were strong and recurring. They seemed to compete with, or block out,
thoughts about the class content. Many of your students may have more
than an abusive caregiver; they may be facing the burden of raising a
younger brother or sister. They may be facing daily racism from the
community. They may be hungry and unable to concentrate or can be
wondering where they will sleep that night. A student with this much stress
has a serious cognitive load.

With the enrichment mindset, we do everything we can to enrich a

student’s brain. This means you will have to address the student’s brain.
Cognitive load is the quantity of thoughts one has loaded in his or her brain
at any given time. It’s difficult for students from poverty to concentrate on
homework when they have to think about negative factors to survive (such
as having enough food, taking abuse from a parent, or so on). It’s like
having very slow Internet speed. Students from poverty typically
experience even greater cognitive load in learning environments than those
in middle-class families (Siegler & Alibali, 2005). Unless you address this,
you’ll perceive such students as slow learners (a result of being unaware of
the student’s situation and a lack of response, which lead to ineffective
teaching). This means that you’ll have students who appear distracted and
forgetful and ask questions you just answered a moment ago. Cognitive
load issues are critical; check for brain interference. See figure 9.1 (page
76).

Figure 9.1: Cognitive load.

A student’s cognitive ability has an over-the-top effect size on student

achievement of 1.04 (Hattie, 2009). But students carrying a heavy cognitive
load can’t achieve great things when they are mentally consumed with
survival. Cognitive load issues happen to everyone, especially students
from higher-risk homes (Evans & English, 2002). Your brain’s working
memory, a sort of mental sketchbook, only has so much space. The
cognitive load can be brutal.
Running late for work, your car making weird sounds, and almost being
out of gas can become all you think about. If a family member is in the
hospital for emergency surgery, it can consume your cognitive bandwidth.
To find out the constraints that a cognitive load puts on the brain,
researchers artificially induced poverty-like financial worries in middle-
class participants with a simulation. When tested before and after, those in
the simulation lost up to an equivalent of thirteen IQ points from the
cognitive stress (Shah, Mullainathan, & Shafir, 2012). That’s because when
you want students to think about academics, their brains are already busy
processing hour-by-hour survival scenarios. No, your students are not slow
or low achieving. Their brains are just occupied.
To solve this critical problem, let’s first focus on high-performing
teachers. How do they deal with this issue? They start by meeting a basic
need in order to reduce their stress: making the classroom physically and
emotionally safe with rich relationships. This means never yelling at or
berating students. If you do this, you are, metaphorically, throwing gasoline
on a fire. Students get enough negatives at home and often arrive feeling
stressed. They don’t need anger, hostility, or negative attitudes at school. Be
the one who changes their lives.
Second, keep them physically active, which generates glucose for the
brain. This helps with cognitive skills such as processing speed and
memory (Rauner, Walters, Avery, & Wanser, 2013). Consider the following
activities.

• Clap-boom-clap: Students pay attention and listen to each clap

and participate—“Follow along with me. I clap once, and you
repeat. Every time I double clap, you say ‘Boom!’ That tells me
you’re ready for something big! Are you ready?”
• Play my sport: Students stand in teams. One student shows the
moves in his or her favorite sport for thirty seconds. The other
students mimic that sport’s moves until everyone gets a turn. Then
another student gets a chance to mimic his or her sport.
• Follow the leader: Line students up. Play the song “Follow the
Leader” by Soca Boys. When the song starts, the line leader does
an action (such as clap, turn right, or stomp), and the others in line
must repeat it.
• Stand up: Ask students to think about their goal. Then have them
take a slow, deep breath and let the breath out fully. Tell them to
clench their fists quickly three times and run in place for ten
 seconds while saying, “I can do this.” Now ask them to take one
small step toward their goal.

Third, teach students coping skills to help them learn to survive when
things get extra tough. For example, use positive self-talk. “Stand up. Take
in a slow, deep breath. Ask yourself what your goal is. Answer the question.
Let the breath out fully. Clench fists quickly three times. Run in place for
ten seconds. Say, I can do this. Now take one small step toward your goal.”
Strong teachers help students feel more (not less) control over their lives.
They engage students with relevant, consuming, nearly impossible goals.
Give students a reason to be in school every day. Finally, teaching cognitive
skills for reasoning, deferred gratification, and working memory enriches
students’ thinking in class. Here are tools you can use to counter the
cognitive load on the brain.

Tools to Reduce Cognitive Load Issues

Cognitive load consumes students who worry about how their teacher or
peers treat them. The key to offsetting it is to make sure that students know
that their feelings are important to you and that you care about them. Many
times students will “check out” because new content overwhelms them.
Here are simple and powerful tools to help students succeed in demanding,
sometimes stressful, content-rich classrooms. See figure 9.2 (page 78). In
the following sections, you’ll notice that each of these simple tools helps
students care more, digest better, or remember longer. The tools are simple
to use, and they work.
Figure 9.2: Managing cognitive load.

Make the Classroom Emotionally Safe

Make your classroom safe enough for students to be guaranteed they
will never be embarrassed, singled out, or yelled at. Ensure that you
respond to every student in a caring way, whether he or she is sharing
something personal or taking a content-related risk. Greet students with a
smile every day: “Good to see you, Eric; how are you doing?” When you
call on students, affirm, affirm, and affirm again. Make eye contact, smile,
and gesture with an open palm. Use response phrases that start with things
like, “I love how you …,” “I feel good hearing that you …,” or “Wow, you
just knocked that one out of the ballpark!”
 If students give the wrong answer, remember to maintain emotional
security and help enrich them (through positivity and skill building, rather
than criticism) so they can give a better answer. You might say, “I love your
energy. Thanks for jumping in. Let’s grab some contributions from others
too,” “You’re on a different track. Let me rephrase the question. I’m not
sure if I’m getting to the heart of the question I want to ask,” or “I think you
know the answer. Let’s sort this out. Tell me first what you remember about
this.”
When students offer answers (correct or not), acute insights, or even
marginally plausible answers to difficult issues, how do others react?
Instead of saying, “Hmm, OK,” be sure to make eye contact and say,
“Thanks for jumping in. I appreciate that.” Always acknowledge and
respect each and every comment, every time.

Make the Classroom Physically Safe

Students conserve their cognitive space when they feel physically
unsafe in class. This means you can allow no bullying or harassment.
Ensure that students sit with others in a group or on a team in which
everyone feels protective of each member: “This is our team. We look out
for each other.” Reinforce caring, camaraderie, and teamwork.
Team roles, leadership, and a culture of camaraderie can be amazing for
stress reducers (Wegner, Schüler, & Budde, 2014). You read that right:
when teams work with each other, stress goes down (Berger, Heinrichs, von
Dawans, Way, & Chen, 2016). Talk openly about what bullying is, your
level of tolerance for it (zero), and how members of the class will treat each
other. Your class rule should be “Be nice,” meaning that no one should
make jokes, tease, or snicker when another student contributes. That, of
course, includes you.

Chunk Material
Why is chunking more important to students from poverty than nonpoor
students? Chronic stress impairs working memory. Working memory is the
skill of holding pictures or sounds in your head and manipulating them to
come up with answers or opinions. For your students, big chunks of
information can be intimidating without content background or a strong
working memory. When teachers cover content quickly, students are often
overwhelmed. They may not have the background or the working memory
to process it at the same pace, so they tune out. Break things into three- to
six-minute chunks to produce sizable gains (Russell, Hendricson, &
Herbert, 1984), and invest more time in retrieving previous content, not
adding more. Chunking your content into smaller, bite-sized pieces helps
students digest more easily; avoid bigger chunks that they simply forget.

Hit the Pause Button

On a micro scale, adding more pauses to the content is helpful (Ruhl,
Hughes, & Schloss, 1987). Preview the content you’ll cover that day for the
class, and then pause. After the opening of your class, summarize it in one
to two sentences, and then pause. Pause after any strong statement. At the
beginning of the year (or semester), be blunt; simply tell students, “Write
this down; it’s important.” Invite students to lean in and listen closely.
Pause before and after an important thought. Soon your students will realize
that the pause is a cue: this is important; write this down!
Unless you are building working memory daily, you’ll need to adjust
your teaching for students who are unable to manage their own cognitive
load. Provide more time to make notes and point out when to do it. Say
things like, “Grab your pens, and jot this down. You’ll need to know it for
later.”

Stretch the Content

Research suggests that when teachers space learning out over time,
students experience better quality of understanding and retrieval. For
example, let’s say you have a block of content that would take ten hours of
instruction to do it justice. You could introduce this within two days at the
elementary level or within two weeks at the secondary level. But it would
be more effective to stretch it out more than that. Plus, research
demonstrates how deeply the storage and retrieval of content or skills is
affected by study time (Cepeda et al., 2009). Study time is more effective
when stretched out over several days or weeks, not crammed into one day.
Spaced learning, also known as distributed practice, is the process of
using repeated learning experiences, separated by spaces or timed gaps, for
processing and application. The concept is simple: “Too much, too fast, it
won’t last.” This factor ranks high with a 0.71 effect size (Hattie, 2009).
Learning is massed when there’s little or no gap in the stream of content. A
continuous forty-five-minute lecture at the secondary level is an example of
massed learning. You can do far more to enrich students’ learning when you
introduce the same content in five segments of nine minutes each over a
week’s time. In a classroom, this means you can sprinkle a unit or module
of content in small segments, with student retrieval reviews, or formative
assessments, built into your learning schedule.
Prime students for future learning by introducing tough concepts days
and weeks in advance with previews and advance organizers. Then, after
the unit is finished, refer back to the prior learning, using reviews a week
later, and integrate it into the next unit. Spaced learning stretches out the
learning over time. If you thought a unit would take two weeks, allow it to
take three to four weeks, and overlap it with the prior and upcoming units.
However, of course, not all teachers have this sort of freedom or latitude
with their planning. Teach 85 percent of the content during the middle two
weeks. Teach 15 percent during the extended first and last week (use the
remaining time to teach the previous or next unit). In my experience, this is
harder but well worth it.

Spaced Relevance
Here we combine two terms: spacing learning and relevance. Spaced
relevance is most effective when teachers use it every other day or at the
middle of the period between content introduction and testing to enhance
retrieval (Cepeda et al., 2009). Distributed learning (spread out) trumps
massed (bunched up into a short period) learning. Students’ recall improves
especially when you add content relevance (Sartori, Lombardi, & Mattiuzzi,
2005). See figure 9.3. In figure 9.3, we begin with a body of content. In one
case (on the left), the content is taught at once. To the right, the content is
broken into three chunks (preview, main body, and a post-review synthesis).
The best review is retrieval, not just looking at familiar content. Give
students time to think and figure out what they know instead of looking it
up. In short, just studying is poor learning, and adding retrieval makes for
strong learning.
Source: Cepeda et al., 2009.

Figure 9.3: Spaced learning over time.

Tools to Strengthen Retrieval

When we teach well, we bring students into the content, and they
understand it well. But there’s another critical piece to the academic puzzle:
recalling learning at test time. For many, learning and recall are the same.
Many believe that if we learn it, we should be able to recall it. But a large
amount of what we learn is implicit (not taught to us explicitly) so we only
retrieve it with a cue. “What’s the name of the cross street near where you
live?” That simple cue gives you the important difference: memory is what
the brain stores; recall is what you can retrieve when you need it.
The gap between those two is mediated by frequency of use, relevance,
and intensity of the memory. You can recall a lot when the stress is low and
there’s friendly banter full of prompts and cues for prior memories. A
family reunion or brainstorming in a classroom is a social vehicle that
prompts our recall. But retrieval is different. Retrieval is the ability to
generate the information without prompts such as social clues, multiple-
choice tests, or verbal prompts. Retrieval practice at school strengthens
memories the most.
Retrieval practice is a huge, yet enormously underused, tool to
strengthen recall. It simply means giving students time to retrieve prior
learning by just writing it down without studying or looking at notes. Most
teachers ask questions or give quizzes, but some students simply want to
look up the answers. That’s bad for the brain; no hard work often means no
learning.
In a study involving sixth-grade social studies and eighth-grade science
students, there were two groups of students. The control group learned the
content and followed it by reviewing and studying the answers on slides,
then the group was tested (Roediger, Agarwal, McDaniel, & McDermott,
2011). Students in the experimental group received the same content (for
the same length of time, at the same time). Afterward, they were asked to
retrieve the information on paper through study. The results showed that
those who only studied by rereading the text averaged 79 percent correct,
and those who did brief retrieval practice (from eliciting the content from
memory) scored on average 92 percent. This shows a clear choice:
introduce content and give students retrieval practice to recall information
from their studying. For this study, it was a difference between a C+ and an
A–. See figure 9.4.

Figure 9.4: Enhancing learning—retrieval versus study review.

 Why do retrieval work and studying sometimes fall short? It’s simple;
most learners confuse familiarity and fluency with their ability to retrieve
the content. Those are separate functions. Looking at familiar content is
easy; it may seem as if you could recall it. But retrieval, which means
eliciting the stored content without prompts, is hard mental work that
strengthens the memory more than looking something up. Spelling tests are
a good example of familiarity versus retrieval. Students can think they
know the words after rereading them several times, but when tested, they
may not. It is the hard work of retrieval that helps cement the accurate
memory. If a student looks up the right answer beforehand, he or she
defeats the purpose of the activity.
In your classroom, retrieval practice can take the shape of:

• Using self-quizzing time

• Asking students to do the hard work of selectively remembering
what they learned earlier (or the day before)
• Spacing out the retrieval practice
• Letting students practice the learning several times
• Using different problem types (such as for word and number
problems, lists, narratives and characters, facts, inferences, and
cause and effect)
• Varying the process by making the retrieval social one day (with a
partner or group) and independent the next (writing from memory)
• Using flipcharts for retrieval one day, and the next day using verbal
instruction

Switching up the use of verbal and nonverbal strategies is effective.

Using more nonverbal strategies helps to represent the learning differently
(using the body, showing the learning, gesturing, or building it). Students
can choose from among many ways to represent learning. Give them
choices, and let them choose (such as from creating a cartoon, tree diagram,
swim-lane chart, mind map, Venn diagram, bubble map, storyboard, cause-
and-effect chart, flow chart, tables, or graphs).
 Simply creating a visual map (graphic organizer) can boost retention
high enough to contribute to student achievement from one to even two
years of gains (Petty, 2009).
Here are two nonverbal ways to enrich students’ recall of your content.

Use Visual Organizers

Use visual organizers such as mind maps, time sequences, concept
pattern organizers, target diagrams, cartoons, Venn diagrams, tree diagrams,
flowcharts, cluster maps, spider webs, continuum diagrams, concept maps,
or descriptive pattern organizers. David Hyerle’s (1996) book Visual Tools
for Constructing Knowledge is excellent. Use these first as a pretest. Ask
students to show what they know in ten minutes. Then, use the visual
organizer to preassess prior knowledge. You can also use them for a
formative assessment or summative assessment. Using these can produce
effect sizes on student achievement of up to 1.2 (Marzano, 1998). Visit
go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a sample visual organizer you can use
with students.

Gesture the Content

When teachers gesture key concepts, it allows students to hear what
they’re saying without having to visualize it. This may mean acting out or
showing something just through the use of expressions or hands alone. The
idea is to avoid speaking or showing a picture. Gesturing also has a solid
basis in helping learning last (Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008).
Here are two examples: (1) to illustrate a big idea, ask students to stretch
their hands way out to either side, (2) if one thing is way better than
another, stand on a chair, point to the ceiling, and balance by touching a
chair or student’s shoulder. Gesturing reduces students’ cognitive load and
helps them learn (Ping & Goldin-Meadow, 2010). Another activity is to ask
students to identify the two to three main concepts of the lesson. They can
brainstorm a list of potential ideas first, and then vote on them within their
teams. Next, take the top two and create a physical way to demonstrate
them.
The gestures students spontaneously use when explaining a task
typically predict whether they will subsequently learn that task. Gesturing
reflects a student’s readiness to learn and plays a role in learning the task as
well as the relationships of the content areas. Students using gestures to
learn mathematics had 90 percent retention (versus 30 percent with no
gestures), affirming that it helps memory (Cook et al., 2008). For example,
you can use movement in mathematics to gesture the numbers, signs,
equations, and answers (go to www.mathandmovement.com for ideas).
Mathematics is a subject that students can actually love when taught well.

Quick Consolidation
Enriching means we’ll have to be cognizant of the whole student if he
or she is going to succeed. Cognitive load issues are huge with students
from poverty. You may see and hear students in class who often seem
distracted, unfocused, inattentive, and impulsive. Please try to drop these
labels and judgments. They are common symptoms of a stress disorder.
When the brain is consumed with survival, it uses up mental space it needs
for academic excellence. You can either notice the issue and make the
students the problem or change what you do and help them succeed. I
promise your results will be better if you make building relationships and
ensuring safety (cognitive, emotional, and intellectual) your number-one
priorities. Then, build in the strategies that will help with memory and
recall. These are ways you can enrich students to help them succeed.
 CHAPTER 10

DEVELOP BETTER THINKING

SKILLS

Doing everything in your power to enrich students’ brains means reviewing

the effects of poverty and continuously making connections. Poverty
commonly affects the cognitive skill base in students that schools value,
which includes attentional skills, speed of processing, and memory. But
what are thinking skills, and can we teach them?

