Teacher’s Corner
The following are writing prompts and discussion topics you can use to help students think about being persistent and determined.
Grit is something that helps you keep trying to reach your goals – even when big things get in the way or loss and disappointment are involved.
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Think about how much grit you have. Make a list of four times you kept trying to accomplish something even though you had a lot of difficult things to deal with.
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Put a star next to any of those times that were so difficult that you think most people would have given up.
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Review your list with the stars and give yourself a “grit level” rating.
Here is the rating system:
1 star = Not much grit; need to work on not giving up and believing you can be successful.
2 stars = Have some grit; can overcome some things and are ready to learn even more ways to be successful.
3-4 stars = Excellent amount of grit; can overcome most things and believe strongly in your own abilities.
Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.
- For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:
- Use the blog for discussion topics
- Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.
- For all courses, especially English Language Arts:
- Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:
- Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?
- Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?
- What would be your advice on this topic?
- What was left out of this article?
- If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?
Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?
- Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.
- Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.
- The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.
- Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.
- Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.
Picture Book Parenting 