Zach Watts

Zach Watts

2-2-2014

Cris Longhurst

English 1010

Assignment 8

1. Just last semester in English 990 class we had the opportunity to read a book called “Outliers: the story of success”- Malcolm Gladwell. While reading the book it talked about minds sets in one of the chapters. I didn’t quite understand what Malcolm was trying to get as, so I asked my teacher to explain it a little more in depth for my teacher Mrs. Balmforth recommended that I watch a YouTube clip, where Dr. Dweck goes into depth about mind sets. Dr. Dweck talks about two kinds of mindsets, a fixed and growth mindset. A fixed mindset is where the individual feel as if they were born with certain talent and thins they are good at (such as math) that they can’t get any better at the subject/sport because they weren’t born with that ability. On the other hand, a growth mindset is exactly what it sounds like. Individuals with growth mindsets understand that they have weaknesses and open their mind to finding a way to get better at whatever it is they struggle with

2. Just last semester in my English 990 class we had the opportunity to read a book called “Outliers: the story of success”- Malcolm Gladwell. While reading the book it talked about minds sets in one of the chapters. I didn’t quite understand what Malcolm was trying to get at, so I asked my teacher to explain it a little more in depth for me. I had mixed and confused thoughts about what fixed and growth mindset were about. My teacher Mrs. Balmforth who teaches reading and writing 990, recommended that I watch a YouTube clip, where Dr. Dweck the world leading researcher In the field of motivation goes into depth about mind sets. Dr. Dweck talks about two kinds of mindsets a fixed and growth mindset. A fixed mindset is where the individual feels as if they were born with certain talents and things they are good at (such as math) that they can’t get any better at that subject/sport because they weren’t born with that ability. On the other hand, a growth mindset is exactly what it sounds like. Individuals with growth mindsets understand that they have weaknesses and open their mind to finding a way to get better at whatever it is they struggle with.

3. After reading “Outliers: the story of success”- Malcolm Gladwell, I started to think to myself why I struggled with science and mainly language arts. Language arts have a lot of readings, writings and lecturing during class. While in a math class there is a lot of visual images on the board and in the book. After going through most of my classes and seeing if they were mostly lectures, reading, writing or a more visual course, I checked the grades I received in the classes that consisted of mostly reading and lecturing I was struggling in. in the classes that were more visual and I could see a lot of examples on the board and in books, I had very good grades in those classes. There are three ways people learn visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners need to see something in action to tell their brains how something is supposed to be done. Auditory learners can understand thins by simply listening to someone explain how it works and they can understand if perfectly without having to see or actually do whatever it is. This last type of learner is how I learn the best. I am a kinesthetic learner, meaning I need to physically tough and work on things with my body and see how they work so I can understand them. I can understand thins in more depth if I can see how it works and what it looks like. This is why I struggle a little bit more in classes that are mainly lectures and reading classes, compared to math class where I can see and do my work on a piece of paper right then.

4. After reading “Outliers: the story of success”- Malcolm Gladwell I started to think to myself why I struggled with science and mainly language arts. Language arts have a lot of reading, writing and lecturing during class, which put me to sleep because I have a hard time learning that way. While in a math class there is a lot of visual images on the board and in the book, which made me excited to learn because I could understand the materials a lot easier. After going through most of my classes and seeing if they were mostly lectures, reading, writing or a more visual course, I checked the grades I received in the classes that consisted of mostly reading and lecturing I was struggling in. In the classes that were more visual and I could see a lot of examples on the board and in books, I had very good grades in those classes. There are three ways people learn visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners need to see something in action to tell their brains how something is supposed to be done. Auditory learners can understand things by simply listening to someone explain how it works and they can understand it perfectly without having to see or actually do whatever it is. This last type of learner is how I learn the best. I am a kinesthetic learner, meaning I need to physically touch and work on things with my body and see how they work so I can understand them.  I can understand things in more depth if I can see how it works and what it looks like. This is why I struggle a little bit more in classes that are mainly lecture and reading classes, compared to a math class where I can see and do my work on a piece of paper right then.