There are three key strategies that we want to highlight by effective character growth card conferences. One, use an asset or strength based approach. Two, choose one to two areas of growth upon which to focus. Three, create effective goals and plans for after the conference. To help us, we've created a few sample growth cards for three fictitious students we're calling Simone, Mario, and Brian. The ratings are on a seven point scale. You'll see both the student and teacher ratings. Let's take a look at Simone. Step number one. Help Simone identify where she is strong. In this case, that could be self control, or grit. Please don't short change this part, really dig in. Find out from Simone, what are the specific actions she's doing, that's allowing her to have success here. Step number two, where should we focus for growth. In this case there are a couple of options for us. We could focus on social intelligence which is low across the board, or gratitude where Simone ranked herself much lower than her teachers did. Let's say Simone chose social intelligence. We'd move on to step three, which is goal setting and planning. We wanna start a discussion that gets at the when and where of how Simone sees herself struggling with social Intelligence. What happens in these moments? What goal does wanna set? What new strategies can help her tackle the challenging moments? Get all this down on paper. This is where creating the if then plans that Dr. Michelle referenced in the first week can be particularly helpful to deal with the inevitable bumps that lie ahead. Here's our second example. Mario. Step one, help Mario identify where he is from. For him that could be social intelligence or zest. Again, really dig in on the strengths. What is he doing that's causing him to have so much success here? Step number two, where should we focus on for growth? In this case, I'd encourage Mario to focus on the fact that he thinks he's greedy, but his teachers don't really agree with that assessment. This gap is a great conversation starter. Step number three, goal setting and planning. Perhaps we need to norm on the definition of grit and have a conversation about what strategies are successful for grit and which ones aren't. Like Simone, let's set a goal and create a plan. Last example, our friend Brian. Step one. Help Brian identify where he's strong. For him, that's probably curiosity and grit. Again, and I really want to emphasize this here, dig in on the strengths. Have Brian explain what are the specific actions that are causing him to be so successful here. Really get him to feel that sense of joy, and see that smile on his face. Because very often we'll be able to leverage these strengths as we move into step two. Which is where should we focus on for growth? For Brian, this is probably the fact that there's such a big difference between his self-control ratings and in his fourth period class, And all of his other classes. So, then, step three, again, goal setting and planning. We'd want to explore what's going on in this class. We'd probe here for difference, and try to learn, from Brian's point of view, what is causing the score to change so much? Or as Dr. Michelle would say, what's causing him to control this hot system in all of his other classes, but not in fourth period? The more we can drill down to specific behaviors and actions, and understand the "why", the better equipped we'll be to help Brian arm himself with strategies to keep that self-control high throughout the day. A couple of final thoughts here. These conversations will take time and effort. What happens after the conversation is just as important as what happens during. This investment helps the character growth card be much richer than the typical conduct, effort, or participation grades used in so many schools. In most cases, those are single ratings, which in essence are basically a substitute for measuring compliance. With student self-reflections, teacher ratings, and the resulting conversation that character growth card provides a much more holistic view of a kid, and a much better spring board for future growth. Secondly, whenever possible, help students leverage their strengths to improve upon their growth areas. It's an important life skill. Finally, it's super important that we keep these conversations upbeat and joyful. Remember, it's about getting in and staying in a growth mindset. Joy will be very helpful here.
