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    College-U: College Access for All- Middle School Curriculum
    Grades 6 - 8
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    These ten modules are designed to encourage students to expand their mindset around going to college and to prepare students with the knowledge and resources needed to understand how to navigate their journey to college from middle school. This curriculum can be used to start to create a college going culture in your classroom. These lessons can be...

    Geometry curriculum
    Grades 9 - 11
    Mathematics
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    Please note that this collection cannot be downloaded as it is made up links that are external to WeTeachNYC. This collection is comprised of units created by New Visions for Public Schools to support a one year Geometry course. Each unit is built around a common structure that shares several key components. Initial task Big ideas Instruction...

    Word work and word play: A practice guide for vocabulary instruction in K-12 classrooms
    English Language Arts
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    This guide provides sample lessons and instructional support for teaching each of the four components of a comprehensive vocabulary program: Wide and varied reading, writing, and discussion; Teaching individual words; Word-learning strategies; and Word Consciousness.
    Access online and blended learning opportunities for registered program participants
    WeTeachNYC Classes & Communities provide NYC teachers and school leaders with an online space where they can engage in online classes and blended learning communities with their colleagues. Currently, access to communities is limited to participants in specific NYCDOE programs.
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      Learn about curriculum options offered by the NYCDOE in English Language Arts, mathematics, and science.
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      Learn about implementing the Instructional Leadership Framework in schools.
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    Popular search terms:
    • civics for all
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    Part of the Collection:

    Academic and personal behaviors: Research and articles
    • Collection Contents
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        Landscape analysis of non-cognitive measures

        Landscape analysis of non-cogn...

        Landscape analysis of non-cognitive measures

        This report provides a collection and analysis of research about instruments designed to measure "non-cognitive factors," i.e. skills and dispositions toward learning, in students as they transition from late childhood to adolescence

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        Flummoxed by failure or focused?

        Flummoxed by failure or focuse...

        Flummoxed by failure or focused?

        This article describes how from a young age, attitudes toward learning play a large role in one's success in school and life. A person's theory about intelligence, i.e. whether one has what is known as a "growth" or a "fixed" mindset, is particularly important when facing failure, as people who believe they can improve their basic abilities are more resilient in the face of challenges and mistakes.

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        Learning to be "smart" in kindergarten

        Learning to be "smart" in kind...

        Learning to be "smart" in kindergarten

        This article describes a one-year ethnographic study of a kindergarten classroom of 25 middle- and working-class white, African-American, and Latino children in which students' "smartness" as defined by the teacher was related to their prior knowledge of taught material and classroom behavior expectations, rather than evidence of academic ability. The article highlights the problematic nature for students when determinations of "smartness" are made based on teachers' expectations mediated by knowledge of students' socioeconomic backgrounds and racial identities.

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        Measurement matters: Assessing personal quali...

        Measurement matters: Assessing...

        Measurement matters: Assessing personal qualities other than cognitive ability for ed purposes

        Researchers have been focusing for years on personal qualities other than cognitive ability that determine success, including self-control, grit, growth mind-set, and many others. In recent years, interest in attempting to measure such qualities for the purposes of educational policy and practice has grown - this article identifies the problematic challenges in measuring these qualities within the education arena. 

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        From fantasy to action: Mental contrasting wi...

        From fantasy to action: Mental...

        From fantasy to action: Mental contrasting with implementation intentions

        From Fantasy to Action: Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) Improves Academic Performance in Children

        This article describes a research intervention that tested whether a metacognitive self-regulatory strategy of goal pursuit can help economically disadvantaged children convert positive thoughts and images about their future into effective action. The technique used in the intervention, called mental contrasting (MCII), was shown to significantly improve academic outcomes for students, suggesting that it holds considerable promise for helping disadvantaged middle school children improve their academic performance. Mental contrasting entails envisioning a desired future with relevant obstacles and forming implementation intentions specifying when and where to overcome those obstacles.

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        Mindsets and equitable education

        Mindsets and equitable educati...

        Mindsets and equitable education

        In this article, Carol Dweck identifies and defines two sets of beliefs that people can have about intelligence: fixed mindset and growth mindset. She argues that educators and administrators must understand that intelligence is fluid and that students can learn to have a growth mindset, citing recent research that shows that students' mindsets have a direct influence on their grades and that teaching students to have a growth mindset raises their grades and achievement test scores significantly. In addition, studies demonstrate that having a growth mindset is especially important for students who are laboring under negative stereotypes about their abilities.

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        Academic tenacity: Mindsets and skills that p...

        Academic tenacity: Mindsets an...