Thinking skills are a broad category. When we say that a student has
good thinking skills, we often include the ability to pay attention; exert a
strong locus of control; evaluate, process, prioritize, and sequence content;
hold information in short-term memory; compare and contrast; extrapolate
and use working memory while manipulating the content; and finally, defer
gratification until the answers are necessary. That’s more than half a dozen
subskills and one reason why thinking skills are a challenge to teach.
Because it is nearly impossible to declare a universal thinking formula,
the process of teaching students to think critically is far more effective if
you empower students to do the right type of thinking at the right time.
Cognitive expert Daniel Willingham (2008) defines critical thinking as
having effectiveness, novelty, and self-direction. Critical thinking is only
effective when students avoid common mistake biases (seeing only one side
of an issue, discounting new evidence that runs counter to their ideas,
failing to use basic rules of logic, or failing to look for evidence).
Willingham (2008) asserts the thinking must be novel, not a memorized
formula from a familiar situation. He also says critical thinking is self-
directed; the thinker must be doing the thinking, not following a teacher’s
or coach’s prompts. This understanding is what real enrichment is all about.
Many believe thinking skills are genetic. Parents love to say their
children are smart. After all, there is a genetic component to nearly every
human trait. Among the broad category of thinking skills, one subset is
reasoning skills. But reasoning skills, like many other thinking skills, have a
low effect size of 0.23 (Plomin, Haworth, & Davis, 2009). The effect size is
statistically significant, but not even moderate as far as effect sizes go.
Robert Plomin, one of the world’s foremost geneticists, says, “Despite our
three-stage study demonstrating enrichment of associations for general
cognitive ability, the genetic variants that make up the heritable component
of intelligence remain elusive” (as cited in Davis et al., 2010, p. 762).
Plomin is saying the genetic subsets are hard to find in our genes. Yes, there
is heritability for intelligence, but it is negligible in those from poverty
(Tucker-Drob, Rhemtulla, Harden, Turkheimer, & Fask, 2011).
In fact, a good bit of evidence shows thinking skills can be taught, if
you know how to do it right—and if you believe in the enrichment mindset,
which says you can change and grow.

Evidence on Teaching Thinking Skills

Thinking skills are part of a student’s clear path to graduation.
Reasoning is an important thinking skill that can and should be taught with
two specific rules in place: (1) having a high-performing teacher and (2)
transferring the skill to dissimilar material weakens results (Barnett & Ceci,
2002; Reeves & Weisberg, 1994). Tools for optimal reasoning include the
following.

• Seek (read, listen, and experience).

• Apply standards (discriminate input).
• Interpret and define the true problem.
• Analyze (by both whole and part).
 • Compare and contrast positions.
• Check claims, evidence, and biases.
• Use inductive and deductive reasoning.
• Make predictions and inferences.
• Translate, explain, and take action.

The preceding list offers generic steps to teach and learn reasoning
skills. In the next section, I’ll spell out some specific strategies. This is not a
formula but rather a set of reminders. Remember, teach thinking strategies
with the context of the content you have. In other words, these skills have
moderate to low transfer. Use your own subject matter and foster the skills
that apply to your class. A student may mount an argument against a
nominal issue, missing the bigger point. Teach students to use every tool on
this list so they’ll be able to learn the right tools for the right problems. This
means teaching thinking skills across the curriculum.
Building reasoning skills takes willingness to try the process out and
positive belief in your students. These findings support adopting a
deliberate (planned with enough time and quality feedback) practice
approach when learning informal reasoning (Barnett & Ceci, 2002; Reeves
& Weisberg, 1994). There are many simple strategies you can employ in the
classroom. The following are some of my favorite problem-solving paths.

Teach the Language of Thinking

Start with the basics of thinking—language—as some students need this
background knowledge. This is the foundation for reasoning. The words we
choose represent the concepts and details of any reasoning we do. Without
the correct word (or gesture, object, or other representation) to represent our
thoughts, we cannot be accurate or complete in our thinking. Explain the
following phrases, and then check for understanding.

• “Here’s what this argument means.”

• “What other words are similar to means?”
 • “If I cut up a dessert into smaller pieces, what am I doing?”
(Depending on the words your students use, question them: “Does
cut mean divide, does share mean divide, does split up mean
divide?”)

Seek Out Information to Solve a Problem

First, encourage students to become curious learners and seek out
relevant information. You can be a great role model for this process. In class
every week, share something that fascinated you. If their role model is
excited about learning, it will become contagious. Second, help them
discriminate between various types of information. Show them that the
source of the material is key to understanding the type of reasoning to
apply. The source may be a friend or a scholarly journal. Next, show
students how to choose the correct problem to solve or argue. Here is a
basic seven-step framework for defining the true problem and honing
students’ reasoning skills.

1. Define the true problem.

2. List personal biases and how to overcome them.
3. Generate two to five potential paths to take.
4. Evaluate and select pathways, and then pick one to start.
5. Implement solutions.
6. Analyze results and try another, if needed.
7. Summarize what you have learned.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for an infographic on biases that

can affect students’ decision making. Help them identify their own past
biases to get to a clear thinking pathway. Teach the many ways to approach
a problem. Make a list of the types of problems to solve, and share how you
would use different approaches with each. Model how to approach a
problem, and let them solve a similar one.

Ask the Right Questions

 Teach students to ask the right question so that they invest their time
effectively. Give students a word problem to solve. Then, ask each student
to pair up and discuss the question, “Which is the real problem to solve?”
Ask your questions from multiple perspectives before deciding on the
problem. “What would she say is the problem? What about him?” Next, ask
students to provide evidence for their claims (back it up). Call on students
to find out the best way to solve the problem. Sometimes they are off track
and solving a related (but irrelevant) problem.

Form Effective Arguments

Teach students that reasoning usually requires putting on different
“hats” to see things from different points of view. Edward de Bono (1999)
suggests six thinking hats (overview, information, benefits, creativity,
feelings, and caution) to diversify thinking. You might also suggest using
someone else’s perspective (“I am going to look at this problem as a
scientist, an ecologist, a businessperson, a mathematician, a politician, a
church leader, or a school student” or “I’m going to approach this problem
from the perspective of urgency, public good, private good, long-term
importance, short-term importance, cost versus value, probability of
complete success, or public relations).” As you can see, there are endless
ways to approach a problem. Your role is to help students get used to
understanding any problem from more than one position.
As a thinking tool, walk through each of the following five steps, and
when students seem comfortable with the process, have them pair up and
take opposing views.

1. Predict the main lines of argument (for or against), and for or

against any salient alternative.
2. Summarize the supporting evidence that backs up each argument.
3. Analyze the opposing views and merits of other arguments.
4. Explain the reasoning for why one idea or bit of evidence is better
than another.
5. Formulate tentative conclusions to be inferred and what would
change minds.
 For example, ask a student to take the viewpoint of someone who just
arrived in America and another student to speak as a multigenerational
resident, or one to be progressive and another to be conservative. Perhaps
students could take the perspective of a dove and hawk in the military.

Deconstruct Constructs
Teach students how to use, critique, and deconstruct constructs.
Constructs are shared abstractions (ideas or theories) among people. These
might include phrases such as the typical family or today’s students.
Understanding reasoning skills means we must understand the essence of a
topic. The essence in part comprises a concept’s unique qualities or
properties. In other words, what makes that word (or idea, thing, or person)
unique? Students must work hard mentally to do this, and they’ll need
guidance from you. What properties can we agree on for your students from
poverty?
For a classroom example, let’s say the concept is justice. Let students
partner up and make a list of their associations with that concept. Students
(depending on grade level) might come up with words like fairness, legal,
police, retribution, courts, justice, civil rights, and laws. They might divide
issues of justice into clusters such as society, house, and neighborhood.
Soon, students will begin to see certain words define something very
well. Justice takes on a whole new meaning for students when they see all
the ways to understand it (or to lack understanding of it). For example,
courtroom justice is different than street justice. Students can’t reason
without knowing how to relate to, connect, and deconstruct each construct.
Then, ask for the types of claims they are making about a word.
Students may have personal experiences and narratives that enrich some of
the concepts. This is the starting point for a fabulous writing assignment
that gives students a stronger voice. Personal experience is a type of claim,
and so is a peer-reviewed journal. Let them start with their own voice, and
then ask them to organize their thoughts, bring in claims, and write the
conclusion.

Use Argument Mapping

 Next, it’s time to illustrate and use visual thinking tools. Give students
argument maps (such as a box-and-arrow or node-and-link diagram), which
show the relationships, hierarchies, and links among all data pieces.
(Rationale, www.rationaleonline.com, offers argument maps to support
reasoning skills.) Argument mapping is semiformal, blending formal graph
structure with natural language. You can think of it as addressing a design
challenge: come up with a way to make a case and back it up with evidence.
Researchers show that critical-thinking skills can be dramatically
accelerated, with up to a 0.60 effect size, over one semester (van Gelder,
2015; van Gelder, Bissett, & Cumming, 2004). This suggests that argument
mapping may foster college-prep thinking for K–12 students.
You might ask students to take their ideas and make a bubble map. They
can put their key concept in the center. Ask them to make groups with new
ways to divide up their words. When students add more concepts, it helps
them see the breadth and depth of issues. Bubble maps help them start to
identify the issues better based on relevance.
It’s important to provide a model. You have a universe of learning in
your head. You can’t share it all at once, so what students need is not what
you know (they can find that in a text or on the Internet) but how you know
what you know. This requires that you think like a beginner and literally
write out the steps that one could follow to think like you. Teachers often
post a model for the writing process or for solving word problems on the
wall. Using models is a fantastic idea if you explain, refer to, and use them
often. The basic problem-solving thinking model for arguments is worth
posting. See figure 10.1.
Figure 10.1: Basic problem-solving thinking model.

Remember, a model is an outline of a procedure. Over time, a more

advanced learner may embellish it or find shortcuts. But in the beginning,
models can be priceless windows into the mental world of thinking skills.
Using models is in my top-five list for smart cognitive skill building.

Use Student Verbalization

Ask students to talk through the process of solving a problem. This
allows them to better reflect on and receive feedback for their thinking
process to improve its quality. This process ranks high in contributing to
student achievement. It has a 0.64 effect size, putting it in the top 25 percent
of all factors (Hattie, 2009). Here’s how to use this strategy.

1. Students select the problem at their seats and work with partners to
talk through it both before they try it out and during the actual
problem solving.
2. Students stand as they share their thinking during a whole-class
discussion; you help guide them to think more deeply or find more
useful ways of understanding a topic.

Use a Reasoning Questioning Schema

 A reasoning questioning schema ensures you always start at the
beginning and drill deeper into the thinking-skill area. For example, you
might begin with what students already know. Consider the following four
question formats (Marzano & Simms, 2014).

1. Discovery questions: “Let’s review what we have explored so far”

or “Let’s do word association: when I say ecosystem you
say_________.”
2. Essential questions: “How do ecosystems impact your life and
why do they matter?” Use McTighe and Wiggins’s (2013) book
Essential Questions.
3. Elaborative questions: “What makes ecosystems different than an
experiment in a lab?”
4. Evidence-gathering questions: “What photographic evidence or
science journals support your case?”

You and I would never argue that the preceding schema is the only or
best set of steps. But it can work for students, if you allow it to work.

Use Powerful Questions

Teachers whose students struggle with reasoning typically ask one or
two questions, often those that probe for answers like, “What is … ?” or
“Which of the … ?” Teachers who excel at teaching reasoning use a
sequence of questions to develop thinking. You might hear the following
questions. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a reproducible of
these questions.

• “Tell me again please, what claim are you making?”

• “What’s your evidence for saying that?”
• “Can you connect what (another student) just said to your
comments? Do you feel different or the same; do you agree or
disagree?”
• “If that happened, what might happen next?”
• “What are probable causes for that?”
 • “Why did they do it this way, and can you think of other ways to do
it?”

You will want to have your own process for using powerful questions.
The ones I use include the following.

• Provide sufficient wait time (five to ten minutes).

• Model how to answer (say, “That is true because of …”).
• Never accept easy answers (such as, “Yes,” or “No,” or “I don’t
know”). Challenge students to do more. Ask them to listen to the
next two students and then make a fresh guess.
• Keep higher-order question stems posted and refer to them often.
Ensure everyone participates, and thank each student for
contributing. (“How would you respond to the criticism that
________?” “In what way could you explain that to a newcomer?”
“What could be an alternative explanation for your conclusion?”
“What might an outsider to this issue say?” “What is your strongest
argument that this is true?” “If it was false, what would be the most
likely reason?”)

You can say, “Thanks for jumping in” or “I love your ideas.” The core
understanding here is simple. Reasoning skills, one of the absolute basics of
higher-order thinking and executive functioning, are a teachable process. If
you fail to teach them, your students may miss out for the rest of their lives
on the skills you take for granted. Now, let’s take your students to an even
higher cognitive level.

Support Top-Flight Thinking Skills

Over time, you’ll become better at asking thinking questions that
develop student brains. But to get to the highest levels, students also need to
learn how to ask better questions. In Making Thinking Visible: How to
Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners,
authors Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison (2011) discuss
the necessary scaffolding to enrich cognitive capacity. This work is the
result of Harvard’s Project Zero.
Making Thinking Visible gives teachers a simple format for teaching
thinking. The authors suggest and encourage using specific thinking
routines every day to develop the skills. The three categories of routines
are: (1) introducing and exploring ideas, (2) synthesizing and organizing,
and (3) digging deeper. Give your students practice in writing and asking
their peers questions. There’s nothing new here, but it is the respect you
show for your students, and hence, the culture of thinking, that gets
fostered. Remind students that the questions they develop will bring the
answers they want.
Teach your students thinking and questioning tools such as:

• Identifying what they know and what they need to ask more about
• Creating a circle of varied viewpoints and questions
• Employing statements like, “I used to think __________, and now I
think ___________.”
• Fostering two opposing views and a verbal tug-of-war with
questions
• Using sentence-phrase-word representation of meaning and new
questions (students explain their thinking in one sentence, then
shorten to a phrase, and then a word)

To develop top-flight thinking skills, start with a simple format, such as

a three-step model: (1) claim, (2) support, and (3) question (then, “What
else is true or not?”). Once students know the model, you’ll be able to
expand to use or add other models.
As you have seen, reasoning is actually a core cluster of skills, not just
for school survival, but of course, for life. Students are not reasoning when
they copy, recall, or complete simple tasks. Reasoning requires that students
take information through a sequence of steps that allows them to understand
it differently, find relevance, and change the representation of the
information into a meaningful goal. You now have the tools to help them.
Quick Consolidation
This chapter asks whether thinking skills are genetic (fixed mindset) or
if they can change (growth mindset). The evidence shows that reasoning
can be, and should be, taught. I also showed you evidence that you can
successfully teach reasoning if it is content specific. You saw a list of
cognitive tools to use for any type of reasoning activity, although not all are
mandatory for every situation.
Different strategies fit different problems and situations. For example,
while teaching a unit, you might learn to ask different questions. After each
brief lecture component, give students time to develop and ask questions.
Any time a teacher complains that his or her students are not good at
thinking, remember that the greatest probability is that no one has ever
taught them to think. When you build thinking into each part of a
classroom, and when you show an interest in and respect for students’
thinking, then they begin to build cognitive capacity. This means you’ll
become committed to the expression of each student’s ideas, questions, and
observations.
As you engage the enrichment mindset, you assume that students can
learn tough, complex thinking tasks. You can be the one teacher who helps
students succeed because you cared enough, had confidence in them, and
took the time to build their cognitive capacity. Be the one who stands out in
students’ minds as someone who cared and taught them the hard stuff they
can use for the rest of their lives.
 CHAPTER 11

ENHANCE STUDY SKILLS AND

VOCABULARY

Our commitment is to develop the enrichment mindset. To do that, we must

remember that the effects from poverty start early on. From kindergarten
on, the achievement gap widens between poor students and their middle-
class peers, unless they catch up quickly—by the K–2 years (Palardy &
Rumberger, 2008). Most students from poverty end the K–5 experience
right where they started it: behind grade level. Let me restate this: teaching
students learn-to-learn skills (the steps and skills to start as a novice and
become an expert), and particularly anything that builds cognitive capacity,
is critical. Without your support, students may not graduate. Your thinking
here is simple; you must tell yourself, “If I don’t better prepare my students,
they may not make it.”

This chapter focuses on two brain builders (study skills and vocabulary)
that are core for enriching students. Before we get started, consider this: the
symptoms that you see in your classroom when students lack these skills
are usually apathy, discouragement, and low motivation. Those symptoms
might lead an unknowing teacher to believe the student has an attitude or
effort problem. After all, those are common. But often, especially with the
poor, you’re just as likely to see a lack-of-skill problem or a relevance issue.
Before you ever judge a student, hold up a mirror, and ask yourself if you
have tried all the options first.
Contextual Study Skills
I begin this section with a word of caution about study skills. The use of
specific study aids (such as study guides, study procedures, and advanced
organizers like text outlines) shows very promising results with large effect
sizes (0.77 and up; Petty, 2009). But there are also studies that show little or
no effect (Petty, 2009). So, why the big range in effectiveness? It depends
on how specific the subject is. When the study process is fairly general and
more abstract, the research consensus is that direct teaching of general, all-
purpose study skills is not highly effective—about a 0.45 effect size (Petty,
2009). See figure 11.1.

Source: Hattie et al., 1996.

Figure 11.1: Subject-specific study skills.

Generic study skills can build confidence and improve attitude, but the
effect size is unremarkable (Hattie, 2009). Research on study skills is
complicated because (Biggs, 1987) of the following.

• There is no research agreement on which strategies or tactics

comprise core steps, processes, or a common body of study skills
 tactics. This makes comparison very difficult.
• Metacognitive interventions that focus on self-monitoring can
increase the effectiveness of study tools.
• Cognitive skills usage also has an affective side, which fuels
students’ self-concept and the motivation and persistence with
which they will use a strategy.

Here we focus on what we do know that works really well. First, while
there are individual tactics that do have strong effect sizes, it’s refreshing to
have a unified system that raises the likelihood of success. Figure 11.2
illustrates the top study process achievement boosters (Petty, 2009). These
boosters should be in every student process for subject-specific study skills
that you will develop, with help from your colleagues. Each high-impact
study skill is powerful by itself. But when combined with the others, you
will have the means to develop amazing learners. Walk students through
each study step as a class. Then, let them do the step in pairs. Finally, when
they have gained confidence, allow them to solve problems on their own.
But why make the study skills so subject specific?
Figure 11.2: High-impact study skills.

The use of study aids like summarizing and note taking can bump up
progress with a 1.0 effect size (Marzano, 2001) or two years’ worth of
gains. Structural aids are strategies that show the specific framework of
what students are learning. These aids, which might be an outline or other
visual aid, have a strong effect size of 0.58 (but can go up to over 1.1), as
0.50 is one year’s gain in academic achievement.
Following are some other helpful study aids.

Relational Study Aids

Relational study aids (bubble maps, mind maps, Venn diagrams, and so
on) help students see connections between the content and how to learn it.
They are also underused and highly valuable. In this case, figures 11.3 and
11.4 (page 98) are two forms of a study skill tool for a mathematics class.
The elementary flowchart in figure 11.4 is more reader friendly, but both of
these forms are helpful (versus using none at all).

