Fariy Tale Blurbs

Now that you've written your original fairy tale, write a four to five sentence "blurb" that would be suitable for the back cover of a dust jacket for your fairy tale. Submit your blurbs as comments on this post.

Two Resources

• a four-element formula with an example  (the last is for Shades of Grey if you'd rather not read it)
• multiple strategies / approaches

Book Blurb
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounters.

Parables Response

Imagine you are one of your parents. Select a parable you (as the parent) want to share with your child (you). Write a three-sentence response that explains your choice.

Image Credit: http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-the-empty-pot-a-chinese-folk-story-about-honesty/

Fables & the Modern World

Review the list of Aesop fable morals and select one moral that interests you because it relates in a substantial way to the modern world. Read the accompanying fable, and write a 3-sentence response about WHY you selected that moral, using evidence from the story to connect to contemporary society.

Names and Story

What one idea from Mr. Allard's chapter on the significance of names and their relationship to story struck you and why? Post a 3-sentence comment to this post.

Tsunami Story

What one idea from Mr. Allard's chapter on the tsunami struck you and why? Post a 3-sentence comment to this post.

Fire Symbolism

What one idea from Mr. Allard's chapter on the connection between fire and storytelling struck you and why? Post a 3-sentence comment to this post.

Society's Views on Intelligence and Talent

“Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability-along with confidence in that ability-is a recipe for success."

"In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings”(Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

This passage is significant to the paper because it describes the main problem which is going to be addressed and discussed. It also tells an almost sad yet true statement that society warships talent, and many people who are talented may never realize it because they don’t feel that they possess intelligence or ability.

The passage then states that the people who who put an overemphasis on talent and being smart are more susceptible to fail, fear challenges, and not wanting to try to fix their mistakes.

Thinking Like a Fifth Grader

“They understood that even geniuses have to work hard for their accomplishments. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, students with a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy for mastering the material” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).
I landmarked this passage because it displays how these kids with a growth mindset weren’t so prideful that they couldn’t embrace failure. When those with a growth mindset didn’t receive the grade that they had expected, they had the immediate response of putting in more effort the next time around.

I also liked how it mentions trying a different strategy, because the way you go about studying is different for every person and these students understood that not every strategy will always work for them.

Preconceived Notions About Intelligence

“People do differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift" (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

I marked this as the most significant passage because it highlighted the main significance of the reading, which is that although there often is a preconceived notion that intelligence is an innate trait, research now shows that it is less of a gift and more the result of hard work.

This idea that intelligence is an effort, not a talent, is striking because it makes one think about the possibilities of increasing brain capacity, and I thought that this passage did this particularly well by saying that it is “not something that flows naturally from a gift”.

The concept that our “geniuses” derive from effort and focus, not on raw brainpower, incentives the reader to put in more effort, knowing that it has an effect on increasing intelligence, and I believe that in itself is extremely powerful.

Science Against Motivation

“30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings” (Carol S. Deck, Scientific America Mind - Noveber 28, 2007)

This passage is important due to the fact that it sums up the the rest of the article in less than a sentence. In a few words, this passage lets the reader know what can cause students and adults to underperform in school and at the workplace. We can take away from this excerpt that positive encouragement based solely on intelligence can be more harmful to the receiver than motivational.

Science Against Motivation

“30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings” (Carol S. Deck, Scientific America Mind - Noveber 28, 2007)

This passage is important due to the fact that it sums up the the rest of the article in less than a sentence. In a few words, this passage lets the reader know what can cause students and adults to underperform in school and at the workplace. We can take away from this excerpt that positive encouragement based solely on intelligence can be more harmful to the receiver than motivational.

Perspective of Knowledge

“Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners-helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence ” (Carol S Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007)

The author explains the differences between how students approach their knowledge. This is an important passage because it explains the student’s mindset of how they think of themselves and of their academic encounters. Fixed mind-sets can cause issues for children, but can also be caused from how a child was raised. A growth mind-set is much more effective and any student can learn how to have a growth mind-set.

Facing the Problem

“Confronting Deficiencies: A belief in fixed intelligence also makes people less willing to admit to errors or to confront and remedy their deficiencies in school, at work and in their social relationships.

In a study published in 1999 of 168 freshman entering the University of Hong Kong, three colleagues and I found that students with a growth mind-set who scored poorly on their English proficiency exam were far more inclined to take a remedial English course than were low-scoring students with a fixed mind-set.

The students with a stagnant view of intelligence were presumably unwilling to admit to their deficit and thus passed up the opportunity to correct it” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

This passage shows how the growth mindset students are willing to admit their failure, and used it as motivation to try again, and work harder. Confronting deficiencies means to face the problem, and the fixed mindset people did everything except that.

