Lesson Plan
Mistakes Help Me Learn
Often, it's difficult to see mistakes and failures as opportunities to grow! In this lesson, students will practice having a growth mindset and looking at mistakes as opportunities to learn. They'll consider how challenges grow their brain.
Grades:
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Learning Objectives
Students will be able to use growth mindset techniques and identify mistakes as opportunities to grow and learn.
Introduction
(10 minutes)- Join students together in a circle, seated on the rug or in chairs.
- Invite them to think about a time they made a mistake in school.
- As they think about this time, have them notice how they feel in their body.
- Ask students to share the feelings that come up for them (e.g., disappointed, mad, discouraged).
- Tell them to take a few breaths, and have them repeat the following statement after you: "This mistake will help me learn and grow."
- Ask students to turn to a partner and share a time when they made a mistake, while also thinking about how that mistake helped them learn and grow.
- Model for the class by sharing an example from your own life. (For example, you might share about learning a new skill. Perhaps you were trying yoga for the first time, and you fell in a balancing pose. However, falling actually helped you learn more about your body and how to balance.)
- After all of the students share an anecdote with their partners, ask them to think about what this mistake showed them.
- Ask the class, "Were you able to learn and improve after you made the mistake?" Take 2–4 comments.
- Build upon their responses, and mention that we usually remember more after correcting our mistakes.
- Explain that the next time they think about or look at a mistake, they should say, "Mistakes help me learn and grow."
- Share that when they can see and understand their mistakes in this way, it is called having a "growth mindset."