Figure 11.3: List of mathematics study steps for secondary

students.

Figure 11.4: Flowchart of mathematics study steps for elementary

students.
 Although other strategies can work well, the best strategy is to teach
study skills in a subject-specific context. Use specific study aids that
illuminate the structure of your content and its core relationships. The effect
size for this strategy is much higher (0.77) than using a generic strategy;
that’s a year and a half of gains (Petty, 2009).
Work collaboratively with your school teams to create simple, five- to
seven-step grade-level study guides for your key content areas and
incorporate them into the instructional process of retrieving the material a
day or week later. These should include reading for depth, lower-level
mathematics (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), and
science. Making posters of the guides and referring to them in class are also
helpful.
Strategies for contextual study skills are powerful ways to build better
brains. It is rare that students have teachers like you that set out to plan,
develop, and follow through on practical efforts to help students become
smarter. Now, all of the cognitive skills have to work in parallel with
another process. Since students often struggle with building an academic
vocabulary, we’ll want to add that to our school day.

Vocabulary Skill Building

The vocabulary of students growing up poor is typically smaller than
those of their middle- and upper-class peers, which places their academic
success at risk. Children from poverty commonly receive less cognitive
stimulation, which starts impeding academic progress (Ginsborg, 2006).
Children from low–socioeconomic status home environments begin school
with huge, multiyear vocabulary gaps, compared with middle- and upper-
class children (Hart & Risley, 2003). Children from families on welfare
hear about 616 words per hour, working-class families hear about 1,251
words per hour, and professional families hear about 2,153 words per hour.
By age three, this leads to a word gap of about thirty million between low-
income and upper-income students (Hart & Risley, 2003). When tested at
age seven, high-performing students know and use an average of 7,100 root
words, yet students in the lower quartile know and use 3,000 words. This
gap (4,000-plus words) can only be closed when the student learns five
more words a day (in addition to those typically learned at grade level) for
four to five years (Biemiller, 2003).
See figure 11.5 (page 100). Your thinking should be simple; tell
yourself, “If I don’t enrich my students’ vocabulary, they may not succeed.”
Ensure strong academic and confidence gains with vocabulary building.
When you help students learn ten to twelve new words (relevant to tested
material) per week, the gains over a year average 33 percentile points or a
huge 0.95 effect size (Marzano, 2001). It’s also imperative that teachers
help students catch up and teach words that aren’t specific to tested material
but are academically general: like rigorous, reflective, or assess. The
evidence is clear that vocabulary building must form a key part of the
enrichment experience for students. Start with a goal of three hundred
vocabulary words per year or ten words weekly. Over twelve years, this
builds a 3,600-word database of academically relevant vocabulary. Here’s
how to get started.

Source: Hart & Risley, 1995, 2003.

Figure 11.5: Early word exposure and socioeconomic status.

 Role-Model
First, role-model the use of the word. Use the word in a sentence, and
then ask students to predict the meaning. If they don’t get it, keep using it in
new sentences, and let them work with others until they figure it out by
consulting a thesaurus and a dictionary. Once you think they have a general
idea of the definition, ask students to write or talk through a restated
meaning in their own words with a partner. Then, they make their own
interesting and accurate sentence using the word. Finally, ask them to draw
the word and share the drawing.

Use Big Words

Remember, use your big words! Research compared reading
comprehension progress in middle school groups, using beginning-of-year
and end-of-year scores across a variety of classrooms. The researchers
recorded and analyzed the teacher’s speech in those same classrooms.
Students whose teachers used more sophisticated vocabulary in class
significantly improved their reading comprehension as the year progressed
(Gámez & Lesaux, 2015).
• Instead of saying “That’s bad,” say, “That’s invidious.”
• Instead of saying, “That’s great,” say, “That’s spectacular.”
• Instead of saying, “That’s hard,” say, “That’s formidable.”

Use Direct Vocabulary Instruction

Marzano suggests using direct vocabulary instruction with a research-
based, six-step process (Marzano & Simms, 2013).

1. Demonstration: Provide a description, explanation, or example of

the new term.
2. Verbal: Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or
example in their own words.
3. Nonverbal: Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic
representing the term or phrase. Post these on a word wall with rich
 adjectives for writing and content-related words the class is
focusing on.
4. Engagement: Give students activities that help them add to their
vocabulary knowledge.
5. Reciprocal teaching: Periodically ask students to discuss the terms
with one another.
6. Use of games: Involve students in games that allow them to play
with terms.

By the way, the use of gesturing and other nonverbal strategies (mind
mapping, models, and so on) for learning and teaching vocabulary has a
huge 2.27 effect size—over four years’ worth of gains (Marzano, 1998).
Ask students to pair up and demonstrate each new word, using words and
gestures to help remember it.
Give students chances (through class discussion or assignments) to use
all the words of the week. Teachers can use fun celebrations each time a
student uses a word of the week. For example, every time it happens, the
whole class stands up and says, “Oh, yes! I love this!” or add partner or
team cheers to celebrate. In the following weeks, engage cooperative
groups or student teams to review random vocabulary words from the
comprehensive list.

Quick Consolidation
This chapter focused on learn-to-learn skills. Study skills and
vocabulary are two huge difference makers in the potential success of
students from poverty. Either your students will have a good chance at
college or not. With study skills and vocabulary skills, your students can
stand tall among the competition for a job. I am certain that you can
understand the effect these strategies have on student achievement. To
enrich learners, it’s important for teachers to say, “I will grow my students
in any way I can with core study skills and vocabulary.”
Please, while this is fresh in your mind, lock in on something from this
chapter, add it to your lesson plan, and make it part of your menu for next
week. You’ve got students who just hope to have a great teacher this year.
Are you that teacher?
 CHAPTER 12

BUILD BETTER MEMORY

As we’ve seen, the human brain can change. Students from poverty can
grow new brain cells, make connections, and hence, develop a superb
memory. This supports the purpose of intentional brain building and not
sorting students, making excuses, or feeling sorry for them. What cognitive
skills would give you the greatest return on the investment of your time?
Strong examples might include teaching writing, reading, reasoning,
memory, and study skills. Those are all great, but which do you think is
best? Please take this brief quiz.

Question: What factor, when tested at age five, is a greater

predictor of student success at age eleven than even a student’s IQ?
a. Vocabulary d. Working memory
b. Attitude e. Reading skills
c. Mathematics skills f. Motivation

The answer sounds like it must be pretty important, right? Yes, it is

important. The correct answer is working memory (Alloway & Alloway,
2010). Additionally, there are predictive links between students’ tested
working memory skills when starting school and their subsequent
mathematics achievement in later years (Passolunghi, Vercelloni, &
Schadee, 2007). Why else is memory building so important? The biggest
reason is that no matter how much vocabulary students learn, if they forget
it they’re still in trouble. No matter how many thinking skills they’ve
learned, they still have to remember what to say. This is key for the
enrichment mindset: all the strategies work together. When we enrich one
part of a student’s life, we say, “What else does the student need for
success?”
In this chapter, we’ll introduce strong memory builders your students
can use immediately.

Build Long-Term Memory

For decades, policymakers and teachers have rebelled against student
memorization of content. Yet, every year, we expect students to memorize
rules (grammar), procedures, numbers, tables (science), themes, styles,
authors (literature), and relevant facts (every subject). Curiously, we want
teachers to strengthen reasoning skills, but we are not supposed to teach the
memory skills that students need to base their reasoning skills on. You may
have heard, “We teachers should focus on learning, not memory,” but real-
world experience (and the science) disagrees. So how do we reconcile this
by focusing on long-term memory skills, not rote memorization? It is
simple: teach the tools up front in your classes and from then on, students
will use them with small amounts of encouragement, because they will see
the benefit. It’s not your focus during instruction, but fewer students will
have a tough time remembering learning when they have specific memory-
building tools.
The fact is, our memories comprise who we are, what we know, and
where we are going. Most teachers assess a student who doesn’t have a
good memory as a poor learner. How many students knew their content, but
did not recall it at test time? What does this have to do with students from
poverty? Students growing up in poverty are more likely to have weaker
long-term and working memory skills than middle-class students (Noble,
Norman, et al., 2005).
Every grade level requires a foundation of learning from the previous
year (that’s long-term memory). School testing requires background
knowledge, which is, in fact, long-term memory. When it comes to testing,
if students have forgotten what they learned, it’s tough to show that they
ever learned it at all. Long-term memory is the foundation for much of what
you know. Let’s get real about this. Memory is important, and if you don’t
teach it, students will underperform.
In one study, students from low- and middle-income families received
neurocognitive testing. The biggest difference between the kindergartners
from the two social classes was in the language areas, but the number-two
difference was memory (Noble, Norman, et al., 2005). See figure 12.1 for
the effect sizes of these cognitive functions. The simple bar graph suggests
the greatest differences are in language (no surprise). But two of the next
three are memory differences. Now you understand the importance of
teaching both language and memory skills.

Source: Adapted from Noble, Norman et al., 2005.

Figure 12.1: Effect sizes of cognitive functions.

When I attended grades K–12, not one teacher taught me memory skills.
No wonder school was so hard for me! Are there ways to strengthen student
memory? Yes! Let’s explore several of them. Check out the following
strategies to build long-term memory skills.
• Timing: Pause every one to two minutes for ten to fifteen seconds
while lecturing. Be sure to spread out the content over time and
 ensure students practice retrieving the content to strengthen
memory.
• Semantic: Teach students how to turn a list of words into a useful
acronym, abbreviation, or anagram (see page 106). In addition,
discussing a topic and writing about it will strengthen memory.
• Body: Be sure to ask students to explain a concept while gesturing,
and then draw the information using stick figures or diagrams and
mind maps.
• Feelings: Use relevant emotions. The five most common emotions
are joy, disgust, fear, anger, and sadness.

Consider the following strategies for enriching long-term memory.

Mnemonics
Near the top of the list of optimal long-term memory strategies is
mnemonics (Hattie et al., 1996). Mnemonics is the broad use of memory
strategies such as stories, loci (location-based memory), and peg words (a
base list of numbers associated with a picture) with a huge effect size of
1.09.

Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Anagrams

An acronym is an abbreviation (word, letter string, or expression)
formed from the first letters or parts of multiple words or phrases to form a
new, easy-to-recall phrase. One common example is H-O-M-E-S as the
letters representing the five Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie,
and Superior). But this strong effect only occurs when memory tools are
specific to the subject being taught (Muncer & Knight, 2011).
In biology, teachers use the abbreviation K-P-C-O-F-G-S for kingdom,
phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Remember this more easily
with, “kids prefer cheese over fried green spinach.”
Sometimes a new order of letters (anagram) will make it easier. For
example, the eight parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb,
pronoun, conjunction, preposition, and interjection, and the anagram is,
“Cap van with a pi.” Simply use the first letters of the terms you have to
remember, and then rearrange the letters into an anagram. Sometimes,
you’ll need to change a word (to a similar one) if there’s no anagram
available with the letters you have. Visit Wordsmith
(http://wordsmith.org/anagram) to create your own anagrams.
I recommend that you initially guide your students with a specific
example, and when it’s age appropriate, empower them to develop their
own set of content-specific acronyms and anagrams. Among students with
special needs, the effect size was a sky-high 1.47 for using mnemonics
(Scruggs, Mastropieri, Berkeley, & Graetz, 2010). Acronyms can work
well, but students rarely generalize the skill across various subject areas.
This means if you help them learn to create content-specific strategies for
each subject area, you’ll see strong results.

Emotions
Make learning emotional, and the significance and permanence of the
classroom experience will strengthen long-term memory (McGaugh, 2013).
How do you do this? It’s easy; ask yourself, “What usually engages
emotions?” Use movement, competition, surprise, role plays, or suspense as
part of the learning process to help embed the learning emotionally for
long-term memory. Using highly relevant content can help students care
about or connect with what you’re teaching. Emotions at the middle range
(not too strong or not too weak) can support a better memory. For example,
a science teacher wants to show what happens when you combine a small
amount of crushed saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur at a 6-1-1 ratio (by
weight). She mixes them in a mortar, moistened for safety, and grinds them
together with the pestle for about ten minutes. Then, she ignites the mixture
(it’s gunpowder)—the emotions of surprise and fear will help students
remember the activity. The emotional memory is for the gist of what
happened, not for a list of details about it.

Music
Use music to hook students’ interest in a topic. We have all had the
experience of learning content in school with a song (such as learning the
alphabet). Just adding one song or hearing a musical component during
instruction can help students learn the content. Need classroom songs about
chemistry, social class, politics, animals, teenage angst, war, nutrition,
geography, mathematics, or economics? The Green Book of Songs
(http://greenbookofsongs.com) offers access to thousands of ideas. Teachers
can simply google a topic needing a song, such as “What song can help me
learn the fifty states?” (I suggest “Fifty Nifty United States.”)
Students from poverty need their teachers to support the enrichment
mindset because the more you enrich them using long-term memory
strategies, the more they’ll achieve. Next up, we focus on immediate
memory types, which are just as important.

Build Short-Term and Working Memory

Successfully completing most tasks requires the effective orchestration
of multiple types of executive function skills. Executive functions are the
run-your-brain skills that include processing, memory, attention, and self-
control. Here we address two types of your “instant” memory: both short-
term and working memory.
Short-term memory is a cognitive skill that describes the mental
processing necessary for storing temporary input. It is almost like a Cut and
Paste computer function. You can store a small chunk, and then use it
seconds later.
Our brain holds both two types of content in our short-term memory:
sounds (words, music, and so on) and pictures (text, illustrations, photos,
and so on). Many still believe the often-repeated and outdated research that
says our short-term memory is seven items, plus or minus two (Miller,
1956).
However, there are two things to keep in mind. First, Miller (1956) was
referring to chunks of information (which might contain multiple bits).
Second, he was referring to the untrained mind. Research suggests that with
younger students, the numbers are closer to one to three items, and in the
more mature (yet untrained) brain, the number of items typically stored is
two to four (Cowan, 2010). However, we can store and manipulate many
more items in our brains with better strategies and skill building.
 First, let’s explore short-term memory. Fortunately, short-term memory
is a teachable skill (Crone, Wendelken, Donohue, van Leijenhorst, &
Bunge, 2006). As an example, for those who train their brain constantly, the
memory becomes quite extraordinary. Each year, the World Memory
Championships crown an international winner after a grueling, three-day
event. An eleven-year-old boy, Chen Zeqi (World Memory Council, 2015),
memorized the sequence of every card in fifteen decks of playing cards in
just one hour (780 card placements). He did not win the overall
championship, but his time will come (with practice). If you think these are
simply smart or gifted students, think again. Short-term memory is
teachable.
Using short-term memory means students can hold the information as if
it is held in their hand while being used in the brain. But working memory
means they can hold the Scrabble letters in their hand but also mentally
arrange them into a word. Working memory not only holds information but
allows you to manipulate it. For example, adding numbers in your head
(unless you’ve already memorized them) requires you to manipulate figures
(using working memory).
Reading requires your working memory to hold and develop the
meaning of the first half of the sentence while you finish the second half.
Working memory correlates with better reading skills and mathematics
skills because students need to hold content in their heads and process it
while using new content for comprehension and accuracy (Sesma, Mahone,
Levine, Eason, & Cutting, 2009).
Yes, at age five, working memory is far more predictive of student
success at age eleven than IQ (Alloway & Alloway, 2010). Pause and take
that last sentence in one more time. A student’s IQ has less to do with
academic success than working memory. Students from disadvantaged
backgrounds typically have a weaker short-term memory due partly to
chronic stress exposure (Evans & Fuller-Rowell, 2013). To give you an idea
of how important working memory training is, let’s check the research.
There is considerable controversy about how much value and transfer
there is from working memory training. One study reviewed twenty-three
high-quality interventions, where working memory was taught, and
examined the results (Melby-Lervåg & Hulme, 2013). The immediate effect
size on all student achievement ranged from 0.72 to 0.84 (from over one to
two years’ worth of academic gains). The greatest effects are on the subset
of younger students (a massive 1.41 effect size on students under ten)—
over two years of academic progress.
Another study of grade 4 students showed moderate gains (Söderqvist
& Nutley, 2015). Students in one classroom (experimental group)
completed a computer-based working memory training (they used
Cogmed). Students in another classroom received education as usual
(control group). Researchers used the performance on nationally
standardized tests in mathematics and reading both at the start and two
years later. By grade 6, the experimental working memory reading group
had improved to a moderately strong 0.66 effect size. In mathematics, the
effect size was 0.58, and the academic success correlated with the training
success improvements (Söderqvist & Nutley, 2015). You can teach these
skills as part of everyday classroom strategies, using rigorous direct
instruction (Holmes et al., 2010).
There are many simple ways to build short-term memory. The benefits
your students get are proportional to the quality and duration of the memory
activities you generate. Please use these every time you teach memory.

1. Set clear objectives, and develop an evidence procedure.

2. Use existing content for the learning.
3. Get buy-in before starting the activity.
4. Make the learning collaborative, competitive, or interdependent
(not solo).
5. Ensure immediate, actionable feedback.
6. Narrow the task to:
a. Class content
b. Auditory or visual activities
c. Language arts or mathematics and science
7. Begin with a quick, easy learning curve with quick successes.
8. Slowly increase challenge and complexity over time only when
students are getting 95 percent or more success on memory tasks
 for three consecutive days. Continuously check for understanding
using computers or partners.
9. Practice ten to fifteen continuous minutes a day, three to five days a
week, for eight to twelve weeks.
10. Keep the practice fun, reminding students that hard work is good,
and keep the short- and long-term goals in mind.

Using these approaches will help when teaching students to improve

their short-term and working memory. To differentiate between short-term
and working memory, see figure 12.2.

Figure 12.2: Short-term versus working memory.

Consider the following specific strategies to build students’ short-term

and working memory.

