Fail. Look it up in the dictionary and you might find something like "a mistake, failure, or instance of poor performance." And yes in essence, this is what failure is. However, in schools today, students seem to think that failure = being not good enough.
It has been my goal this term to change students' thinking about the word fail and begin to see it as I do - an acronym:
First
Attempt
In
Learning
This final two weeks of term in my Year 8 English class will be focused on writing using the 6+1 traits of writing framework by Ruth Culham. When discussing the traits with students, many had negative thoughts about their writing talents. "I am no good at word choice", "My writing has always been terrible", "I am not a good writer".
Our discussion centred on the word fail and their misconception of its meaning. We discussed at length the acronym above and I shared with them the story of WD-40. For those that don't know this story, Dr Norm Larsen developed the product in 1953. WD-40 stands for "water displacement, 40th formula." Yes that's right - the 40th formula. His 40th attempt in learning. He didn't quit when he "failed" the first time, or the 29th time. He took these moments to realise that each attempt was a part of the learning process, and important steps to achieve his goal.
I then brought the conversation back to everyday life. Learning to drive a car, for example. You don't just automatically wake up one morning and know how to reverse parallel park, do you? I certainly didn't! You have to practise it, over and over again. And if you don't, you might be one of those adults that sees that empty car space, but won't park in it because of their fear of 'failing' at their reverse parallel. However, if those adults would just realise that it is an attempt in learning, and that each attempt matters, they might one day be able to do it. We reflected the need to block out all the 'beepers' in life, and to concentrate on the people that will support you in your attempts.
Fail - it is not a bad word - in fact, I would argue it is one of the best words for students to accept and understand.
So those trait lessons? How are they going, you may be wondering?
Our first two lessons saw us focus on Word Choice - the rich, colourful, precise language that moves and enlightens a reader." After discussions about word choice and looking at it in action in writing, students were asked to create seemingly simply menu items into ones worthy to be placed on a 5 star restaurant menu.
Here is an example:
Students were given fish and chips to transform as one of their menu items:
"Crispy skinned Atlantic Salmon served with kipfler potato stack, roasted artichoke flower, Meredith feta and asparagus drizzled with lemon jus."
After the menu was created students used a self reflection/evaluation rubric. They then shared with the class how they believed they went and why. And that fear of failure seemed to be gone - no matter what they scored themselves - a 1 or a 10 they were happy to print out their menus and display their writing and reflections for the whole class to see.
I am excited to see what comes of the next few weeks of lessons and the attempts in learning we will take together to achieve greatness.
I will leave you with the quotes I left my students with today.
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will"
"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just the little extra"
Fail - how comfortable are you with the word?
It has been my goal this term to change students' thinking about the word fail and begin to see it as I do - an acronym:
First
Attempt
In
Learning
This final two weeks of term in my Year 8 English class will be focused on writing using the 6+1 traits of writing framework by Ruth Culham. When discussing the traits with students, many had negative thoughts about their writing talents. "I am no good at word choice", "My writing has always been terrible", "I am not a good writer".
Our discussion centred on the word fail and their misconception of its meaning. We discussed at length the acronym above and I shared with them the story of WD-40. For those that don't know this story, Dr Norm Larsen developed the product in 1953. WD-40 stands for "water displacement, 40th formula." Yes that's right - the 40th formula. His 40th attempt in learning. He didn't quit when he "failed" the first time, or the 29th time. He took these moments to realise that each attempt was a part of the learning process, and important steps to achieve his goal.
I then brought the conversation back to everyday life. Learning to drive a car, for example. You don't just automatically wake up one morning and know how to reverse parallel park, do you? I certainly didn't! You have to practise it, over and over again. And if you don't, you might be one of those adults that sees that empty car space, but won't park in it because of their fear of 'failing' at their reverse parallel. However, if those adults would just realise that it is an attempt in learning, and that each attempt matters, they might one day be able to do it. We reflected the need to block out all the 'beepers' in life, and to concentrate on the people that will support you in your attempts.
Fail - it is not a bad word - in fact, I would argue it is one of the best words for students to accept and understand.
So those trait lessons? How are they going, you may be wondering?
Our first two lessons saw us focus on Word Choice - the rich, colourful, precise language that moves and enlightens a reader." After discussions about word choice and looking at it in action in writing, students were asked to create seemingly simply menu items into ones worthy to be placed on a 5 star restaurant menu.
Here is an example:
Students were given fish and chips to transform as one of their menu items:
"Crispy skinned Atlantic Salmon served with kipfler potato stack, roasted artichoke flower, Meredith feta and asparagus drizzled with lemon jus."
After the menu was created students used a self reflection/evaluation rubric. They then shared with the class how they believed they went and why. And that fear of failure seemed to be gone - no matter what they scored themselves - a 1 or a 10 they were happy to print out their menus and display their writing and reflections for the whole class to see.
I am excited to see what comes of the next few weeks of lessons and the attempts in learning we will take together to achieve greatness.
I will leave you with the quotes I left my students with today.
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will"
"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just the little extra"
Fail - how comfortable are you with the word?