CORTNIE BELSER'S MSED PORTFOLIO
Reinforcement of Habits of Mind Targets
The teacher creates multiple formal and informal opportunities for students to further their understanding, development, and practice of the 3 targeted Habits of Mind:
Managing Impulsivity, Listening with Understanding and Empathy and Striving for Accuracy
Table of Contents
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Introduction to Reinforcing Habits of Mind Targets
Reinforcement 1: Explicit Teaching Lesson on "Managing Impulsivity"
Reinforcement 2: Routine Ready Now (Warm-Up) Prompts and Discussion
Reinforcement 3: Self-Selected Journal Reflections
Reinforcement 4: Weekly Homework Sheets
Introduction
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The reinforcement of habits of mind are the instructional strategies and activities incorporated in classroom content and culture that invest students in the habits. As an educator, I know for students to not only retain content, but internalize this learning, there needs to be continuous engagement with a skill. This mastery may not be observed in a week's time or the intended assessment period, but the goal is that students will apply classroom knowledge and skills into action when necessary. Thus, in addition to the introduction to habits of mind, I also spend instructional time having students analyze the habits in literature and personal experience as well as celebrate their exemplification of the habits. Through this process, students gain a sense of autonomy over their instruction and deepened investment in the habits of mind. With each reinforcement, students learn strategies that can follow them throughout their life. Based on the introductory student surveys, there are three targeted habits of mind that I have focused on reinforcing: Managing Impulsivity, Listening with Understanding and Empathy, and Striving for Accuracy.
Reinforcement 1: Sample Explicit Teaching
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To support student achievement, I knew I would need to reinforce each targeted habit through its own lesson and content instruction. As an ELA teacher, I have the unique advantage to utilize my discipline's curriculum text and skills to reiterate and emphasize points of habits of mind. Students apply prior knowledge about the text's plot, characters, and theme to real-world experiences and examples of the habit. Since much of the language of the habit is informal and familiar to students, the depth of explicit instruction stems from cultivating critical thinking for students to move beyond an objective view of the habit to a more subjective analysis of their own mindset. I integrate the same instructional strategies for explicit teaching of managing impulsivity as I do Listening with Understanding and Empathy and Striving for Accuracy, thus the lesson plan and subsequent student work represents a sample of how each of these lessons served to reinforce the 3 habits of mind targets.
The document to the left is my explicit teaching sample lesson plan on managing impulsivity. The lesson plan draws upon other TFA corps members classrooms to understand how to drive areas of rigor in a content area lesson. I view this day's objective as rigorous for my students because it was their first time focusing on a specific habit of mind and utilizing course texts to deepen their understanding. In addition, as noted on Page 1's annotation, the lesson begins by building upon personal experience in the warm-up to breaking down concepts through close reading and finally expressing their critical analysis through text-dependent evaluation. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, having students interpret, evaluate, and justify which characters do and do not demonstrate the habit of mind is the highest level of cognitive thinking and student actions that a teacher can cultivate in the classroom. By the end of the lesson, my formative assessment found on Page 5 would be determining if students not only mastered the content skill but how they effectively defend their claim on the habit of mind.
The document to the right highlights individual student reflections through the explicit teaching of managing impulsivity. Student A's sample functions to highlight the front page of their handout which focuses on breaking down the meaning of "managing" through student examples and close reading an interpretation of the habit of mind. The think-pair-share activity in the lesson utilizes 2 real-world student examples I have created to draw students' attention and engagement. When they saw their own or their peers' names on the handout, it reinforced for them that the instruction has been curated to meet their needs and take their own experiences into account. I provide detailed annotations of Students B, C, D's rubric description and text-based evidence analysis of the habit. Likewise, I include Students E and F's work without annotations to demonstrate how I adapted the sample lesson plan and handout to fit the needs of other habits of mind targets, such as Striving for Accuracy. Prior to reinforcement, students are already considering the implications of this habit of mind. Thus, as a strategy, the explicit teaching deepens students awareness and focus on each of the habits at a time.
The audio file above is a snippet of students analyzing how the protagonist and antagonist do and do not manage impulsivity throughout the text.
Reinforcement 2: Routine Ready Now Prompts and Discussion
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One of the ways to reinforce the habits of mind is through embedding them in the routine writing and discussion activities my students are already familiar with. Every day students enter the classroom and immediately begin their Ready Now, my version of the Do Now or warm-up kickstarter. This is an opportunity for students to refocus on the academic learning space, reflect on personal experiences, and connect their opinions to topics of discussion. After students spend 4-5 minutes responding independently, a student leader will facilitate a 3-minute discussion on the question and topic. As a strategy of reinforcement, the questions I pose to students are often informal and can be answered regardless of if they've been absent or engaged in independent work. While the question itself may not explicitly name the habit of mind, students are still prompted to think and reflect on the habit's theme. While the explicit teaching reinforces a deeper academic analysis of the habits of mind, this strategy reinforces how habits of mind are present and useful across academic, social, and emotional domains.