Name Games
You can begin your school year or semester with memory activities.
Start by doing the well-known name game. Students start the activity by
standing in circles of four or five each. One person starts a sentence with his
or her name and one characteristic (“My name is Eric, and Eric is tall”).
The person to the right continues the introductions, adding his or her name
and repeating the previous name (“Eric is tall, and my name is Diane, and
Diane is kind”). Each new person repeats all previous student introductions.
When a student can’t keep up, the game simply starts over, with the last
student as the first to go. After two weeks, repeat the name game with new
circles of eight to ten, and then increase the group size over time. The goal
is for every student to know every other student’s name.
 Vocabulary Builders
When teaching new vocabulary, you know the rules: use the words in
sentences. Introduce the word with a definition, and ask students to define it
to a partner in their own words. You use it in a sentence, and then students
write out an example. Students share the word and definition, get a chance
to draw it out, and quiz a partner. Once they know the words, it’s time for
memory builders.
First, ensure the students know the words spelled forward. Then, every
student gets a partner. They stand and face each other. You can make this an
auditory or visual activity. Each partner has a list of five to ten vocabulary
words. Ensure the list is age appropriate and relevant to the content. One
student begins with the first word on his or her list. He or she says the word,
spells it, uses it in a sentence, and spells it again. Then, the partner has to
spell it forward, use it in a sentence, and then spell it backward, using
working memory.
Ask younger students (grades 2 through 5) to spell two- and three-letter
words forward, then backward from memory. With older students (grades 6
to 12), start with three- to four-letter words. As students improve, add more
letters, maintaining perfect accuracy as you build. Partners can also perform
this activity using flash cards. Remember, this process requires slow
building over time. Avoid starting first graders off with words like
Azerbaijan. Consider adding one letter every two to four weeks. Simply
change the variety, complexity, context, and content to keep it fresh.
Students must be getting 95–100 percent correct over and over for a week
(with three days of practice) before you bump up the word length. Use peer
feedback or have student teams grade written work to determine whether
students are ready. As noted, using anagrams is great practice. Teachers can
give students three letters, and they have to form one or two words from the
letters using their memory (not writing it down). For a resource on
scrambled words, go to Enchanted Learning
(www.enchantedlearning.com/english/anagram/numberofletters).

Number Strings
For working memory practice in mathematics, start with simple two- or
three-digit number strings (using whole, positive numbers). Say these
numbers to your class. Students repeat them back to you first in reverse
order and then in order of smallest to greatest value. Keep each number
string a sequence of unrelated digits. For example, here is a string of
numbers: 364, 792, and 185. Do not say, “three hundred and sixty-four.”
Say, “three, six, four.” Why? The three-digit number is one unit, but giving
the numbers separately gives three separate memory units to store.
Then, as students get better, use four number strings such as 8,364;
3,792; and 4,395. Once you have shown your students how this activity
works, they can partner up and develop skills one on one. This process is
great for building mathematics competencies, because you can continually
build the task in complexity and challenge. Over time, your students will be
able to recite number strings as long as five or six digits at the lower-
elementary level and eight to ten digits at the secondary level.
For a short-term memory activity, get your students to listen carefully as
you say some numbers. Start with single numbers in a serial order. Then,
use two-digit numbers, and build up slowly. Digits should be given at the
rate of one per two or three seconds, no faster. Students repeat the numbers
back to you (or a partner) to trigger short-term, auditory memory. For
example, say “three” then “two.” Students repeat “three, two.” Now, ask
them to repeat the numbers to you in reverse order; that’s working memory
(manipulating the sequence of the numbers mentally).
For younger students (grades K–2), the best to way to learn this skill is
with simple objects. With physical reminders made of plastic or wood (or
simply use small pieces of paper with the number written on it), let students
practice doing this activity at their desks. Allow them to group two
numbers, remember the numbers, regroup them, and then add a number to
get better. Doing this in the physical world is great rehearsal for the mental
world.
The secret to making this work is to start small and make the additions
random and repeated. Only go at a rate at which 90 percent of the class can
repeat all the numbers. Once you get to that level, practice backward recall.
Over time, slowly build up the number chains. Based on my experience,
this takes five to ten minutes, three to five times a week, for eight to twelve
weeks, to show strong gains.
 Number Manipulation
Here’s a great activity you can do with your students to help them add,
subtract, rearrange, group, multiply, divide, reverse, sequence, or compute
in ways that require holding the number and manipulating. At the K–5
level, you can use positive single-digit whole numbers. Say one number to a
student (“five”). The student then can add, subtract, multiply, or divide
using that number and another positive single-digit whole number (“five
minus three is two”). Keep this developmentally appropriate. Then, you
take the answer and do your own calculations. You might say, “Two times
four is eight.” Then, the student says, “Eight plus one is nine.” Then, you
say, “Nine divided by three is three.” Then, your partner says, “Three times
two is six.” When this is done with students in partners, it is great fun.
Your job is to keep the activity challenging. One way to do that is to
have a third student act as a mathematics coach. That student listens to the
students doing the mathematics and checks their work for accuracy. That
student can also say when it is time to change the functions or number sets.
At the secondary level, after a few weeks, the students can use positive,
double-digit whole numbers. The idea is simple: do hard mental work, keep
making it harder and more complex, get feedback on it, and have fun.
Doing times activities makes it even more fun since many students will feel
the fun competition.

Cadence Songs
Let’s double up on our enrichment. We know that brief walks are good
for our brain (Miller & Krizan, 2016; Schaefer, Lovden, Wieckhorst, &
Lindenberger, 2010). With that, we will combine a short-term memory
builder. Cadence songs are marching songs with a call-response format.
They build camaraderie, unity, and auditory short- and long-term memory.
At school, the student leader begins with a line, and the students repeat each
one. Teachers can use these for classroom self-discipline, chores, new
words, or character building. In the following example, a K–2 grade teacher
says each single line, and then students repeat it. Over time, the teacher can
start using two lines at a time.
Teachers can use an eight-line cadence song as a walking energizer or to
prepare for recess or lunch. Students begin this by standing in line, ready to
go. The K–2 teacher says the first line of the cadence, and then after each
line, the students repeat.

• “Let’s line up; it’s easy to do.” (Students have their heads up and
repeat.)
• “Hands at my side, all stuck like glue.” (Students snap hands to
sides and repeat.)
• “Feet together; it’s cool to see.” (Students look down and repeat.)
• “You watch you, and I watch me.” (Students look at teacher and
repeat.)
• “We can walk real fast; we’ve got a plan.” (Students walk fast and
repeat.)
• “We can walk so slow; oh yes we can.” (Students walk slow and
repeat.)
• “1, 2, 3, 4! We make sure we’re in a row.” (Students count and
repeat.)
• “Ready to go when the teacher says so.” (Students repeat.)

Cadence songs must start out simple and fun. Over time, you’ll be
asking more and more as the students develop a better short-term memory.

Simon Says
A classic short-term memory game is Simon Says. Typically, Simon
Says is a listening, attentional activity. The keys of this game are to keep it
fun, start simple, and build slowly. A female teacher can even use the name
Simone instead of Simon. Students are only to do something that Simon or
Simone says to do.
To build working memory, first ensure that students know the regular
format for Simon Says. Then, you’ll mix up the directions by giving two
commands at once or asking students to only follow the first of two
commands. These activities invite students to listen closely (attentional
skills) and hold words and actions in their heads (working memory
practice). For example, you could say, “This time, Simon says, ‘Follow the
first of the two commands.’” “Simon says, ‘Clap your hands.’” “Simon
says, ‘Stomp your feet.’” Students should only clap their hands and not
stomp their feet.

Content Add-On Review Builders

At both the primary and secondary levels, students can write short
sentences of up to five or six words. Their partners (or the next student in a
small group) repeat the previous sentence, and then add a new sentence to
it. But the new one must be a logical sequence. Add-on activities build
memory; it’s incremental learning at its best.
For example, in a history class, the first student in a team of five says,
“The U.S. fought in South Vietnam.” The second one says, “The U.S.
fought in South Vietnam. South Vietnam was its ally.” The next student
repeats the previous sentences and adds another. In this way, students can
review history and build auditory short-term memory.
At the K–5 level, you can review any topic: “A verb is an action word.”
The next student says, “A verb is an action word, like run.” The next
student repeats this and may add, “Adverbs modify the verbs, like ‘She runs
fast.’” The idea is review, repeat, and build memory.

Call-Response Songs
Some songs repeat a brief chorus line (like “Day-O”). Repeating longer
segments builds memory skills. For younger students (grades K–2), use
songs that keep building onto the song’s lyrics (such as “Old MacDonald
Had a Farm”). These are excellent for younger students, since ideally,
students have to keep track of all the previous verses. Another classic is
“The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

Clapping Repeats
This activity requires no planning. In fact, the beauty is its simplicity.
The teacher starts with a very simple clap in front of the class: “Clap-clap,”
and students repeat it. The teacher repeats the clap: “Clap-clap” and, once
again, students repeat it. Next, the teacher starts a new one: “Clap-clap
(pause) clap-clap,” and students repeat it. The sequence is critical: the
teacher starts very easy, and then repeats the activity. Use the challenge to
boost motivation: “Last week we got to level three; let’s go for level four
this week.” The teacher builds up slowly, often doubling back to ensure the
skills are solid. With just a few minutes a day, any teacher can boost
listening skills and short-term memory. Over time, students can lead the
class in this activity as a privilege.

Word Boxes or File Folders

This activity builds both short-term memory and attentional skills. The
teacher gives the class an imaginary word box, meaning that all of the
words have to come from the same box. For example, with first graders, if
the word box is fruits, you can only choose fruits and no other words.
Students can start this activity with a partner. The one who goes first says a
word from the fruit basket. If fruit is the title of the word box, the first word
could be pear. The other partner repeats the word pear and adds a new
word from the same “basket” such as apple. Then, the original partner
repeats, pear and apple and adds orange. This process goes on, back and
forth, until someone can no longer recall all the fruits in the basket. Then, it
is time to start over with a new box.
In a K–5 mathematics class, the word box might be a certain type of
number (prime, double digit, divisible by 5 or add 9 to the last one, and so
on). In an English class, the box might be pronouns, and in science the box
might be elements from the periodic table. Teachers can do this for five to
ten minutes a day in any content area as a pretest for prior knowledge or a
review. As students get better, they can do this in cooperative groups of four
to eight students. Use your imagination; you can develop word boxes for
any required learning and students can have fun and build their brains.

Repeat-After-Me Activities
A repeat-after-me activity goes this way. You say to your students,
“Today we are going to learn three ways that wind affects our weather. How
many ways did I just say?”
Give one to two sentences as initial directions to start a new task. Then,
say, “Now, turn to your neighbor and repeat the directions, in your own
words, as best as you can. Ready, go!”
 Visual and Verbal Memory Quizzes
You say to students (who are in their usual cooperative groups or
teams), “Point to a neighbor in your group who was here yesterday. Now
tell him or her what colors he or she wore yesterday. Ready, go!”
You say to your students, “Yesterday, we posted our new vocabulary
word for the day. Go ahead, talk it over with your neighbor, define it, and
then write it down. As soon as you have it written, hold up your answer on
the paper. Let’s see what you got!”

Online Memory Training Resources

The following sites have proven brain-training software modeled after
quality research. Jungle Memory (www.junglememory.com) is great for K–
5 students. Scientific Learning (www.scilearn.com) and BrainHQ
(https://secure.brainhq.com) are both quality resources and terrific for
secondary students. When you use Scientific Learning’s Reading Assistant
(www.scilearn.com/products/reading-assistant), students not only get better
at reading but also better at paying attention, phonological processing, and
working memory (Russo, Hornickel, Nicol, Zecker, & Kraus, 2010). One
solid company, C8 Sciences (www.c8schools.com), will come to your
school and put these cognitive skill-building strategies into action for your
students.

Quick Consolidation
The enrichment mindset is an impressive approach for building your
students’ cognitive capacity. Cognitive strategies are so powerful that, by
working in grade-level or subject teams, each teacher can focus on different
areas at the secondary level. At the K–5 level, focus on building two new
cognitive skills at each grade level. By the fifth grade, the students will
truly be enriched. This was a full chapter, but then again, you were learning
a core cognitive component of academic achievement: memory. Long-term,
short-term, and working memory are critically important. We cannot in
good conscience expect, or even hope, that students will learn it unless we
stress the urgency and make it easy to implement. Short-term memory is
highly predictive of student achievement for complex activities including
language comprehension, problem solving, and learning (Engle, 2001), and
it’s strongly related to general intelligence (Conway, Kane, & Engle, 2003).
I urge you to give your students memory training. It’s that important. Now,
lock in on something from this chapter, and make it part of your lesson
plan. Your students are waiting for an amazing teacher to show up who will
help them feel smarter.
 CHAPTER 13

LOCK IN THE ENRICHMENT

MINDSET

This chapter ties up the strategies on enriching the brain. Far too many
teachers talk about what’s wrong with students and how their poor
upbringing makes them “less than” for life, but DNA is not destiny. The key
is to develop the enrichment mindset, which shows that all brains can grow,
including theirs.

Most of us deal with success pretty easily. We can internalize it and feel
great as we swell up with pride or socialize it and show off with a new
swagger. We may even dismiss success as an exception. But failure is more
important to deal with, since it will guide much of your life. When students
fail, how do you respond? Are you disappointed and find yourself looking
for blame? When students fail, do you immediately use that as a gift and
opportunity to grow? Do you model how to deal with mistakes in your
class, or do you avoid them at all costs? What is your narrative about
failure?

Change the Narrative, Change Your Teaching

In each chapter, I have invited you to listen to your own narrative about
a part of your teaching. Here, you can choose to live the narrative of
enrichment and growth, not judgment. The preceding chapters suggest
several powerful factors to build your students’ brains. They include
managing the cognitive load, developing better thinking skills, enhancing
study skills and vocabulary, and building long-term, short-term, and
working memory. Every one of those is powerful, but using several will
help create cognitive powerhouses.
Here’s the big question: What mindset narrative do you have? See
figure 13.1.

Figure 13.1: You are your mindset—the enrichment mindset.

Make this year the story of how you develop your students, as would a
coach for his or her athletes. In this case, you’ll develop the capacity to
learn. Now, you have a choice to make: What will be your new alternative
and more empowering narrative to explain failure and foster positive
changes for the future?
Fill in the following blanks with your name and a strategy from this
mindset. Repeat the phrase daily until it’s automatic.
 “I,__________, am committing to developing the enrichment mindset
with my students every single day. I will begin with one of the strategies
mentioned, which is ___________. I will continue this until I have mastery
and it’s automatic. At that point, I’ll learn something new to foster student
success.”

Reflection and Decision

All meaningful and lasting change starts with a mirror. Self-reflect first.
How strong are your students’ learn-to-learn skills? Your decision to grow
the enrichment mindset in your students includes:

1. Choosing a new narrative about your students and yourself that

includes the enrichment mindset
2. Using one of the strategies in the preceding chapters to develop
cognitive skills with a fierce urgency
3. Creating a support process to ensure successful implementation

That support process may include any of the following: engaging

colleagues, sending notes to yourself, and creating lesson plans that include
fresh strategies and narratives.

Quick Consolidation
At school, I often hear teachers describe “low” students. But their brains
are only responding to environmental input. Since the brain can change,
there are no low students, only students in low environments. As educators,
we get students for nine hundred hours a year and often spend more time
with them than their parents. We can change the brains of the next
generation to help it succeed.
Students with a growth mindset might say, “I can change and grow and
learn from my mistakes.” The growth mindset means that failures are an
opportunity to learn from mistakes and get better. It affirms the value of
effort, attitude, and improved strategy. It does not claim that everyone can
become an Einstein; merely that everyone has potential for growth. The
enrichment mindset can become a different way you think about students
from now on. Everything can be enriched: social skills, punctuality, respect,
vocabulary, and, of course, cognitive skills. This is an amazing moment in
your life when the burden of low expectations is suddenly invalid. You now
know that all students really can learn, as long as you are an ally.
The power of engaging the growth mindset is huge. Once you begin to
say, “What else can I enrich?” a whole new world of teaching opens up for
you. You can measure the strength of your enrichment mindset, not just in
what you say to your students but also in what you teach them. That process
speaks volumes and shows your students you believe in their potential. So,
while it is fresh on your mind, start thinking of some higher goals for your
students to reach this year (or semester).
 PART THREE
WHY THE GRADUATION MINDSET?
 CHAPTER 14

SECRETS OF THE GRADUATION

MINDSET

This chapter begins with my own personal mission for college and career
readiness standards. I am committed to helping 100 percent of K–12
students graduate job or college ready. When I share this mission with
others, some feel like kindred spirits and like my gutsy goal. But others
simply smile, and I suspect they silently say to themselves, “Right; like
that’s going to happen.” But who on your staff would say that? Are you a
teacher who subscribes to the deficit model, which suggests that the poor
will always struggle because they are “broken”? Actually, anyone who
thinks that way should know the facts. High-poverty schools can and do
succeed. It is often the staff’s mindset that is broken.

The Graduation Mindset

Let’s review what you are up against. Every day, when you go to work,
remind yourself, “Our students need every minute I can invest in each and
every day.” In this book, I have shared scientific research showing that
brains can change and strategies to help your students succeed. Yes, it’s
hard work, and you should know that up front. Without focus, the amount
of distracting noise out there can make you, and students, feel crazy. Tune it
out. Stop listening to the negativity. Fill your mind with the dreams that you
and your students have for success. You can make the choice to do it. We
are all counting on you to manage that noise and help students manage it
too. See figure 14.1 (page 124).

Figure 14.1: Learning to manage the noise.

Before you can understand the thinking of a teacher with the graduation
mindset, it helps to contrast it with the opposite mindset. Teachers who
struggle in this area may say something like one or more of the following
statements. Ask yourself if you have occasionally heard these comments at
school.

• “Graduation would be nice, but most of these students don’t even

try.”
• “I’m a positive person, but realistically, these students have come
from pretty bad environments.”
• “The parents don’t even care. Heck, most of them only have one
parent at home. Why should I care?”
• “These students are often tardy, truant, or absent. They may have it
rough at home, but still, most don’t participate in class. I don’t
think they even want to graduate.”
 When you see these comments in writing, they’re pretty depressing,
aren’t they? As you read these, ask yourself if you’d like your own son or
daughter to attend this school. Now, in contrast, the bold, charge-ahead
graduation mindset of those who help students become college and career
ready is much different. The graduation mindset says, “Focus on what
matters. Be an ally to help students graduate college and career ready.”

The graduation mindset says, “Focus on what matters. Be an ally to help

students graduate college and career ready.”

I am happy to share a few statements I have heard when visiting high-

performing schools.