They quit because they did not want to admit to the problem, they thought the problem was that they just were not smart enough, so the only option was to give up. The students with a growth mindset wanted to learn more and took this failure as an opportunity to improve.

Lack of Effort, Not Ability

 “After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn.

Students with such a growth mind-set we predicted, were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007) 

This passage points out the key advantage of the “mastery-oriented” mindset. The students who are not scared of making mistakes and believe that they can be fixed with more effort are much more likely to keep trying until they succeed, therefore expanding their intellectual ability. 

By clarifying the thesis of the paper, this passage tells readers exactly what the author thinks about the mastery-oriented mindset, and how it is superior to the fixed mindset.

Learning to be Helpless

Learning to be Helpless

"People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered : why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas others who are not more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer I soon discovered, lay in people’s beliefs about why they have failed" (Carol S. Dwek, Scientific American Mind- November 28,2007).

I believe this passage is one of the most important because it points out that people are able to learn how to be helpless. Also it points out that when we tell ourselves that we will fail, most likely, we will fail. So, in a way the author is telling us we have the ability to decide if we are intelligent or not.

Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Minset

“In addition, they held hard work in high regard, believing that the more you labored at something the better you would become at it. They understood that even geniuses have to work hard for their great accomplishments. Confronted by a setback such as disappointing test grade, students with a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy for mastering the material.

"The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with little regard for learning. They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a sign of low ability. They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

This passage is significant because it explains the difference between a growth mind-set and a fixed mind-set. It shows us that a growth mind-set is better for students because they are more interested in learning from their mistakes then getting a good grade. It encompasses the whole idea of learning vs. looking smart.

The True Meaning of Genius

"Teaching children such information is not just a ploy to get them to study People do differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift.

Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and Cezanne were not simply born with talent; they cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort. Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute much more to school achievement than IQ does" (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind, November 28, 2007).

Since you can see that genius is proven to be the product of work or the product of a growth mindset, in contrast to people who want to look smart, this passage conveys the message of the essay best. It also proves that a growth mindset can greatly affect any area, from your area of expertise to your schoolwork.

In summary, the paragraph provides the salient point that we all can be geniuses in our own rights; we just have to work to achieve that goal.

Teaching a Growth Mindset

“If we foster a growth mindset in our homes and schools, however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuit and to become responsible employees and citizens” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind- November 28, 2007).

This passage summarizes the main theme of the article and explains the benefits that teaching a growth mindset can have for children and our society as a whole. If parents teach their children this growth mindset, not only will they become harder workers and better students, but they will ultimately gain the tools to succeed in school, business (as employers and employees), and relationships.

If our society sets out to teach this mindset, we can create a whole generation of productive, hard-working, and responsible employees and citizens.

Fostering the "Growth Mind-Set" at Poly

“Two Views of Intelligence Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners-helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence.

"The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

I landmarked this passage because Poly teachers need to teach the “growth mind-set.” I personally feel that the Poly Middle School fosters the “fixed mind-set” rather than the “growth mind-set,” because students are taught that the grade is more important that learning the material.

Certain teachers would give tests days after we learned material, forcing me to memorize material instead of learning it. This passage stated all of the negatives of the “fixed mind-set” and how the “growth mind-set” exponentially better, yet Poly still puts a premium on the grade rather than the learning process.

Zombies Are Eating Fixed Mindsets!

“[Children] who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold and implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve” (Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind - November 28, 2007).

My landmark tells us that people who think intelligence is innate or fixed into their brain often fail at school. The intelligent kids stop trying at school because they think that they are smarter than everyone else and do not need to try as hard. These kids think that their brains will always be smarter that their neighbors.

Kids that think that they cannot get smarter or develop their brains often do poorly in school due to the facts that they don’t have a growth-mindset. Growth- Mindset allows kids to understand that their brain is constantly growing.

Group Work Advice

Based on your previous experiences with group work and/or collaborative projects, what is the one piece of advice you think is most important for all members of a group to understand and follow?

Post your one sentence response as a reply to this blog entry.

Penumbra Passages

For homework last night, you selected five of the passages you had text-marked during your reading of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and wrote 2-3 thoughtful sentences for each to explain why you marked each as you read. You selected passages that are significant to you for different reasons.

1. As a "reply" to this post, paste the quotation you found the most significant.
2. Then, as a reply to that comment, post your 2-3 sentences.
3. If anyone in the class selected a passage that you had written about for the homework, post your 2-3 sentences for that passage as a reply to the passage.