These are the daily Ready Now prompts students are responding to on their handout below. While Monday's is traditionally more informal about their weekend, Tuesday through Friday's each focus on a habit of mind target. During the week of explicitly teaching, I included various questions related to Managing Impulsivity and Striving for Accuracy, so this week's questions focused more on the last target: Listening with Understanding and Empathy. Additionally, since there are only three targeted habits of mind I am routinely reinforcing, I also included the fourth highest ranked habit of mind, Persistence, to the discussion as well.
The document above is three student samples of their weekly Ready Now sheet responses. The red box and accompanying annotations at the bottom of each student's work highlights how the warm-up question prompts reinforce student internalization and reflection on the habits of mind targets
The audio file above is taken from another week's Ready Now discussion. The question students were responding was, "Who is the most successful person you know in real life? What steps or actions did they take to be successful. Bonus: What Habits of Mind did they demonstrate or practice to be successful?" As heard in the clip, my student leader prompted all of the responders to think about what habits their successful person reflects. When students were unsure or apprehensive, she is heard prompting them with language frames, such as "Do you strive to be like her or surpass her?" and offer clarity to their thoughts. This not only shows how students are comfortable discussing the habits of mind, but also how student leaders can hold their peers accountable to their discussion and analysis without my explicit prompting.
Reinforcement 3: Student Self-Selected Journal Reflections
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Not all students need reinforcement of all the same habits of mind targets. To take this into account and meet the needs of as many students, I provided students with an opportunity to self-select a journal writing prompt to respond to related to the habits of mind. Each of the three options focuses more directly on one of the habits of mind targets. I attempt to tap into student interests through utilizing a variety of sources and contents, including multimedia. The first option uses local youth sports organization, Next One Up's documentary of student success to reflect on Striving for Accuracy in extracurricular activities. The second option continues to build off our explicit instruction with the curriculum text through a creative writing exercise on managing impulsivity. The third option engages students in a follow-up exercise to the NewsELA article I used for explicit teaching of listening with understanding and empathy by describing their own video game design. Each of the journal reflection options allowed students to self-select the habit of mind they feel they have achieved the most progress on or continue to struggle with reinforcement.
The PowerPoint to the left is the compilation of the 3 journal reflection choices students had to self-select from. As a strategy of reinforcement, providing options to students increases their engagement and demonstrates that my interest is to allow students to truly gravitate towards the habits of mind they want to cultivate and challenge for themselves. Through this, the intended impact is that individual students reflect on their growth which then increases the class's collective efficacy and culture on the habits of mind.
The document to the left represents 3 student samples of work completed for each journal reflection. Student A's response focused on how habits of mind can be strengthened through extracurricular activities, such as sports and hobbies. As the red boxes indicate, this student reflects on how student-athletes must Strive for Accuracy to become better at their sport, noting her own personal experience. Student B was highly engaged in the unit's text and explicit teaching lessons analyzing the characters using the habits of mind. As a student who struggles to manage impulsivity herself, I challenged her to write this letter from the perspective of another character, but one that could also be meant to speak to her. I highlighted her words in the red box as it represents actions and behaviors that she also exemplifies even though I repeatedly prompt her to control her anger and use her strength as a "bright" student to think before acting in class. Lastly, Student C's video game design demonstrates how she understands the role that peers could have to develop the habit of Listening with Understanding and Empathy. I highlighted the red box in the middle because her description of how to play and win the game is focused on showing students that while there are always multiple reactions to a problem, the solution should be one focused on empathy. The three student samples of journal reflections serve to exemplify how allowing students to self-select creative writing and reflection prompts demonstrates how students have been and continue to analyze and internalize the habits of mind targets.
Reinforcement 4: Weekly HW Sheet
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Since Habits of Mind is not a part of my curriculum, I cannot spend a significant amount of instructional time explicitly teaching the targeted habits. However, as another strategy to reinforce the habits of mind, I dedicated one weekly homework sheet to each targeted habit of mind, as well as the fourth ranked habit, Persistence. The homework sheets allow me to interpret how students are building their cross-disciplinary analysis of the habit. Each week's homework sheet includes a relevant quote, vocabulary practice, cartoon comic analysis, and two extended written responses. In unison with my understanding of the student and their individual learning goals, the homework sheets provide a formative assessment view of how they are understanding and internalizing the habits of mind. Additionally, it provides further personal examples that I can build upon and integrate in instruction. Both of the work samples below represent 2 students who completed each of the weekly habits of mind homework sheets (including "Mindset" but not here).