• “I choose to work here because I love changing lives. I give my

own students the skills, knowledge, and hope that each needs to
graduate and succeed in this world.”
• “I like my job. Graduation is our first priority. What makes my day
is when I help a student succeed who was failing before. Now,
that’s priceless.”
• “At our school, every teacher is totally committed to helping
students succeed. In fact, I would go so far as to say, ‘We simply
won’t let them fail.’”

A Hard Look at the Evidence

Successful schools do anything and everything that is needed. Hundreds
(maybe thousands) of high-poverty schools succeed every year (out of tens
of thousands possible). One researcher estimated that there were 3,592
high-performing, high-poverty schools in the year 2000 (Jerald, 2001); but
others assert that the number is far lower (Krashen, 2002). Several things
are problematic: most of the research is well over a decade old, researchers
disagree on the standard to which schools should be held, and finally, a
high-performing school may lose its coveted status when new leadership
arrives with a lesser skill set, lower expectations, or without a mission-
driven philosophy. What is important for you to know is that there are
schools (that’s plural, not just one) that are high poverty, high minority, and
high performing. If there was only one school in the country, you could
dismiss it as an outlier. But once we see many schools succeeding, the case
for it being impossible disappears. I always ask the staff at a school, “How
many success stories do you need?”
High-performing schools do things differently; that’s why they succeed.
The difference has nothing to do with broken students and more to do with
broken spirits among the staff. When I share the stories of successful
teachers or schools, some teachers are awed and want to be like them.
Others see those teachers as a statistical exception. They ask, “Yes, but
was it in our city? Yes, but was it a public school? Yes, but do they have the
same ethnicity as our school? Yes, but did they have the same job losses we
just did? Yes, but do they have the same budget problems we have?” Of
course, none of those questions really matter. Even one successful public
school confirms that it can be done—and there are many, many schools
succeeding.
The high-performing school staff don’t make excuses, nor do they talk
about the schools that fail. They roll up their sleeves and go to work. You
should know there are schools that have done crazy, nearly impossible
things to help students graduate. It does take very high intention. I mean
this; schools with high poverty and test scores show it is possible. The
Education Trust’s Dispelling the Myth
(https://edtrust.org/dispelling_the_myth) recognizes low-income schools
that are high achieving. Among secondary schools, here are two quick
examples. In San Diego, 95 percent of the students at the Preuss School are
from poverty, yet it is ranked in the top 100 schools in the United States,
where 97 percent of students graduate (U.S. News & World Report, 2016).
In Chicago, consider Urban Prep Academies: 100 percent of high school
graduates were accepted to college (Urban Prep Academies, 2016).
What do high-performing schools do? Here is the policy analysis from
the Center for Public Education (2005). There are five major building
blocks.

1. A culture of high expectations and caring for students

 2. A safe and positively disciplined environment
3. A strong instructional school leader
4. Hard-working, committed, and able teachers
5. A curriculum focused on academic achievement that emphasizes
basic skills in mathematics and literacy

There are also five core practices.

1. Protected instructional time

2. Ongoing, actionable, and diagnostic assessment
3. Parents as partners in learning
4. Professional development to improve student achievement
5. Strong collaboration among teachers and staff

Now, what do classroom teachers do to make this happen? Here are

examples of just a few of the strategies that high-performing schools use.
• Upper-grade students mentoring lower-grade students (for example,
eleventh and twelfth graders mentoring ninth and tenth graders, and
fourth and fifth graders sharing college options and job options
with first and second graders)
• Partnerships with a local university to supply no-cost tutors to
support student learning in one-hour homework sessions after
school
• Strong arts and physical education programs that develop life skills,
self-discipline, and teamwork
• School-to-job programs that help students find relevancy in their
time at high school (for example, working in the cafeteria as part of
a culinary arts program, learning to repair A/C and heating units as
well as drywall and paint, or learning business skills by running the
student store)
• After-school programs that help students make important social and
business contacts in the community with one-hour question-and-
 answer sessions with local businesspeople, community leaders, and
counselors
• Ninth-grade scholarship committee to help students navigate the
process of preparing high school coursework and scholarship
applications

How did you respond to this list? Did you think, “Those sound good,”
then just keep reading? High-poverty, high-performing schools consider
every option. They hold discussions, look at their data, listen to students via
student surveys, and are fanatic about patching any gaps that hurt students’
chances for graduation. The preceding items are solid-gold ideas that can
transform your school. Please circle them, tag this page, and talk about
them at your school. The following two chapters offer strategies to help
your students prepare for graduation—no matter what grade they’re in.
These strategies include the following.

1. Support alternative solutions.

2. Prepare for college and careers.

Quick Consolidation
In the following chapters, you’ll begin a new narrative, one all about
reaching a school goal of 100 percent graduation. Remember, the
graduation mindset says, “Focus on what matters. Be an ally to help
students graduate college and career ready.” When this is your mindset,
heaven and earth will move for you. Why? Your intention is clear, and your
attention to the goal is focused and strong. You have the skills, and the
outcome can become real.
 CHAPTER 15

SUPPORT ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

Let’s start with a simple question: If you knew of a program that kept
students in school, reduced student discipline problems, strengthened
cognitive capacity, reduced dropouts, and improved graduation rates, would
you support it? Of course you would!

Why did I ask you this question?

Researchers have studied programs that do those things for decades and
yet, we have to beg, plead, fight, and scream for their implementation.
Across the United States, fewer and fewer schools include arts programs
and physical fitness programs. For arts, over 40 percent of secondary
schools do not require coursework in arts for graduation (Parsad &
Spiegelman, 2012). Seven in ten parents say their child’s school has zero
physical education (NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, & Harvard
School of Public Health, 2013). Somehow, other new curricula with far less
evidence to support their contribution to student achievement seem to push
them out of the public eye.
This chapter reviews two strong ways to keep students in school and
help them graduate college or career ready. The alternatives that help
students soar are: (1) arts and (2) physical activity. Before you say, “Yeah,
yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that a million times,” let’s review why these
alternatives should be a part of your school. It’s OK to have opinions; we all
have them. But in the process of education, every dollar spent is being
scrutinized. That means, if a parent or teacher asks, “Can you show me if
this is worth the dollars or time we are investing for our students?” I want to
be able to say, “Yes!” Because if you are fighting for students to graduate
college or career ready, these top the list of high-return investments.

Why Support the Arts?

First, let’s review the arts research. A major study shows that students
who underwent thirty-six weeks of musical training showed a reliable
increase in IQ (Schellenberg, 2004). Musical training enhances memory
(Ho, Cheung, & Chan, 2003), academic achievement (Southgate &
Roscigno, 2009), and social development (Catterall, 2003). Maybe most
critically, a U.S. longitudinal aggregate of four databases with thousands of
low–socioeconomic status students found clear positive differences
(Catterall, 2009). The students had higher graduation rates, fewer discipline
issues, and better grades.
Low-income students receiving the top fifth in arts time available were
compared to those in the bottom quintile (Catterall, Dumais, & Hampden-
Thompson, 2012). The results were clear: members of the top quintile
group were more likely to graduate from high school, get an associate’s
degree or bachelor’s degree, and earn mostly As in college. They were more
likely to have higher scores in writing, science, and mathematics in high
school as well as to participate in extracurricular activities. They were more
likely to read a newspaper, get involved in student government, and
volunteer in their community. This is dramatic evidence of the value of arts
for students from poverty. The study concludes that low–socioeconomic
status students with strong arts experience achieve as much as those in the
general population (Catterall et al., 2012).
In the following sections, you’ll learn how arts build what I call the
academic operating system and how to use the arts more in the classroom.

How Arts Build the Academic Operating System

Here we define arts as the big four: musical arts (playing an instrument),
performing arts (theater, choir, dance, tap dance, and comedy), kinetic arts
(sculpture), and visual arts (drawing, painting, and so on). There are school
success factors that I call our academic operating system. These are brain
systems that are developed in precise and lasting ways from long-term
exposure to arts. Students are more likely to be successful when they excel
at these skills (Skoe & Kraus, 2012). Among them, I include the following
(see figure 15.1).
Having said that, we will focus on the musical arts and physical activity.
Simply put, the evidence is strongest for student growth among those two.
As you can see in figure 15.1, the process of participating in typical arts
activities (music, dance, visual arts, and so on) is a clear brain builder.

Figure 15.1: How arts build the academic operating system.

In my experience, the arts influence the following five factors when

students participate in them three to five days a week for at least thirty to
ninety minutes at a time.

1. Effort: Motivation and the ability to defer gratification

2. Processing skills: Auditory, visual, and tactile
3. Attentional skills: Engage, focus, and disengage as needed
4. Memory capacity: Short-term and working memory
5. Sequencing skills: Knowing the order of a process
 In addition to these five factors, arts support the graduation mindset.
Schools that have music programs have significantly higher attendance
rates than do those without programs (93.3 percent as compared to 84.9
percent) and have significantly higher graduation rates than do those
without music programs (90.2 percent as compared to 72.9 percent). In
addition, those that rate their programs as “excellent or very good” have an
even higher graduation rate (90.9 percent; Nagel, 2006).
There are multiple ways you can engage arts in the classroom. Use arts
yourself and, ideally, please use a qualified arts teacher if possible. Your
ideal strategy is to have a certified arts teacher work with your students for
fifteen to thirty minutes for three days a week at both the elementary and
secondary level. When there are not enough art teachers, teachers can use
arts in their own way (drawings, gestures, dance, and energizers).
How important are the arts? In a U.S. study of twenty-five thousand
secondary school students over four years, the researchers found significant
correlations between high involvement in arts learning and general
academic success (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999). But in a follow-
up on the same students at age twenty-five, the results were striking. More
of the low-income students were in college and had better grades, and were
more likely to have an advanced degree and be employed in the future.
They were also more likely to vote and be involved in volunteer work
(Catterall, 2009). It is clear that the arts impact the graduation mindset.

How to Use More Musical Arts and Physical Activity in the

Classroom
For musical arts, if you allow students to learn and use an instrument,
their skill sets will improve. Music instruction helps students learn to read
(Standley, 2008). Three or more years of instrumental music training
enhance auditory discrimination, fine motor skills, vocabulary, and
nonverbal reasoning (Forgeard, Winner, Norton, & Schlaug, 2008). Music
students have much better verbal memory than those without it, and the
longer the training, the better the verbal memory (Ho et al., 2003).
Maybe the quickest way for students to get music training (without a
music instructor) is by learning to play on an iPad. Consider the use of these
apps: Tiny Piano, Nota, 50in1 Piano HD, Musical Touch, Pro Keys, and
Twelve One. These will get a student hooked on being a musician! There
are many YouTube videos that teach introductory music lessons. That’s not
as good as a qualified music teacher, but it is better than no music exposure
at all.
Playing a musical instrument involves the synchronization of many
different, demanding tasks. The resulting coordination of mental activity
not only spurs structural growth in the brain but also gives musicians an
edge in perception, which spills over into the realms of language and spatial
relations. Because of this overlap, musicians repeatedly outperform their
nonmusical peers on tests of IQ, verbal memory, reading skills, creative
problem solving, geometry, and number systems (Catterall et al., 2012).
Surprisingly, music lessons bring a socioemotional advantage too as
young musicians are more able to detect emotional nuances in speech,
enjoy higher self-esteem, and are more likely to exhibit productive
characteristics such as cooperation, motivation, responsibility, and
initiative. These many advantages, which research shows to hold up across
cultures, appear to be independent of genetic or socioeconomic advantage
and are especially striking in students who start early, practice often, and
keep the skills over time (Catterall et al., 2012).
To support drama, allow students to role-play a topic. Students can do
this in science (for example, to show how an experiment will work, a
reaction of chemicals, or an ecological outcome). They can do it in
mathematics (for example, to show a key formula, how each part of an
equation plays out, or a memorable way to store the formula), or in English
(for example, to tell a story, explain a review, or show relevance to student
lives). Performing and learning the skills of drama will build a large group
of transferrable skills. Movement, often part of drama, can affect cognition
in many ways. In figure 15.2, you’ll see the connection between motor
skills and academic skills.
Figure 15.2: Wiring the brain for success.

Now, let’s visit a pro-arts teacher to find out how much the arts matter
(Esquith, 2007).
An upper-elementary teacher in South Los Angeles, California, taught
at a high-poverty elementary school. The neighborhood was known more
for crime and non–English speakers than anything else. Over 70 percent of
his students were from poverty, and most were second language learners. If
you track the students from his entire elementary school, only 32 percent
graduate from high school. But if you track the students from his fifth-grade
class only, 100 percent graduate and go on to college. The primary vehicle
for his students’ success is the arts.
The students dance, learn how to play an instrument, and perform the
Shakespearean play As You Like It. The next time you think you can’t make
a difference, go to YouTube and type in “The Hobart Shakespeareans,” and
see his students perform. The arts are a huge difference maker, and they
change the brain in positive ways (Asbury & Rich, 2008).

Why Support Physical Activity?

Let’s revisit the value of physical activity. In a longitudinal study of
over eighty-three thousand New York City middle school students enrolled
between 2006–2007 and 2011–2012, there was a substantial correlation
between fitness from the previous year and a greater improvement in
academic ranking (the average was over 20 percentile points compared to
other unfit students). The testing used was a composite percentile based on
yearly state standardized mathematics and English language arts test scores
(Bezold et al., 2014). Another study finds that vocabulary learning is 20
percent faster after intense physical exercise (Winter et al., 2007). In
California, using data from almost a million students, researchers find
physical education is also associated with enhanced reading and
mathematics scores (Grissom, 2005). See figure 15.3.
Source: Ratey, 2008.

Figure 15.3: Physical activity fosters literacy skills.

For many students, mathematics is a tough, gritty subject. But physical

activity boosts dopamine, which fosters increased effort, optimism, and
working memory (all of which can help students perform better in
mathematics). It also raises the production of noradrenaline, which
improves focus and long-term memory. In Naperville, Illinois, researchers
found that physical activity supports positive growth in algebra scores
(Illinois Public Health Institute, 2013). See figure 15.4.
Many schools struggle as a whole with classroom discipline. But
physical activity, in multiple tests, has been shown to reduce classroom
discipline issues (Ratey, 2008). See figure 15.5 for the influence of a daily
fitness program (PE4life).
Another study shows boosts in self-confidence (Carlson et al., 2008)
due to physical activity. More studies show exercise supports students’
executive functioning skills, including attention (Best, 2010; Budde,
Voelcker-Rehage, Pietrabyk-Kendziorra, Ribeiro, & Tidow, 2008). A key
part of physical activity is the capture. I call it the capture because there are
few things in life that you can genuinely get real control over to lower stress
and succeed. Moving your body is one of those gems. This is right at the
heart of the graduation mindset. Physical activity is one of the best ways to
feel more in control of your own body and your life.

Source: Ratey, 2007.

Figure 15.4: Physical activity fosters mathematics skills.

Source: Ratey, 2007.

Figure 15.5: Physical activity reduces discipline problems.

There are multiple ways you can engage physical activity in the
classroom.

How Physical Activity Fosters New Brain Cells

The human brain can and does produce new brain cells, but chronic
stress and poor nutrition decrease the new cell production, which increases
the chance for depression. A third of students from poverty suffer from
chronic stress and depression (Pratt & Brody, 2014). However, there is
increasing evidence that voluntary gross motor exercise is a viable
preventive and treatment strategy for depression (Yau, Li, Xu, & So, 2015).
In one study, young homeless mothers with a history of depression and
anxiety took a thirty-minute dance program that enhanced mindfulness
twice a week for eight weeks. The dance training improved more than
aerobic fitness; it decreased their symptoms of depression and anxiety
(Shors, Olson, Bates, Selby, & Alderman, 2014).
New brain cells contribute to better mood, memory, weight
management, and cognition (Marin-Burgin & Schinder, 2012; van Praag,
Fleshner, Schwartz, & Mattson, 2014). We can improve neurogenesis (the
production of new brain cells) with voluntary gross motor activity (Pereira
et al., 2007).
Figure 15.6 shows the results of animal research indicating a doubling
of new brain cells for rats that were given running wheels compared with
those without the exercise option (Brown et al., 2003). Studies on humans
have verified this effect (Erickson et al., 2011).

Source: Brown et al., 2003.

Figure 15.6: Exercise fosters new brain cells.

Finally, a long-term study shows the connection between fitness and

cognition (London & Castrechini, 2011). This study finds that overall
physical fitness is a strong predictor of academic achievement, and the lack
of fitness begins as early as fourth grade. Another study of over seventeen
hundred students finds that sixth- and ninth-grade students with superior
fitness score significantly better on mathematics and social studies tests
compared with less fit students (Coe, Peterson, Blair, Schutten, & Peddie,
2013).

How to Use Physical Activity in the Classroom

 In any way you can, support a full twenty- to thirty-minute physical
activity break at the K–5 level. Do not, under any circumstances, punish a
student by keeping him or her in the classroom during recess. There are
dozens of alternatives (for example, stand last in line for lunch, lose
privileges, stay after school for five minutes for reflective writing, and so
on). You could also keep students more engaged to reduce behavioral issues
and teach students the behaviors you want, rather than only punishing bad
behavior.
For example, are you giving students constant stretch breaks and
energizers to burn off energy? If not, include out-of-seat activities every ten
to twenty minutes during your class. Take students outside, and let them do
laps around a fitness or walking area. One K–5 teacher took students out on
the field and did a power walk for a full lap with her class. Soon, other
teachers got in on the practice, and campuswide excitement began to grow
about daily ten-minute power walks and the value of physical activity. Help
get the brain ready to reason by keeping it healthy and in top physical
shape.
A great way to support physical activity in your classroom is to form
teams for energizers that get the body moving. Assign a personal trainer to
keep each team (four per team for grades K–5 and five per team for 6–12)
engaged in the activity. Give personal trainers a cue every fifteen to twenty-
five minutes to get the team moving, and rotate the trainers every two
weeks. Try the following activities with your class.

• Invite students to run in place for one minute. Once you begin,
students will get excited, especially if you encourage some friendly
competition or collaboration. Students who are extra active, bored,
or just need to release a little steam will find this is a jewel.
• Integrate movement with subject areas. For example, check out
activities at Action Based Learning
(http://actionbasedlearning.3dcartstores.com).
• Do whole-group activities that bring everyone together. For
example, allow a student to teach the class a dance step.
 • Allow student volunteers to be leaders. Everyone follows as he or
she walks, marches, and dances around the classroom for forty-five
seconds.
• Play an imaginary sport. Students within a team all stand up, and
each picks a favorite sport. One at a time, that person goes through
the kinesthetic motions of that sport, while the other team members
mimic the motions for thirty seconds. Rotate to the next team
member, and everyone follows that student too. This is great fun
and goes quickly.

