English

This assignment will allow you to practice and to receive feedback on academic reading and writing skills that will be required in your courses. It also gives you an opportunity to submit an assignment using Blackboard.
To get started:

Read the articles “Having a Growth Mindset Makes It Easier to Develop New Interests,” from the Harvard Business Review and “’Nice Try Is Not Enough!” from The New York Times’ Motherlode blog.

Note: We recommend you print out this prompt and the two articles so that you can read them more closely and make notes on them.

With these two readings in mind, write a 300-500 word essay in which you discuss fixed and growth mindsets and their effects on learning, using the writing prompt below.

In the article “Having a Growth Mindset Makes it Easier to Develop New Interests,” Paul A. O’Keefe, Carol Dweck, and Greg Walton wanted “to understand why some people are more likely to reach across disciplines than others.”
In your 300-500 word essay:

Summarize what they learned through their research studies on fixed and growth mindset in college students. What, according to O’Keefe, Dweck, and Walton, is the value of a growth mindset?
Next, what connections can you make between the ideas put forth in “Nice Try is Not Enough!” by KJ Dell’Antonia, which focuses on how to encourage growth mindset in children, and those presented in “Having a Growth Mindset Makes it Easier to Develop New Interests”?
Finally, to conclude, explain how your own knowledge and experiences of teaching and learning connect to the ideas put forth in one or both of the essays.

Although there are three parts, you should write a single essay with an introduction that contains a thesis or organizational statement (the main idea of your essay), 2-3 body paragraphs, and a short conclusion. You should summarize, quote, and paraphrase the readings as appropriate.

Feedback from an SPS English instructor or Writing Fellow will be available to you in “My Grades” shortly after the end of Orientation. It will contain both individualized feedback and scores on the Academic Reading and Writing Rubric.
APA style sample.pdfNice try is not enough.pdfwriting rubric.pdfHaving a Growth Mindset Makes It Easier to Develop New Interests HBR.pdf