Grit is the key to a student’s success. Grit is defined as consistently having passion, perseverance, and stamina for long term goals (Ducksworth Ted Talk, 2013). Students with grit are able to tackle obstacles, learn from their mistakes, and persevere through a setback. When students do not possess grit, they are easy hurt and believe that if something requires effort, it is too difficult to attempt. It is especially important that students who have life struggles, such as poverty or being black in a bias community, possess grit (Wormeli, 2018).
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition is important when motivating students. Reinforcing effort helps students to learn that actions can make beliefs reality (Dean et al, 2012).
It is up to the teacher to show students the connection between effort and achievement. Providing recognition is “acknowledging students’ attainment of specific goals” (Dean et al, 2012). Reinforcing effort and providing recognition can affect a student’s self-efficacy, control beliefs, intrinsic motivation, and task value (Dean et al, 2012).
Yount (1999) talks about the five different roles that the teacher can take on when it comes to being a motivator to students: shaper, social model, curiousiteur, friend, and success agent. The shaper teacher helps produce learning, growth, and success, the social teacher displays what to do, the curiousiteur presents problems and ask questions, the friend teacher motivates students by sharing their own experiences, views, and values, and the success agent changes how students perceive themselves as learners (Yount, 2012).
Grit, “reinforcing effort and providing recognition”, and the “teacher as a motivator” all go hand in hand.
Both the teacher and the student have a role to play when it comes to students’ success. Teachers must teach students to be gritty and the way that teachers can do this is by reinforcing effort, providing recognition, and motivating students. In order to be gritty, students have to put in the effort, believe that they can, and have a growth mindset. A teacher that can instill this thinking into their students is one that has done their job very effectively.
Ducksworth did help me connect the reading better. All the things discussed in the reading are necessary in order to create a student that is not only gritty, but that also has a growth mindset. One thing that Ducksworth helped me understand concerning my students is that not all smart students are not brilliant, some are gritty. A student may not understand a concept, but he or she will continue to study and do what they can to get a better understanding. A gritty student knows that they have to put in the effort. Something that Ducksworth made me realize about my classroom is that some of my students’ problem is they are not gritty, at all. I do share my school experiences with my students frequently to let them know that nothing worth really having come easy. I reassure them that I understand the struggles of school and that I am still a student myself. I will continue to work on “being gritty about getting my students gritty” (Ducksworth, 2013).
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