At the secondary level, students still need to move their bodies. This
means physical education is critical, but so are classroom activities that
allow students to move.

Quick Consolidation
This chapter was all about alternative ideas—the arts and physical
education. The graduation mindset casts a wide net across the landscape
and says, “Let’s leave no stone unturned.”
Enrich every student, every day to move him or her toward graduation.
Graduation is not an accident; it is a hard, long-term process that takes its
toll on students. When you provide the tools, hope, and relationships and go
above and beyond, the students will feel it. They will feel that graduation is
indeed that important. Once they are on board, success belongs to
everybody. Can I count on you?
 CHAPTER 16

PREPARE FOR COLLEGE AND

CAREERS

There have always been some students who struggle or fail in nearly every
area of school until they get to do something with their hands, participate in
something physical, or get outdoors and learn. Some students practically
live for these activities that may include vocational training, outdoor
learning, project-based work, field trips, apprentice learning, and service
learning. As a generalization, keep your younger students closer to school.
The novelty of outside experiences is more likely to overwhelm third-grade
students, depending on their previous at-home experiences. They’ll
remember the field trip but will likely learn less from it than if you just use
a simple outdoor science activity within the school grounds.

The Power of Career and Technical Education

Let’s explore some of the strategies from high-performing schools I
have worked with. These are from highly successful schools that discovered
how to make the magic happen.
• Increase exposure: Help all students get exposure to college and
jobs. Have all fifth graders partner up. They pick one college and
research it well (costs, scholarships, areas of specialization,
location, demographics, and so on). Then, they prepare a fifteen-
minute poster session to share with second graders. All fourth
 graders do the same with a career that only needs a high school
degree.
• Link behaviors and outcomes: Help students link current
behaviors and outcomes with a goal. “Your extra time on the
homework really paid off. That effort will help you get into the
college you want.”
• Link the content: Use classroom content areas to talk about
professions. For example, for high school science, media arts,
language, or mathematics classes, mention jobs that require
mastery of these subjects (biologist, graphic designer, translator,
and engineer). Keep sharing the occupations that tie into the class
you teach.
• Assume the attribution: Use the “when” phrase, not the “if”
phrase. Instead of “If you graduate,” say “When you graduate.”
Instead of “If you go to college,” say “When you go to college.”
• Boost system knowledge: Ensure that all students in high school,
starting at the ninth-grade level, get a personalized scholarship
committee. This group may comprise three to four counselors,
teachers, or office staff. The role of this committee is to assess the
student’s interests, find schools that are strong in these areas,
discover the entry requirements (such as grades and classes), find
scholarship pathways, and help him or her make a plan to take the
classes, get the grades, and earn a scholarship.
• Offer supplemental programs: Is your secondary school really
committed to student success? Consider the following secondary
strategies.
• Provides a daily forty-five-minute after-school session with
tutors from a nearby university (at zero cost to the school) to
ensure that every student gets 100 percent of assigned
homework done right
• Offers a strong mentorship program for all new students
• Provides language translation opportunities for families
 • Raises money to ensure students have the transportation they
need
• Has all students take honors classes (through the AVID
program; Advancement Via Individual Determination)
• Has no academic tracking system due to AVID
• Requires all students starting in seventh grade to participate
in a schoolwide exhibition and the school science fair
• Provides college-level workshops for parents to involve
them in supporting their students in the college journey

By the way, this 100 percent–poverty public school sends over 90

percent of its students to college. It raises students’ expectations and goals,
and then delivers the support to help students make their goals happen.
Help find ways to promote career and technical education at your
school. Provide mentors, since we know the research supports this action
step (Chan et al., 2013). There are thousands of jobs waiting for skilled
workers, but we have not prepared students for them. Here are some jobs
for which we should be offering skill sets.

• Computer coding and software development

• Industrial services (welding, construction, and plumbing)
• Audio and video technology, information technology support, and
electronic data processing (systems operations)
• Food and nutrition science, culinary arts
• Business development and marketing
• Agricultural development
• Animal production, science, and business
• Hospitality and tourism
• Plant science, natural resources, and ecology
• Corrections, law enforcement, and security
 How can you offer these? Foster career and technical education
programs within the school, not just as an after-graduation choice. Ron
Fitzgerald understood this problem. In 1971, he pioneered one of the most
successful career and technical education programs in the United States.
The school, Minuteman High School (http://minuteman.org) in Lexington,
Massachusetts, was filled with many districtwide transfer students who
were considered discipline issues (the “bad behavior” kids) and needed
something different.
Once in his school, students realized that their three biggest complaints
about school were reversed. First, every teacher cared a great deal about
them and their future. Second, although every student had classes to take,
every student also had things to do (they were fully physically engaged
every day). Third, classes were highly relevant—they received 100 percent
career preparation. In short, the school met students’ biggest needs: care
about me, engage me, and make it relevant.
These students became productive and many graduated (88 percent)
because much of the school curriculum fostered job skills that created
instant relevancy. The school developed job skills in many areas. For
example, the cafeteria had a culinary arts program for work in the
hospitality industry. The custodian provided jobs around the campus as part
of job training for heating, electrical, painting, air conditioning, and drywall
repair. The student store provided workplace options for students interested
in entrepreneurship skills. When I walked around the campus in 2002, I saw
energy, focus, and purpose in the students’ body language. They wanted to
be in school. Although they were supposedly the problem students, they all
looked pretty good to me.
As of 2016, Massachusetts has a network of twenty-six academically
rigorous vocational-technical high schools serving twenty-seven thousand
students. Students take traditional academic courses but spend half their
time apprenticing in a field of their choice. These include computer repair,
telecommunications networking, carpentry, early childhood education,
plumbing, heating, refrigeration, and cosmetology.
Amazingly, these schools have some of the state’s highest graduation
and college matriculation rates, and close to 96 percent pass the state’s
rigorous high-stakes graduation test. Fitzgerald’s school was the original
model for this job-driven success story. Long after Fitzgerald retired, the
rest of the state is discovering what he did well. Massachusetts is increasing
Minuteman’s programs across the state.
Here are three options for a program like that of Minuteman High
School that you might implement in your school.

1. Contact your state department of education for more information on

what is available for blending career and technical education into
your school.
2. Start slow and implement one program a year.
3. Do miniprograms that take less time. The following are some
suggestions for effective miniprograms at your school.
• Students research and create a simulation for dealing with
fire drills, bullying, hostage situations, or floods.
• Students establish ties with local businesses for apprentice
work.
• Students develop field trips within the school to see staff,
vegetation, or design elements.
• Students set up a tour of a local business during slow times
—such as weeks with no testing or holidays.
• Students form partnerships with Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts,
4-H club, or local camping facilities.
• Students work with local museums, cultural exhibits, and art
galleries for field trips.

Although I am college educated, I don’t feel that college is for

everybody. Any time you push students too hard in any direction, you’ll get
resistance. Here are options for students who are not ready for college.
Introduce them to the following resources.
• Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a
Four-Year Degree by Blake Boles
• Zero Tuition College (www.ztcollege.com)
 • 40 Alternatives to College by James Altucher
• TED and TEDx Talks that make great introductions to careers
(search through the education category)

The more options students see, the better the likelihood that they’ll find
the right fit. What else can you do to help students graduate career or
college ready? The key here is to put yourself in your students’ shoes. What
will move them forward in life? What can you do immediately? How can
you best facilitate the process?

• College ready: Do they have the life skills to deal with college
life? Do they have solid study skills for each subject? Do they have
a mentor to contact for support? If a student does not get a
scholarship, here’s what to do. Remind your students that college
really can be free. The University of the People
(http://uopeople.edu) is an accredited and tuition-free college
(although there are some fees involved, such as $2,000 to $4,000
for tests).
• Career ready: Does every graduate have a resume? Does every
graduate have interviewing skills through constant practice and
feedback? Does each graduate have either a confirmed job or at
least five leads to follow up on? Does he or she have a mentor to
contact for support?

There are some great websites that may help students avoid uncertainty,
stress, or confusion about the college process. Work with students on
college help sites like the National Association for College Admission
Counseling (www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/Pages) and YouCanGo!
(http://youcango.collegeboard.org). Remember, community colleges can be
a great stepping stone to either a job or a four-year degree elsewhere.

Quick Consolidation
This chapter was all about the graduation mindset. This is a powerful
mindset that says, “We will do whatever is necessary to help students
graduate.” Here we explored the career and technical education options. We
visited a school, which had students who were sent as so-called discipline
problems or even “bad boys.” However, the principal understood that
students simply wanted a school that gave them the only things they really
cared about—relationships with caring teachers, relevant curriculum, and
engaging classes. That’s all the students wanted. When the school
welcomed these elements, discipline problems vaporized, dreams were
built, and graduation became real. This is what it takes at your school too.
Can you take a step today toward that happening?
 CHAPTER 17

LOCK IN THE GRADUATION

MINDSET

The graduation mindset reminds you to use a filter in your work: “Is what I
am doing right now moving this student toward graduation (and to be job or
college ready)?” Highly effective teachers influence the narrative (their
story), both in their students’ lives and their own. The narrative is the
predicted story about how things will turn out. Every time you get
frustrated, get angry, or are tempted to back off, just pause. We all do these
things.

Remind yourself that you are your students’ best hope for a chance of
success in life. Without you, many will not succeed. Your students need you
at your best. You do not need to be perfect; just bring your best every day.
That’s the graduation mindset. Learn to focus on the rewards of your job.
Nobody is going to triple your pay overnight, but you can have a far more
rewarding job if you focus on the why.

Change the Narrative, Change Your Teaching

Which mindset narrative do you have? See figure 17.1 (page 146).
Remember, you choose not what happens to you but how you respond to
what happens to you. DNA is not your destiny. Circumstances are not your
destiny. Right now I invite you to choose the narrative of every single
student as a graduate: job or college ready. This year could be all about how
you create great mindsets in which every student learns and succeeds.

Figure 17.1: You are your mindset—the graduation mindset.

Fill in the following blanks with your name and a strategy from this
mindset. Repeat the phrase daily until it’s automatic.

“I,________, am committing to developing the graduation mindset with

my students every single day. I will begin with one of the strategies
mentioned, which is _________. I will continue this until I have mastery
and it’s automatic. At that point, I’ll learn something new to foster student
success.”

Reflection and Decision

 No one is telling you this is easy. You are in a tough profession. All you
can ask of yourself is to be true to yourself and your students. At any point
in your work, if you’re uncommitted and on the fence, your students will
sense it. If you’re just waiting for retirement, how many students will you
adversely influence before you call it quits? Your students need a teacher
who is all in.
You always have choices, and they arise from your mindsets. You can
choose to change jobs, addresses, friends, and attitudes so that you love
your job. But any ambivalence will hurt your students. This is a new
narrative for most. It is the habit of purposeful planning on a daily basis.
Yes, you can do it. And, yes, it’s true, inch by inch, it’s a cinch.

Quick Consolidation
Be positive, build cognitive capacity, and own the graduation mentality.
In classrooms, be the teacher who is confident and decisive, knowing the
future may be uncertain, but it will be good. There is typically a sense of
community among students and the teacher as they work toward a common
goal. Focus on what matters: be an ally to help students graduate job or
college ready. A teacher from a high-performing, high-poverty school
emailed me once to thank me for including her school in my book, Teaching
With Poverty in Mind. In her school, 100 percent of the students are from
poverty, yet over 95 percent every year go to college. Why does her school
succeed? “Our school simply won’t let you fail,” she said (M. Olivas,
personal communication, October 11, 2011). Take a moment, and let that
sink in.
If you’re still just a bit unsure of what strategies are right to use, go
ahead and turn to the appendices when you finish this chapter.
 Appendix A

Rich Lesson Planning

Rich lesson planning is critical. When your lesson plans are rich, they
include how you teach, not just what to teach. For example, in a lesson plan,
you might write a note to yourself, “Be sure to ensure students make their
own decisions on this—give them control!” or, your lesson plan says, “Stop
complaining; build the skills they don’t have!”

Let’s be honest: planning is work. Fortunately, it will pay off, and I’ll
show you how. I use a secondary lesson plan, but you can easily adapt it to
a K–5 unit. This chapter discusses the benefits of collaboration,
preassessment, relevance and buy-in, and attribution when planning lessons.

Collaboration
To develop high-powered lesson plans, work together in groups that fit
your needs; these may be grade-level teams or content-level teams. This
collaborative process is the key to success because you’ll be able to develop
common goals, language, and process for success. After developing goals
and objectives, the process works backward into the lesson to ensure all the
pieces are in play to get the outcome you want. Multiple studies show the
value of higher levels of teacher collaboration and peer learning (Johnson,
2010).
However, teacher collaboration guarantees nothing. Collaboration
works only when staff members focus on doing the right things well and
following a staff-established success pattern. Collaborating about the right
things, sharing ideas, solving problems, and planning lessons all support
student achievement. There needs to be a list of norms in the staff lounge of
how your staff run their meetings as well as how they accomplish their
goals. This is the time to focus on the goal and make every minute count in
your meeting time.
Set lofty goals for mastery learning. To develop a love of learning,
students will need to learn how to learn in satisfying ways. Some things in
life require only shallow learning. When students learn an address or phone
number for pizza delivery, it’s shallow learning. But when it comes to
classroom learning, we’d like deeper, mastery learning. That’s where
student satisfaction builds into a love of learning. Support this deeper
learning through big goals, and students will begin to love school.
Foster big challenges from big goals, and you can get big results. First,
match the big goals with the standards necessary for academic success. Big
goals would be: help every student graduate college or career ready. Next,
how do we do that? We meet or exceed the standards. Now, let’s ensure we
have content in our lesson plans that matches. That’s what staff
collaboration can help you do: match planning with the ultimate test
objectives. Post your team’s steps for turning school problems into
actionable solutions so you can easily replicate your prior successes. Check
out the following ten steps.

1. Look at the data.

2. Turn data into meaning.
3. Discuss concerns.
4. Break down the meaning into actionable work.
5. Make learning goals.
6. Turn the work into lesson plans.
7. Use quality feedback standards for all.
8. Establish implementation goals.
9. Use frequent feedback from coaches or school leaders.
10. Get feedback on instruction from colleagues or leaders watching
your lesson.
 Once you’ve finished planning, you’re ready for the next step. Teaching
is, of course, not a top-down profession. Teaching is a carefully orchestrated
dance. You’re the pro, and the student is the amateur. The first thing the pro
does is figure out what skills and attitudes the amateur has. That is called
the preassessment. Without it, you have no clue where to start.

Preassessment
Deeper learning builds on basic skills and knowledge to gain expertise.
Before a unit of instruction, give your students a unit preassessment to
determine their level of background knowledge on the standards. Or you
can just give them a short-and-sweet assessment about a particular learning
objective to determine what you need to teach before a lesson. You need to
know which (if any) of the basic skills (or content) that your students
already know before you begin planning. As long as you provide the
resources, their brains love challenges, so let’s plan for them!
Naturally, you will begin by looking at student data. The data should tell
you your students’ current academic progress and appropriate targets. Be
sure to plan lessons with mastery as the benchmark, not proficiency or
compliance. First, ask yourself, “What will students need to know about
this standard? At what level of thinking do I want them to engage with that
standard? And how will they show it so their learning is visible?” The
lesson plans must be objective driven for deep understanding. The initial
objectives will, of course, include vocabulary and the subtitles and titles for
core labeling of understanding. These are your cognitive signposts for
knowledge clustering. But there’s more.
As an example, if students read a story, what would be the evidence that
they understand it? Should they create an outline, write a summary, or
complete a worksheet? That would constitute basic learning, not mastery.
It’s a good start, but you’ll want more. Students should ultimately be able to
create a personality profile of each character, make inferences about his or
her decisions in the story, and then quote passages that support their claims.
They should be able to talk about the plotlines, their value, and why the
author chose them. They should be able to assess the substance, value, and
significance of this particular literature (compared to similar stories).
 In short, ensure that you include depth in your lesson planning. Students
will need to be able to analyze information critically, develop explanations
of the content, know alternative viewpoints, and explain concepts. They
should understand the core relationships within the learning and perform
related tasks such as writing about, building on, showing, or speaking about
the learning (Mehta & Fine, 2012).
To develop the mastery level, you’ll need to demonstrate the criteria for
the goals and products that you want to see. This means student exhibits,
objects, props, and student papers that show what the end product will look
like. Show exemplars, provide a checklist of criteria, and explain the
criteria line by line for a rubric. Describe the product’s features. Then, ask
students to summarize the key discriminating features of the end product to
confirm their understanding. Now, our next priority is getting our students
to care about the learning. Without this next section, most planning is
wasted.

Relevance and Buy-In

There are two big reasons to ensure you have relevance and buy-in.
Both are highly practical reasons. First, if the brain is not buying into what’s
offered, it won’t save the learning; it is forgotten. Second, students view
school through the relevance filter. They think, “Why should I care about
this?” Unless you address this concern, your teaching time may be wasted.
Be sure to plan on how to develop the motivational drive students will need
to reach the mastery level. Consider the relevance for your students by
reviewing your lesson through their eyes. For the K–5 level, ways to make
lessons relevant might include:

• Helping the homeless or needy

• Making friends
• Creating a garden to grow food for a homeless center
• Interviewing the elderly or documenting lives
• Helping stray cats and dogs
 For some at the secondary level, the relevance angle might be:

• Learning social justice in social studies or history (how to solve big

problems)
• Helping others by teaching content to a lower grade level
• Focusing on using the driving essential questions (for ideas use
McTighe and Wiggins [2013] Essential Questions)
• Helping underclass students learn about jobs or colleges
• Building a theme park ride and preparing for travel
• Learning to run a business or rebuilding a city in mathematics or
science
• Building a mentorship program for underclass students
• Competing with another class or school on projects
• Connecting goals to success

Relevance and buy-in are powerful hooks to get students interested. But
a powerful teacher keeps the foot on the gas pedal. Attribution is the next
tool to ensure students get the maximum value out of every moment in
class. You’ll learn to make it a habit to give a reason why to nearly
everything you do.

