Learning from mistakes

Learning from mistakes is one of the learning skills I have listed on a poster(see Posters) on the front of my room.  Yesterday, it hit me that there were many students making 4 month old mistakes... meaning, things we have been doing since September and some are still getting it wrong.  Today during planning period I made a poster on Learning from Mistakes.

It looks like this:

                                        LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

                                 *  Expect to learn 100% of the material
                                 *  Commit 100% emotionally to learn the material
                                 *  Feel pain and disappointment when wrong
                                 *  Identify cause of the mistake right away
                                 *  Immediately change behavior for 100% achievement

It was really ironic, because when I finished it, I doubled checked it for spelling errors and I noticed that I had spelled 'identify' wrong.  I had made a mistake on a poster about learning from mistakes.  So I cut out the fourth bullet and went down to the library and got another piece of yellow butcher paper and wrote out the forth bullet... nice and neat... double checking spelling again.  This time I had written too wide and when I went to staple it all up together on the wall, the fourth bullet was too wide... I had made another mistake.  So, back to the library for another piece of yellow butcher paper.  This time I cut it the same width as the rest of the poster before I started to write.  I wrote out the fourth bullet carefully and finally got it all stapled up on the wall in the front of the class.

When I was teaching my class about each of the points on the poster, I stopped to show them the mistakes I had made while trying to make the poster.  I was simply modeling learning from my mistakes.  My students really seemed to appreciate my transparency.

We all make mistakes.  I want to teach all of my students to get really good at learning from them.

I challenged all of them to believe, desire and have 100% confidence in the ability to learn all of the material.  The degree to which they do this will affect everything else.  The struggling students have to believe without much past experiences of success to give them confidence... this is very challenging.
This is where the Heart and Head Poster comes in(see posters).

Next, they need to commit 100% emotionally to learning.  Struggling students will hold back because of the past failures.  THEY HAVE TO DO THE FIRST TO DO THE SECOND, ALL OF THESE GO IN ORDER.

The successful student do the first two, so when they get something wrong or don't understand something, it REALLY bugs them and even hurts.  This pain motivates them to action.

The successful student then identifies the cause of the pain(mistake or misunderstanding) right away.

Finally, the successful student changes their behavior in how they worked the problem to avoid making the same mistake again.  They passionately strive for accuracy and that habit and desire drives them to understand and develop strategies, behaviors and habits that will insure success to the best of their ability.

I have to teach my students how to learn well.  I have to teach my students how to learn from their mistakes.  I need to break down these complex concepts into smaller ideas that they can individually wrestle with.  I can't make them learn.  But I can try to make it more accessible for them and then love them unconditionally and relentlessly.

Day 41