We here in Memphis are no strangers to this term, as it's plastered everywhere as part of our Memphis Grizzlies slogan: Grit and Grind. We know of grit as digging in and persevering when the topic at hand seems difficult and still working hard to overcome any challenge in order to not only achieve a result, but learning from the ensuing process.
In a class, however, that can become increasingly difficult as students move along through the years, trying to keep their GPA as high as they can in order to get into the best college. Students have told me that they didn't want to take AP Spanish because, to them, it would be too challenging and, thereby, too risky for their GPA; in the same breath, they told me they were going to take other AP classes such as biology, chemistry, computer science, and calculus instead.
In teaching Spanish 1 and 2 this year, I'm faced with the challenge of helping students overcome the challenge of understanding that what we're doing in class is different than what they've done in any other class, but that I'm going to be teaching in Spanish. We started off the year talking about proficiency and performance assessments, as I do every year and is part of our curriculum. This year, though, it's a challenge helping the students make the transition in their thinking of what constitutes a performance: "attempt to write something or fill in the blank, so I need to get 100%" vs "attempt to perform according to a prompt and receive feedback."
After a particularly discouraging day the other day, I sat down and re-watched Angela Lee Duckworth's TED Talk on grit entitled "Grit: The power of passion and perseverance." She says that the determining factor in students' success isn't IQ, but grit, and that in order for students--and teachers--to be successful in the classroom, it's this quality of grit that really separates those who dare to dream big from those who are just too afraid to risk anything for what may, actually, turn out to be feedback for a greater performance. How I face challenges in teaching Spanish can help shape how my students face the challenges of learning Spanish in my class. There's a lot more to learning a language than grades, after all.
In a class, however, that can become increasingly difficult as students move along through the years, trying to keep their GPA as high as they can in order to get into the best college. Students have told me that they didn't want to take AP Spanish because, to them, it would be too challenging and, thereby, too risky for their GPA; in the same breath, they told me they were going to take other AP classes such as biology, chemistry, computer science, and calculus instead.
In teaching Spanish 1 and 2 this year, I'm faced with the challenge of helping students overcome the challenge of understanding that what we're doing in class is different than what they've done in any other class, but that I'm going to be teaching in Spanish. We started off the year talking about proficiency and performance assessments, as I do every year and is part of our curriculum. This year, though, it's a challenge helping the students make the transition in their thinking of what constitutes a performance: "attempt to write something or fill in the blank, so I need to get 100%" vs "attempt to perform according to a prompt and receive feedback."
After a particularly discouraging day the other day, I sat down and re-watched Angela Lee Duckworth's TED Talk on grit entitled "Grit: The power of passion and perseverance." She says that the determining factor in students' success isn't IQ, but grit, and that in order for students--and teachers--to be successful in the classroom, it's this quality of grit that really separates those who dare to dream big from those who are just too afraid to risk anything for what may, actually, turn out to be feedback for a greater performance. How I face challenges in teaching Spanish can help shape how my students face the challenges of learning Spanish in my class. There's a lot more to learning a language than grades, after all.