Attribution
Attribution is the linking of one thing to another, as in cause and effect.
If you say, “You ran fast, Kelly,” that is a descriptive statement and maybe a
compliment. But if you said, “You ran fast, Kelly; did your change in diet
seem to help?” That is a link (attribution) where you linked the result
(running fast) to an earlier action (different nutrition plan). In a classroom,
you may say, “Eric, love your effort. That’s the kind of effort that will get
you higher-paid promotions once you get your first job.” Now, the student
understands the attribution: more effort might equal more money later on.
 Remember the amazing power of attribution. You must continually
remind students that their success is tied to what they have already done or
what they will do (factors over which they have control, such as effort,
study time, and the use of appropriate strategies) and not tied to genes, luck,
or circumstance. A struggling student is likely to attribute his or her
weakness to a perceived low IQ, and he or she may withdraw effort when
the challenge is great. But if the student attributes his or her poor results to
lack of effort, then he or she may actually do something about it (Dweck,
1999). On a visceral level, this particular attribution must help the student
advance toward the goal of either college or vocation. Build this into your
lesson plans and sprinkle as needed to foster effort. You can say, “Erika, I
loved how you stayed with that term paper. That kind of effort and grit is
going to help you graduate from college.”
Students work harder at behaviorally relevant topics. Ask the students to
consider projects from a list including social justice, a better neighborhood,
better law enforcement, or less racism (Butler-Barnes, Williams, &
Chavous, 2012). You’ll need to get buy-in. This is key to helping students
want to achieve deeper learning.
Now that we have rolled out the starters, collaboration, preassessment,
relevance and buy-in, and attribution, it’s time to start locking down our
lesson plan. You might say to me, “Eric, that’s a lot of work!” Yes, you are
right. But once you have done this over and over, it will become embedded
in your brain. Soon, you’ll be doing all of this with no prompts at all. Your
memory of it will be stronger, but also you will have the positive feedback
of actually using it.

A Rich Lesson Plan in Action

Now let’s get started. Table A.1 (page 154) offers a sample lesson plan
for a secondary science class. Be sure to review what you have learned
about your students before you complete your lesson plan. There may be
some students who got extra attention this week. You will review students’
information in their learning profiles from the school and previous teachers.
Often, teachers see a specific need to connect better with certain students to
understand why they might be struggling or to use a specific strategy that a
colleague used successfully. I complete learning profiles at the start of each
semester.

Table A.1: Middle School Science Lesson Plan

Planning Details
Steps

Before Class

Collecting • I have thirty-one students (fifteen boys; sixteen

Student Data girls) in my ninth-grade science classroom. Ninety-
two percent of them receive free and reduced meals.
The data on my students from last year showed that
22 percent of my classroom achieved proficiency, 8
percent expert, and 70 percent basic. My gutsy goal
is for 100 percent proficiency this semester.
• I review students’ information in their learning
profiles, and what I need to do for this lesson.
• Yesterday’s exit passes showed that 75 percent of
my students across class periods did not distinguish
among facts, reasoned judgment based on findings,
and speculation in a text. They were also unsure of
what was valid or invalid information.
• I created a plan for reteaching these concepts to
those students in particular. I created extension
activities for those who did master the concepts.
Planning the • I focused on priming students for one to two weeks
Lesson before starting the science writing. The written
arguments emphasize discipline-specific content.
Memory We will introduce claims about a science topic or
Recall issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claims from
Strategies alternate or opposing claims, and organize the
reasons and evidence logically.
(see chapter • Next, I’ll ask students to do a three-minute content
12) retrieval activity to see what they recall.
• Students will work with a partner I have chosen. (I
have a student list of Lexile scores, and they have
their own records.)
Creating a • Open windows and shades (if possible).
Positive • Create a word wall with rich adjectives for writing
Physical and the tier two words that my classroom is
Environment focusing on (see chapter 11).
• Place anchor charts on the walls with the most
important science concepts and the writing process.
• Play upbeat music.
• Make posters and bulletin boards visible with
content and skills students need to learn.
• Bring in plants.
• Write positive messages on the walls.
First Minute of Class Time

Building • When students enter, I am always at the door with a

Relationships smile and a handshake. I make sure to exude safety
and excitement.
• Students sit with their teams. Team leaders check
on the attendance to get things started. Then, before
the learning begins, each team member gets thirty
seconds to check in and update others on the most
important thing on their mind. Then, the team
leader shares today’s goals.

Core Class Time

Getting • Early in class, I ask students to do a three-minute

Started content-retrieval activity to see what they recall
from yesterday. They turn this in, and I’ll look this
over while they are working.
• I introduce the class objectives from the Next
Generation Science Standards and Common Core
State Standards, including the evidence for learning
or success criteria.
Physical Science (Eighth Grade)
• Objective: Students will be able to write an
argumentative paper about their perspective on
cryobiology (study of living things at very low
temperatures). (MSPS1-3)
• Explanation: They will read several articles and
visit many websites to determine the pros and cons
of cryobiology. Then, they will formulate their
opinions about it and argue for or against using the
criteria for argumentative writing. (WHST.6–8.1)
Question: Should the cryobiology technique be used
to preserve living things? I share relevance:
“Students, you have to learn how to make a case for
anything in life so you can be your own advocate
(for a better grade, in the legal system, to get hired,
and so on). Without it, you won’t get a fair shake.”
• Today’s hooks are that every student gets to pick a
famous scientist from history (I have a list for
them), and they will be that scientist while they are
writing their argumentative piece.
• I write out and share sample arguments focused on
the science content in the following order. I list
these writing criteria so that students can self-
evaluate, and peers can give feedback too.
Criteria from the Common Core State Standards in
argumentative writing for middle school:
• WHST.6–8.1a—Introduce claims about a topic or
issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claims from
 alternate or opposing claims, and organize the
reasons and evidence logically.
• WHST.6–8.1b—Support claims with logical
reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence
that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or
text, using credible sources.
• WHST.6–8.1c—Use words, phrases, and clauses to
create cohesion and clarify the relationships among
claims, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• WHST.6–8.1d—Establish and maintain a formal
style.
• WHST.6–8.1e—Provide a concluding statement or
section that follows from and supports the argument
presented.
Creating First • First, I use a quick hook strategy. Students use a
Drafts blank template that I provide with the writing
criteria listed so they can keep track of my posted
example to see if I have included all the criteria.
Now, they have a sense of how it is done. They
evaluate my writing and give me feedback on what
I need to improve. My examples are about a
different topic so that I don’t give away my
perspective before they write.
• Next, they write a rough draft in their own words
using the content from the texts and in the format
we have just learned. They will have a partner to
exchange ideas with for this process.
• Yesterday’s exit pass reminded me that students
were unsure of what was valid or invalid
information. I will check their understanding of this
concept and form a small group of students to guide
and reteach this concept with the science topic.
• I will use this time to walk around and support the
writing process, as well as to work with a small
 group of students who still need help with writing
using the specific criteria.
Editing Time • Next, students go back to their teams for editing
in Peer again. They support each other and cooperatively
Group work together to learn. Each team has a name, chant
or song with special movements, and a different
leader each week. They get points for proper
behavior, teamwork, homework completion,
celebrations, and other tasks. Each team will peer
edit other team members’ rough drafts. For
homework, they will rewrite, using the peer
comments for guidance. This feedback is critical.
Connecting to • I will share a personal story about how I learned to
the Real write and how I learned to respond to feedback with
World the growth mindset.
• During my connection time at the end of each class,
I review the day’s objectives and how they
personally related to each student and the
community.

Last Four Minutes of Class Time

Strengthening Using an exit pass, I have students answer the
Memory and following questions.
Closing the • What did you do well in your science writing
Day summary?
• What was the single most important change you had
to make in your paper?
Once they’re finished, I put on music as students
leave and thank them at the door.

Source: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School
Officers, 2010; NGSS Lead States, 2013.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a reproducible version of this table.
 Many schools have district sites for developing lesson plans online. If
you already have a site for it, use it. If not, visit 10 Minute Lesson Plans
(www.10minutelessonplans.com). This free site will help you learn to
create effective lesson plans in just a few minutes.
Notice the lesson plan in table A.1 uses strategies from this book. Not a
bad start for a single class lesson. Of course, once you have taught a lesson
using the strategies in this book, you’ll start feeling more comfortable with
them. You’ll be ready for a couple of new strategies over time. As you
become a lifelong learner, your comfort with change will keep rising.
Because of this, your students will do well too. Don’t forget that there are
countless ways to accomplish the same objective. You can use the tools in
this book in ways that would make a lesson seem completely different. But
the core elements are the same. Here’s a true example from a high-
performing secondary mathematics teacher whose students typically
progressed two to three years for each year he taught (Soloveichik, 1979).
Before we begin, remember there is far more academic support for
structured, guided lessons than unguided learning in the classroom
(Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006). Here’s an example of structure and
choice blended in a high-performing secondary mathematics class. Victor
(who is now retired) was one of the most successful mathematics teachers
(based on student year-on-year progress) who ever taught (Soloveichik,
1979). We’ll look at the steps he took before and during class.

Before Class
For each class Victor created a one-page graphic outline of reference
signals (arrows, stars, and cartoons), key ideas, concise conclusions, and
selected extracts of schemas and examples plus connecting arrows, which
show relationships between ideas. He gave this key working document to
each student to start the semester. The mind map in figure A.1 (page 159) is
similar to Victor’s.
Source: © Daniel Tay, 2014. Used with permission.

Figure A.1: Mind map for whole numbers.

During Class
For daily accountability, Victor asked each student to write out a key
understanding from the previous class in a graphic organizer. He wanted to
learn not just what his students got from yesterday’s lesson, but how they
understood it. Their mind map also showed relationships between items and
hierarchies. Students turned this in within ten minutes. While students were
completing these, Victor wrote on the board the new daily graphic
organizer, with missing pieces on it. (The gaps create curiosity.) Once the
students completed their written retrieval work, they turned it in.
Students were then asked to copy the new graphic organizer on their
paper. Victor collected them and sorted them quickly to identify any gaps in
student learning from the day before. Both the teacher and the students
completed their new task in the same amount of time. The students received
their papers and saw how they did. To score them, Victor used a number
from 1–5 (1 is low, and 5 is high). The teacher asked students with low
scores to rework their summary up front. His relationship with the class was
strong, and there was no blaming or snickering. The learning culture of the
class was “We all make mistakes, so let’s all learn from them.” Every
student was treated with dignity, so no student was embarrassed to rework
his or her assignment. It was important for the teacher to fix any mistakes
from yesterday before moving ahead into new material. In mathematics,
every day is critical. Victor coached them along to ensure accuracy. This
gave the students and Victor feedback on how well (or poorly) he taught
yesterday.
Then, he introduced new material to the whole class. Using the
schematic shown up front, he condensed new class knowledge, and then
detailed, again condensed, and again detailed in content pulses. The teacher
(and students) used color coding on the notes, with arrows and drawings to
show different values and properties of the content. He always supported
and never criticized students.
Victor’s class was always about understanding and memory. Students
used the notes to cue their memories. He based grades on the aggregate of
many weekly quizzes. His primary goal was to provide his students with the
confidence and skills to succeed. With confidence, students kept trying until
they got it. Homework was 100 percent optional. He gave his students 100
to 150 problems at the outset of the semester, and they could do any of them
at any time. Most did all of them. To me, some of this teacher’s strengths
are:

• Structured and guided instruction (using schema, worked examples,

and so on)
• Big-to-small picture (condensed and detailed)
• Sky-high expectations (100 percent success plus homework)
• Relationships (He is each student’s greatest ally.)
• Feedback (given to his students and to him, the teacher)
• Low threat (low stress; never any embarrassment for students)
• Choice (on homework and how students illustrate the learning)
 Notice that he didn’t do everything in this book. But he was very good
at the key things: high expectations, feedback, engagement, support,
relationships, control, and low threat plus big picture and detailed schemas.
Now, I have a question for you. If someone gave you the classroom-proven
model for highly successful teaching, would you use it?

Action Steps
Many teachers do not do consistent lesson planning. The lesson plan has
to include not just what you are teaching, but what the students should be
doing and how you are teaching it. Most make the mistake of not putting
the student achievement and mindset boosters in the lesson plan to ramp up
results. Finally, most plan them collaboratively. You can be different.
Figure A.2 provides a checklist with the mindsets’ strategies throughout
the book. Use this refresher list to make some decisions. Which of these
items will be your starter steps?
Figure A.2: Checklist for changing mindsets.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a reproducible version of this figure.

Quick Consolidation
This chapter focuses on rich lesson planning. You may know the general
steps (check data, turn data into meaning, discuss concerns, break down the
meaning into actionable work, make learning goals, turn the work into
lesson plans, use quality feedback standards for all, establish
implementation goals, use frequent feedback from coaches or school
leaders, get feedback on instruction from colleagues or leaders watching
your lesson, and never stop improving). However, the real value in this
chapter is that powerful lesson plans include the process (collaboration,
preassessment, relevance and buy-in, and attribution). By integrating what
is really important in lesson planning, you can start getting the richer
teaching that I have invited you to enjoy. Teaching low-income students
well is hard work. The beauty of this process is that you now have, in your
hands, some powerful tools to make the magic happen. Are you going to be
the teacher students get changes their life? We all need you to be the richer
teacher this year. Can we all count on you?
 Appendix B

Running Your Own Brain

Like most teachers, you don’t think about your brain every day because it is
so you that it is hard to stand back and reflect about something that is, well,
embedded in you. Yet, it absolutely runs the show. Everything in your life is
run by your brain. Earlier in the book, you were introduced to the positivity
mindset, the enrichment mindset, and, then, the graduation mindset. Now,
I’m going to give you the toolbox to use all the mindset tools effectively. It
focuses on who you think you are and what you can do about it. It is the
Running Your Own Brain toolbox.

Learning to Run Your Own Brain

Your brain can change in an instant. If it is a bad change, it could come
from drug abuse, a car accident, an addiction, or a traumatic event. Chronic
stress brings impaired social skills, working memory, decision making, and
diminished interest in fun things (Bogdan & Pizzagalli, 2006). Your brain
activates both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, so you
feel stress everywhere in your body. Stress is a physiological response to a
perception of a lack of control over an aversive situation or person.
Your brain changes all day long, every day, as you input and record
information, experience emotions, and store memories. These changes are
small but cumulative. New memories gradually change your life story. To
help students from poverty succeed, it’s good to know how to run your own
brain. I want you not just to survive but thrive in a crazy, tough workplace.
You’ll want to make the changes happen systematically and purposefully.
Random changes rarely make miracles happen. This book is not a one-size-
fits-all guide; I focus on just one objective: helping you become sensational
at your job.
I can show you how to navigate the process of running your own brain.
Your brain processes countless inputs every day. Individual brain structures
(like the cerebellum) do, of course, play a part in how your brain works.
However, it is more accurate to talk of systems, which are aggregates of
theme-connected parts. I have invested a lot of time trying to figure out how
my own brain works best and how to work with it, not against it. I’ve talked
to neuroscientists and attended conferences, and I’m also a member of the
invitation-only Society for Neuroscience with over thirty thousand
members.
For the sake of brevity and potency, I will discuss just three systems.
Each system has multiple, ongoing, powerful effects on your success as a
teacher in a high-poverty school. They are actually designed by nature, and
the way you live your life either pushes them one way (to thrive) or another
way (toward struggle). The truth is, you can run these brain systems your
way if you are purposeful about it. It’s your choice. These three brain
systems are the critical neurobiological linchpins for high-performance
teaching of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Great teachers
likely have all three working in their favor.

1. The meaning-making narrative system (frontal lobes and left

temporal lobe): This system creates ongoing stories in your brain.
It helps develop part of your personality and character through your
stories.
2. The stress-response system (hypothalamus, adrenals, and
prefrontal cortex): This system is about your grit and persistence.
What stress do you tolerate, how do you cope, and how well do you
persist and function under stress?
3. The reward system (nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental
area, and prefrontal cortex): The reward system activates good
feelings for you at work (or not). What is important to you? This
system helps you stay focused on the daily and long-term events
that make your brain happy.
 Let’s learn how to activate each of these so that the changes you want to
make after reading this book become more automatic and lasting. Your
brain should value your work in ways that bring you joy (spontaneous
pleasure as well as long-term satisfaction—eudaimonic pleasure; see page
55).

Your Brain’s Meaning-Making Narrative System

The meaning-making narrative system ensures you are a story-maker.
Your brain seeks the reasons for why and how something happens
(Gazzaniga, 1998). Bert Cohler (1980), a pioneer in psychology, shows that
our stories and narratives guide our lives. This system comprises the
activity in your verbal language hemisphere (usually the left side) and the
seamless activation of memories that support the narrative (your temporal
lobes). When something bad happens, and someone says, “That must have
happened for a reason,” it’s almost true; it’s just backward. The reason
didn’t come first; the event came first. Then, we humans try to make sense
of a world that is often random, chaotic, and certainly unfair. Meaning
making is natural in people of all ages (Hammack & Toolis, 2014). To
maintain some sanity when things seem disconnected or unsettling, we
create alternative explanations. We often stitch together a series of unrelated
events, surprise circumstances, and unusually good or bad events. Our
brains need an everyday narrative about life; it is part of what helps us
survive and thrive.
Your left hemisphere helps you create these stories about your life and
others’ lives. In fact, every culture is built on the stories that the leaders tell
and sell to others. See figure B.1 for a visual of this system.
Figure B.1: Your brain’s narrative system.

Everyone needs some kind of a narrative to move forward in life. Your

brain’s storytelling function is the basis for all novels, campfire stories, pop
songs, movie plots, amateur and research-oriented explanations, and even
political campaigns. It is the way we process, understand, and remember the
experiences of life. It is our mechanism, in many ways, for a personal form
of sanity.