Student A represents a high engaged sample of my population of students with disabilities. Even though his IEP states that he is reading on a 3rd grade level in the 7th grade, he consistently completes his weekly homework sheet. In many ways, the completion of all homework sheets represents his growth as a student over time and how he is not only reflecting on the habits of mind targets, but also practicing them. For example, on Page 1, he relates to the quote by exclaiming that he chooses to persist before quitting, understanding that he is not perfect. Even though Persistence is not one of the main 3 habits of main targets, Page 2's description of how his social challenges affected his academics in the 5th grade, demonstrates how he has developed a growth mindset. Honestly, as a student who is consistently on task and focused, his homework sheet reflections provide me with a better analysis of how it is more productive to reinforce the analytical thinking of the habits rather than only their practice. To support this student's progress in accuracy, I can provide an editing checklist he could complete to ensure proper proofreading of his writing.
Student B represents a student who struggles with many of the habits of mind even though his academic proficiency is higher than Student A. While this student is reading on grade-level, he often rushes to complete tasks and does not ensure his work represents the best quality. For example, on Page 3 he provides incomplete responses on his vocabulary sentence and the description of the comic. While his analysis may be accurate, his own impulsivity inhibits him from earning full credit because of incomplete responses. As a student on grade-level, his academic goals are integrating text-dependent analysis and being able to not only draw an inference but develop claims. This relates to the habits of mind because when he does practice impulsivity and accuracy he can be successful. On Page 5's comic, he not only has the ability to understand the underlying meaning of the comic's satire, but also able to relate empathy with the idea of others suffering. In analysis of this student's habits of mind homework, a potential next intervention could be to provide this student with a goals checklist for him to self-evaluate how he practices the habits of mind.
Reinforcement 5: Habits of Mind Awards
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As a simple way to celebrate student progress of the habits of mind targets, I designed Habits of Mind Awards that are given at the end of every week. Additionally, to increase student engagement and autonomy of the habits of mind, every other week, students vote on 1-2 peers to select for the award. As a strategy of reinforcement, the awards give students something to look forward to, build relationships, and practice the skills of the habits. When students vote on peers, they are managing their impulsiveness to only vote for themselves or peers; they are showing how they listen to understand others and their strengths; they are striving for accuracy to provide the best possible candidates to receive the award.
The document above are samples of student votes for Habits of Mind awards.
 Habits of Mind awards template I created that are given to students weekly. |  Students wrote a poem on conflict escalation that I awarded Listening with Understanding and Empathy for it. |
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 This student is shown posing with 2 awards she was given in one week. I awarded her Striving for Accuracy for improving on her essay response of the week. Students awarded her Managing Impulsivity for her consistent focus in class. |  Me and a fellow teacher (and MSEd graduate student) pose with our Habits of Mind award for Finding Humor, voted on by students. |
 When an ESOL student receives an award, I provide them copies in their native language and English. Here, she poses with her award for Listening with Understanding and Empathy as she is always able to tell when I am having a bad day. |  Three female students pose with their awards given for their academic focus and behavior management during the final i-Ready test. |
 Three of my students pose doing a silly face or position while holding their awards. |  Students pose with their awards given for their empathy video game narrative. |
Click on each of the images above to explore more of the context of these
Habits of Mind Awards
Student and Teacher Reflections ​
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While there are a number of other strategies and activities that I instituted to routinely engage students in the reinforcement of the habits of mind targets, the five I have highlighted represent those that I feel have best moved students towards a growth mindset and internalization of the habits. I would not be honest if I did not reflect on the challenges faced with some of my students who have not invested fully in the habits of mind. The students who struggle the most to interpret and internalize the habits are those who are frequently absent or have repeated misbehaviors that occur in and out of my classroom. Nonetheless, I have observed that students who struggle academically but have a desire to improve utilize the habits the most. As I continue to engage my students in the Habits of Mind, I will continue to institute more and more of them, especially for individual goal setting. Additionally, during this cycle, I implemented the habits that my students ranked as their challenge area. However, in the future, I hope to split this selection between me and my students because there are different interpretations of growth areas from the point of view of students and teachers. When students experience different classroom cultures, I am empathetic to the challenges this presents to their learning experience. Thus, if I want the habits to truly impact my students, I need to consider how I can invest my entire school, or at least the other class teachers, in this model. As most of my students are 8th graders, they will soon be going off to high schools across the city. My hope is that they do not leave the reflections and strategies in my classroom that can benefit them not only in school but life. While I can reflect on the impact I feel I have observed in my students, ultimately, it is their voices and actions that truly demonstrate the long lasting impact of the habits of mind.
Interviewed by a peer, the two audio files above are student reflections on the impact
Habits of Mind has had on their academic and social enrichment.