        Academic tenacity: Mindsets and skills that promote long-term learning

        This paper explains how motivational or "noncognitive" factors can be more important than cognitive factors for student academic performance.The research reviewed in this paper shows that educational interventions and initiatives that target these psychological factors can transform students’ experience and achievement in school, improving core academic outcomes such as GPA and test scores months and even years later. 

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        Teaching adolescents to become learners: Role...

        Teaching adolescents to become...

        Teaching adolescents to become learners: Role of noncognitive factors in shaping performance

        This seminal literature review by the UChicago Consortium on School Research shows that academic mindsets and behaviors, so-called "noncognitive factors," have the most immediate effect on students’ course grades. While some students are more likely to persist in tasks or exhibit self-discipline than others, research shows student mindsets and academic behaviors are teachable, and that all students are more likely to demonstrate perseverance if the school or classroom context helps them develop positive mindsets and effective learning strategies.

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        Teaching adolescents to become learners (Abri...

        Teaching adolescents to become...

        Teaching adolescents to become learners (Abridged report)

        These are excerpts from a seminal literature review by the UChicago Consortium on School Research which shows that academic mindsets and behaviors, so-called "noncognitive factors," have the most immediate effect on students’ course grades.While some students are more likely to persist in tasks or exhibit self-discipline than others, research shows student mindsets and academic behaviors are teachable, and that all students are more likely to demonstrate perseverance if the school or classroom context helps them develop positive mindsets and effective learning strategies.

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        Praise for intelligence can undermine childre...

        Praise for intelligence can un...

        Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance

        This groundbreaking study by Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller shows that the way students are praised for achievement is profoundly impactful on their behavior and motivation. The study demonstrates that praise for effort is highly beneficial for students and that praise for intelligence, contrary to popular belief, can actually be detrimental for students' willingness to embrace learning challenges and resilience in the face of failure.

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        The significance of grit: A conversation with...

        The significance of grit: A co...

        The significance of grit: A conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth

        In this interview with Angela Duckworth, a leading researcher on motivation, she describes what her research has shown about the relationship between grit and achievement, and she reflects on the importance of helping students develop grit and other "noncognitive" factors.

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        A simple way to boost minority test scores

        A simple way to boost minority...

        A simple way to boost minority test scores

        Since 1995, social psychologists have shown that among the many obstacles black and Latino students face in an academic setting is a psychological one, something referred to as "stereotype threat." This article describes a simple psychological intervention that research has shown can narrow the test-score differences caused by stereotype threat.

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        Student academic mindset interventions: A rev...

        Student academic mindset inter...

        Student academic mindset interventions: A review of the current landscape

        This research based overview outlines the core problems, concepts, and theory of action underlying student academic mindsets and learning strategies and their connection to academic achievement. The review summarizes trends and highlights promising interventions and tools that educators serving low income students and students of color particularly African American and Latino students might adapt to their local contexts in order to help their students engage, persist, and succeed in school and beyond.

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        Growth mindset gaining traction as school imp...

        Growth mindset gaining tractio...

        Growth mindset gaining traction as school improvement strategy

        Three decades have passed since the Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck and others first linked students' motivation to the way they perceived intelligence. Students who believe intelligence or skill can be improved by effort and experimentation—what Dweck calls a "growth mindset"—seek challenges, learn from mistakes, and keep faith in themselves in the face of failure. This article describes the efforts of schools working to support growth mindsets in students, and their impact.

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        Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance

        Promoting grit, tenacity, and ...

        Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance

        This brief article looks at the "noncognitive factors" that are essential to an individual's capacity to strive for and succeed at long-term and higher-order goals, and to persist in the face of challenges encountered throughout schooling and life. The authors posit that it is the responsibility of the educational community to design learning environments that promote these factor so that students are prepared to meet 21st-century challenges.

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        Mindsets that promote resilience: When studen...

        Mindsets that promote resilien...

        Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe personal characteristics can be developed

        In this article, Carol Dweck and David Yeager, leading researchers on student motivation, review research demonstrating the impact of students' mindsets on their resilience in the face of academic and social challenges. They demonstrate that students who believe - or are taught - that intellectual abilities are qualities that can be developed (as opposed to qualities that are fixed) tend to show higher achievement across challenging school transitions and greater course completion, as well as lower aggression and stress in response to peer victimization or exclusion, which results in enhanced school performance. They discuss why psychological interventions that change students' mindsets are effective and what educators can do to foster these mindsets and create resilience in educational settings.

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        Social-psychological interventions in educati...

        Social-psychological intervent...