Teacher Implications
So, how does meaning making play out in your quest to become a more
awesome teacher? Teacher narratives begin early in life. The experiences
you had as an elementary student shape your teaching and what you do at
work. As you go through the process to become a teacher, your classmates
influence the narrative in your head about what to expect. Once you start
teaching, your colleagues, books, conferences, district personnel, and
school leadership all contribute new narratives about teaching. Over time,
you amass a series of stories about how things should be, how things are,
and how things will be in the future.
 This is why, in each chapter, I remind you that your narratives influence
your decision making. For example, what if you were considering switching
to another school and the buzz around your campus was that your favorite
administrator was leaving? What if an unpopular candidate were likely to
replace him or her? An uncertain future threatens the current narrative about
who will stay at the school (good times in the past). As a result of this new
narrative, you might give less effort. Alternatively, you might follow your
favorite administrator to a new school and hope the new school is better.
The narrative is already influencing your behaviors—for better or worse.
You can’t control everything, but you can control your response to
nearly everything. The narrative system asks, “What is causing what?” and
asks you, “Whose fault is it? What are you going to do?” Manage the story
in your head more proactively (after all, it’s you making up the story), and
you’ll manage your life.
It is counterproductive to allow other narratives that are negative,
hurtful, and toxic to become your narrative; life is short. Add those
narratives to your life, and soon things go downhill, unless, of course, you
can manage your life by learning to run your own brain. Here’s how you
can do it.

Action Steps
The world is simply full of narratives. You can create fresh life stories
about your decision making. If you can take on the new narratives, consider
the following two action steps.

1. Take on one new mindset each month. Write it down. Type it out.
Print copies to post at home (next to your bathroom mirror) and in
your classroom.
2. Ensure you read the new mindset twice a day. Once you read it,
affirm it. Say, “Now that’s me. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Now, let’s work on your stress.

Your Brain’s Stress-Response System

 This system stretches across multiple brain and body areas. Areas
include the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, the cerebral cortex, the heart,
and the adrenals. In addition, specific stress states activate memories in
visual, temporal (for sounds), or amygdalar (for feelings) areas. In other
words, much of your brain feels threatened when you feel stressed. That’s
why it can influence you so much. See figure B.2 for a visual of the stress-
response system.

Teacher Implications
Teacher stress impacts moodiness and job satisfaction (Serrano, Moya-
Albiol, & Salvador, 2014). When you are relaxed and teach well, your body
and brain are proactive, and you make better decisions. When you feel
stressed, you’re being exposed to uncontrollable situations or people. You
become reactive and less thoughtful. Life changes can be stressful. Staff can
be stressful. Students can be stressful. Traffic and bills can be stressful.
Accountability with minimal time to plan and learn can be stressful.
Figure B.2: Your brain’s stress-response system.

What you need is a renewed understanding (the truth) about stress, so

here it is: there is no stress out there in the world. It’s all in your head.
That’s right; on a weekend, there is no stress in your classroom (or on the
campus). There is no stress at school, no stress from your staff, and no
stress from your students. No one else stresses you out. Your brain, that you
run, stresses you out.
Why would your brain stress you out all the time? In evolutionary
terms, stressors were connected to survival. They included enemies, food
scarcity, shelter, animals, water, safety, and health. Those factors remain to
varying degrees, but new ones have joined them. We get stressed over who
just got hired, new standards, someone cutting in line, what our children
post online, and a missing bank statement. We get stressed when students
are tardy or when they mouth off or disengage in class. Add these daily
stressors to hundreds of others, and you get a very stressed body. That’s bad
—unless you can manage your life by learning to run your own brain. Until
you do, you’ll never become awesome at teaching students from poverty, as
your margin of error is thinner and your students’ stressors will exacerbate
your own. What you tolerate, how you cope, and your grit are critical
features of your future teaching success (Farr, 2010).
Your brain makes a decision about whether to develop stress based on
only two factors: relevance and control. First, when the brain notices an
environmental (or internalized) averse prompt, it asks, “Is this relevant to
me?” If it is not, you will experience little or no stress. Second, if it is
relevant, your brain asks, “Do I have any control or agency to influence the
outcome of this situation?” If you have little or no control, you get stressed.
If you have a good deal of control, you get energized to take action. Stress
is that simple (and that complex). To minimize stress, you’ll need to
minimize relevant factors over which you have no control. See figure B.3
for a visual.
Figure B.3: Stress filters.

What predicts success when teaching high-poverty students is a

narrative of perseverance, stress regulation, and grit—having a strong, go-
forward attitude (Duckworth, Quinn, & Seligman, 2009). Do you have
those traits? If not, you can teach them to yourself. After all, you’re going
to teach them to your students.
Researchers have made very little progress in linking teacher
effectiveness and retention to commonly known interview factors at the
time of hire (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). The tough rigors of
teaching at Title I schools suggest the possibility of specific qualities for
thriving. In a study examining the predictive validity of grit in 457 teachers
at low-income schools, teachers who scored higher in grit outperformed
their less hardy colleagues and were less likely to leave the school
(Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). These tenacious teachers were
simply more likely to stay and succeed.
If you think being a highflier, a teacher in the top 25 percent
academically in Title I schools, is way too much work, keep reading. A
study surveyed twelve high-poverty schools on every imaginable topic,
including hours worked per day at work, at home, and on weekends. Half of
the high-poverty schools were low performing and half were high
performing. The over-worked staff were the low-performing teachers,
although they worked more hours per week than the high performers
(Jensen, 2014). The key isn’t to work more hours; it is to work the same or
fewer but be more thoughtful and make changes quickly when things are
not working. It will save your soul and help your students succeed.

Action Steps
Here are the optimal ways to reduce stress. First, start with this
affirmation every day: “There is no stress out there; I can manage my own
stress to become healthier and happier.” Second, stop the DATS (daily
annoying triggered self-talk) that brings you down. For example, don’t say
things to yourself like, “I don’t think she likes me. Maybe I shouldn’t sit
with her.” Change that internal dialogue to something neutral: “I’m unsure
of her. I think today, I’ll move along and enjoy the day.” Third, do what
makes you happy and helps you feel in control; feed your soul. Consider the
following activities: twelve-minute daily workouts, seven hours of sleep
every night, ten minutes of stretching or yoga every day, brief talks or
journal entries about your day, weekly gratitude sharing, and hobbies.
Fourth, develop coping tools, and use the mind-over-matter strategy: “Will
this stressor even matter a week from now?” Because if it won’t matter a
week from now, you might reconsider the frustration and energy you’re
expending now. Figure B.4 offers some strategies to rewire your brain’s
stress-response system.
Figure B.4: Stress-response system checklist.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a reproducible version of this figure.

Pick one to add to your rotating list of options or write it down for later.
Remember, take action to get control and redirect your attention to another,
less stressful task (McEwen, 2002). In short, as you master your stress-
response system, you’ll generate more joy, peace of mind, and energy. Now
you have the attitude and the strategy to release yourself from debilitating
stressors.

Your Brain’s Reward System

Rewards (or the anticipation of them) make you feel good. The type of
reward varies from the unexpected surprise to a predicted good thing that
was actually great, not marginal. Often, physical gifts can be a reward, but
your brain is as likely to feel rewarded by a five-dollar ice cream cone as it
is for a five-hundred-dollar ice cream maker. Rewards are typically about
feeling good in the short term, but they run our lives (Fredrickson &
Losada, 2005). Figure B.5 is an outline of your pathway to rewarding
behavior.
Figure B.5: Your brain’s reward system.

When you anticipate something good, your brain generates dopamine,

the neurotransmitter of reward. Note the path starts at the center and bottom
of your brain. Dopamine also helps you feel good with unexpected rewards.
Knowing that this process is on your side (most of the time) is reassuring.
Abuse of this system, though, can result in addiction. For example, I love
the aroma of fresh coffee in the can or bag, and even brewed coffee, but I
am not a coffee drinker. However, I do like a morning drink.
Decades ago, after my first trip to Hawaii, I was hooked on drinking
pineapple juice in the morning. I felt like I had to have it. Then, over time, I
switched over to orange juice. Soon, I felt like I had to have it. Then, I
switched over to energy drinks (mostly caffeine and sugar). I felt like I had
to have them each morning. Then, my wife suggested that they are not as
healthy as coffee (which she drinks). So, I switched over to coconut juice. I
now feel like I have to have it each morning. The pattern is pretty clear; our
brains can get hooked on almost anything, good or bad. Just be careful of
what you’re hooked on, and consider the take-home reward and your health.
 Teacher Implications
In school, this feel-good system drives many of your daily joys. Every
student who struggles brings you another opportunity for a reward, because
that student succeeds largely because of you. When you care about student
achievement, every strategy you use that works triggers a reward for your
brain. So does every song you play in class that works. Every time you help
students raise their class scores, your brain gets a reward. The bottom line is
this: the more invested you get in students’ success, the greater the rewards
for you (as well as for them). This is why you’ll want to develop the
positivity mindset; doing it for your students also benefits you too. Make it
happen with fresh class routines, academic optimism, and a positive class
culture.

Action Steps
You’ll need to take seriously the notion of noticing, creating, and
accentuating the positives. This will not happen without your focus and
intention. What policies, practices, and procedures are in place to help
yourself and others notice and appreciate every single sign of progress in
your class? Unless you set up multiple systems for feedback and
acknowledgment, your class will have little or no positive energy and will
become a chore to teach.

• When you ask students to raise their hands to contribute, do you

thank them 100 percent of the time with eye contact and a smile?
• Do you establish a positive class climate daily? For example, when
students finish a quiz, do you ask them to turn to their neighbors
and say, “I’m flying to graduation!” when they receive a 70 percent
or higher?
• When students arrive early or on time, do you notice it and thank
them? When students help others, do you mention it and thank
them?

In short, never let a chance to notice the good go to waste. You want to
use every opportunity you can to make your class awesome and help your
students on the path to graduation.
 With these three systems in mind, you can run your own brain.

Final Consolidation
This whole book presents one major theme: no excuses. High-
performing schools progress without making any excuses; we see students
working hard and knowing they will succeed because the staff won’t let
them fail. Three mindsets are introduced, and any of them can move you
forward. On a final note, you might have noticed that this book is not just
quick teacher strategies. It is more than that. You are at a career crossroads.
You now know you can change, adapt, and grow, or you can wish and hope
that you’ll get a better batch of students next year.
If you have struggled to have high-performing students in the past, this
resource can help you get there. Why do I say that? I study high performers
for a living and share their mindsets and tools. I am inviting you to allow
this book’s process of learning, growing, and applying what you learn to
change you. In turn, the changes you make will change the students you
teach, so that they succeed.
We all know that your students may be difficult, frustrating, and
thoroughly a pain at times. But there is a lesson you can take from them.
Every student you have has the capacity to unleash an extraordinary passion
from within. If you want your students to succeed, you must connect with
them as individuals. Only then can you set loose the tidal wave of continual
effort. The way you will become highly effective in your job is by learning
how to connect deeply in ways the students can feel and hear every day.
When you do embrace the mindsets and action steps in this book, and
when you do unleash your new narratives, mindsets, and strategies, you can
expect a richer life beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed of. That’s a
promise. I know; I have done it. Now, I am hoping you’ll be looking
forward to every opportunity to help students succeed. Unfortunately, not
enough teachers have been doing that. But I think you are different. Are
you? Will you become a champion for students?
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 Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally
removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading
device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that
appear in the print index are listed below.

A
abbreviations
academic operating system
acronyms
Action Based Learning
acts of kindness
addiction
add-on activities
affirmations, giving daily
Altucher, J.
anagrams
argument mapping
arguments, forming effective
arts, reasons for supporting the
attitudes. See positive attitudes, building
attribution theory

B
behavioral immunization
Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree (Boles)
bipolar disorder
Boles, B.
brain
fixed versus malleable
impact of positivity on the
meaning-making narrative system
physical activity and formation of new cells in the
reward system
running your own brain
 stress-response system
BrainHQ
bullying

C
cadence songs
call-response songs
Canfield, J.
capture
career readiness
cause, finding a
C8 Sciences
Center for Public Education
choice
compliance versus
filter
See also control, choice, and relevancy
chunking
Church, M.
clapping repeats
class jobs
classroom directory, creating a
cognitive control
cognitive differences, poverty and
cognitive functions, effect sizes
cognitive load
activities
chunking
defined
emotionally safe classrooms
interferences
issues, tools to reduce
learning, spacing
managing
pausing while teaching
physically safe classrooms
relevancy, spacing
retrieval, tools to strengthen
Cohler, B.
college and career readiness
community service
compliance, choice versus
conflicts, handling
constructs, deconstructing
content
gesturing key concepts
spacing
control, choice, and relevancy
class jobs
compliance versus choice
evidence for
examples of
quick writes
self-assessments
social activities and projects
strategies for
suggestions box
critical thinking
See also thinking skills

D
de Bono, E.
deconstruct constructs
distributed practice
dopamine
dosomething.org
dreams, encouraging
Dweck, C.

E
Education Trust
effect sizes
argument mapping
cognitive ability
cognitive functions
defined
mnemonics
reasoning skills
spaced learning
study aids
visual organizers
vocabulary skills
working memory
emotional bank account
emotionally safe classrooms
emotional set point
defined
evidence behind
how to change students’
emotions, long-term memory and
employment, changes in
Enchanted Learning
end product, focusing on
enrichment mindset
 changing to
cognitive load, managing
memory, building better
statements
study skills and vocabulary, enhancing
summary
thinking skills, developing
epigenetics
eudaimonic happiness
executive functions

F
failure, understanding
feedback
Fitzgerald, R.
fixed mindset
40 Alternatives to College (Altucher)

G
goal setting
graduation mindset
arts, reasons for supporting the
college and career readiness
description of
physical activities, reasons for support
resources
summary
graduation rates
gratitude
Green Book of Songs
growth mindset

H
happiness, responses to and types of
hedonic happiness
hope
affirmations of
building
difference between optimism and
Hyerle, D.

I
invisible teaching velocity

J
jobs
assigning real-world
 class
Jungle Memory

K
Katie’s Krops

L
language development
poverty and effects on
teaching the language of thinking
learning
recalling (retrieval)
spacing
lesson planning
attribution
collaboration
example
preassessment
relevance and buy-in
listening without judgment
long-term memory
acronyms, abbreviations, and anagrams
building
choice and control and
emotions, use of
mnemonics
music
poverty and effects on

M
Magic Three strategy
Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All
Learners (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison)
meaningful projects
meaning-making narrative system
memory
building better
See also long-term memory; short-term memory; working memory
Miller, A. T.
Miller, G.
mindset
checklist
defined
See also type of
Minuteman High School
mnemonics
Morrison, K.
motor skills, relationship between academic skills and
music
long-term memory and
reasons for supporting the use of

N
name games
National Association for College Admission Counseling
negative expression, alternatives to
negativity, handling
new normal
evidence of
what it means for teachers
Nicholls, A. T.
noradrenaline
number manipulation
number strings

O
optimism
difference between hope and
modeling
teaching

P
Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project
perceived control
personal responsibility
perspective, teaching
physical activities, reasons for support
physically safe classrooms
Plomin, R.
positive attitudes, building
gratitude
personal responsibility and self-regulation
service work and acts of kindness
positivity mindset
brain and impact of
changing the narrative and your teaching
control, choice, and relevancy
developing
emotional set point
optimism and hope
reflection
student behaviors, factors affecting
student success and impact of
summary
poverty
cognitive differences
effects of, on children
statistics on
what it means for teachers
power minute
problem solving
progress, displaying daily
Project Zero
Purdy, A.

Q
questions
asking the right
powerful
reasoning questioning schema
types of
quick-writes

R
racism
Rationale
real-world examples, learning from
reasoning questioning schema
reasoning skills
See also thinking skills
reframing
reinforcement
relationships, building strong
relevancy
spacing
See also control, choice, and relevancy
repeat-after-me activities
retrieval, tools to strengthen
rewards
reward system
richer, use of term
Ritchhart, R.
role modeling
running your own brain

S
Scientific Learning
self-assessments
self-concept
self-regulation
serotonin
service work
setbacks, overcoming
set point
See also emotional set point
short-term memory
add-on activities
building
cadence songs
call-response songs
clapping repeats
defined
difference between working memory and
name games
number manipulation
number strings
online resources
repeat-after-me activities
Simon Says
visual and verbal memory quizzes
vocabulary builders
word boxes
Simon Says
Skeels, H.
social activities and projects
spaced learning
spaced relevancy
spontaneous happiness
Stagliano, K.
stress, responses to
stress-response system
student behaviors, factors affecting
student success, impact of positivity on
student verbalization
study aids
effectiveness of
relational
study skills, contextual
Success Principles, The (Canfield)
success stories, sharing
suggestions box

T
TED and TEDx Talks
thinking hats
thinking skills
argument mapping
arguments, forming effective
 critical thinking
deconstruct constructs
defined
developing
evidence on teaching
language of thinking
powerful questions
problem solving
questions, asking the right
reasoning questioning schema
student verbalization
toxic mindset
Tresvant, J.

U
University of the People

V
visual and verbal memory quizzes
visual organizers
Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge (Hyerle)
vocabulary builders
vocabulary skills
building
direct instruction

W
Willingham, D.
word boxes
word nutrients
Wordsmith
working memory
add-on activities
building
cadence songs
call-response songs
clapping repeats
defined
difference between short-term memory and
name games
number manipulation
number strings
online resources
poverty and effects on
repeat-after-me activities
Simon Says
visual and verbal memory quizzes
 vocabulary builders
word boxes
workforce, changes in

Y
YouCanGo!

Z
Zero Tuition College
Poor Students, Rich Teaching
Eric Jensen
Discover research-based strategies to ensure all students, regardless
of circumstance, are college and career ready. This thorough resource
details the necessary but difficult work that teachers must do to
establish the foundational changes that positively impact students in
poverty.
BKF603

Closing the RTI Gap

Donna Walker Tileston
Get a clear understanding of poverty and culture, and learn how RTI
can close achievement gaps related to these issues. Learn how you
can achieve successful implementation in your school. Examine
common pitfalls to avoid in the process.
BKF330

Mind, Brain, & Education

Edited by David A. Sousa
Understanding how the brain learns helps teachers do their jobs more
effectively. Primary researchers in the emerging field of educational
neuroscience share the latest findings on the learning process and
address their implications for educational theory and practice.
BKF358

Building a Culture of Hope

Robert D. Barr and Emily L. Gibson
Discover a blueprint for turning low-performing schools into Cultures
of Hope! The authors draw from their own experiences working with
high-poverty, high-achieving schools to illustrate how to support
students with an approach that considers social as well as emotional
factors.
BKF503

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