        Social-psychological interventions in education: They are not magic

        Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly “small” social-psychological interventions in education—that is, brief exercises that target students’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school—can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later. These interventions do not teach students academic content but instead target students’ psychology, such as their beliefs that they have the potential to improve their intelligence or that they belong and are valued in school. When social-psychological interventions have lasting effects, it can seem surprising and even “magical,” leading people either to think of them as quick fixes to complicated problems or to consider them unworthy of serious consideration. This article discourages both responses, presenting a review of the theoretical basis of several prominent social-psychological interventions and emphasizing that they have lasting effects because they target students’ subjective experiences in school, because they use persuasive yet stealthy methods for conveying psychological ideas, and because they tap into recursive processes present in educational environments. The authors explain that by understanding psychological interventions as powerful but context-dependent tools, educational researchers will be better equipped to take them to scale. The review concludes by discussing challenges to scaling psychological interventions and how these challenges may be overcome.

        To download pdf of this article click "Download full-text PDF" on the top right of the page.  Alternatively, you can read the full article directly through the website. 

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        Boring but important: A self-transcendent pur...

        Boring but important: A self-t...

        Boring but important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation

        Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This paper describes four research studies that proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. The studies found that students with more of a purpose for learning persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. They also showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school science and math grade point average over several months, could increase deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials, and sustain self-regulation over the course of an increasingly boring task. More self-oriented motives for learning - such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career - did not, on their own, consistently produce these benefits.

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        Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interven...

        Breaking the cycle of mistrust...

        Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide feedback across the racial divide

        This paper describes three studies that looked at the effects of a strategy to restore trust on minority adolescents’ responses to critical feedback. Middle school students received critical feedback from their teacher that was designed to assuage mistrust by emphasizing the teacher’s high standards and belief that the student was capable of meeting those standards—a strategy known as wise feedback. Wise feedback increased students’ likelihood of submitting a revision of an essay and improved the quality of their final drafts. Effects were generally stronger among African American students than among White students, and particularly strong among African Americans who felt more mistrusting of school. Among this latter group of students, the 2-year decline in trust evident in the control condition was, in the wise feedback condition, halted. The interventions in the studies raised African Americans’ grades, reducing the achievement gap.

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        Addressing achievement gaps with psychologica...

        Addressing achievement gaps wi...

        Addressing achievement gaps with psychological interventions

        This article describes some of the psychological interventions that research has shown can positively impact learning mindsets and outcomes for students, and lessen achievement gaps. It highlights the point that these interventions are best as complements to other school reform efforts, rather than replacements for them. 

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    This resource is from a site outside of the NYCDOE. It has been vetted for quality and standards alignment.
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    Research Article

    Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance

    Grades 6 - 12 Social and Emotional Learning

    This brief article looks at the "noncognitive factors" that are essential to an individual's capacity to strive for and succeed at long-term and higher-order goals, and to persist in the face of challenges encountered throughout schooling and life. The authors posit that it is the responsibility of the educational community to design learning environments that promote these factor so that students are prepared to meet 21st-century challenges.

    Audience:
    TeacherAdministratorInstructional CoachCentral Staff
    Educational Use:
    Professional Development
    Programs:
    Academic and Personal Behaviors

    This resource is also included in these collections:

    Academic and personal behaviors: Research and articles
    Grades 6 - 12
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    Details
    Here is some of the research that demonstrates the links between mindsets, academic and personal behaviors and college/career readiness.
    More Resources like Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance

    DoSomething.org
    Grades 6 - 12
    Social and Emotional Learning
    external link icon
    Details
    The organization "DoSomething.org" gives young people the opportunity to actively participate in a social justice project. Students browse through a list of campaigns, public education and activism projects, then enroll. Once they have finished a campaign, students submit a photo or video to prove they completed the required steps, which makes them...

    P.S./I.S. 268: Developing student self-reflection
    Grades 6 - 12
    Social and Emotional Learning
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    Details
    P.S./I.S. 268 staff developed a reflection process and rubric for systematically assessing student growth.

    Academic and personal behaviors worksheet
    Grades 6 - 12
    Social and Emotional Learning
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    Details
    The Academic and Personal Behaviors Worksheet provides examples of what academic and personal behaviors can look like for students, teachers, and schools, as well as how these practices align with the 2013 Danielson Framework for Teaching.  

    Teaching adolescents to become learners (Abridged report)
    Grades 6 - 12
    Social and Emotional Learning
    document icon
    Details
    These are excerpts from a seminal literature review by the UChicago Consortium on School Research which shows that academic mindsets and behaviors, so-called "noncognitive factors," have the most immediate effect on students’ course grades.While some students are more likely to persist in tasks or exhibit self-discipline than others, research shows...
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