Warm Up (15 min)

Try, Try Again

Think: Ask students to close their eyes and think of a time where they tried to do something and didn't succeed. Maybe it was attempting a new sport, playing a tough video game, or learning a new skill. As they are thinking silently, ask that they focus specifically on:

• What were you feeling?
• What were you thinking?
• What were you saying?
• What were you doing?

Pair: Without discussing what the actual situation was, have students share with a neighbor about what it looked to try something and not succeed. Encourage them to talk about the things they were feeling, thinking, saying, and doing.

Share: Once all of the students have had a chance to share thoughts with their neighbors, ask a few to share what they were talking about with the whole class. Keep track of common answers somewhere that students can refer to later in the lesson (and possibly during future lessons as well).

Discuss: Using the list that the class generated, discuss which responses to failure were productive (potentially led towards later success) and which were not. Highlight the constructive responses so that students can refer to them later.

Share: Share out a personal experience where you (the teacher) initially failed at something, but persisted through to success. Let students know that today we are all going to work on a challenge that is meant to be hard and even frustrating. Let them know that it was chosen because it's likely to create several failed attempts before it works but we can rely on some of the constructive responses we talked about earlier to move towards success.

Activity (20 min)

Building a Foundation

The goal of this lesson is not just building a structure, like the activity makes it appear. Instead, it's to prepare students to face failure and frustration with persistence. In order for that to happen, students need to know that they are not alone in feeling bad when things go wrong. They also need to be prepared to struggle. The outcome of this activity is much stronger when students know what they are about to experience.

Set Up: You'll need to have a collection of supplies for each group ready for this activity. It's important that the available supplies are limited in number and structurally unsound. Potential supply kits include:

• 20 gumdrops and 50 toothpicks
• 20 drinking straws and 6" of tape
• 20 marshmallows and 20 craft sticks
• 10 playing cards and 4" of tape

Transition: Introduce the challenge, which is to build a structure that can hold a textbook for at least 10 seconds, using provided materials.

Group: Divide students into groups of three or four.

Distribute: Pass out the building supplies, letting students know that they are limited to only the supplies you provide.

Display: Show rules that are similar to the ones itemized below in a place where students can easily see and refer back to as they work.

• Use only the supplies provided to build a structure.
• The structure can be any shape, but it has to be at least 2.5" tall. (Example)
• The structure must support the weight of a book for a full 10 seconds. (Example)

Prompt: Ask groups to spend at least 5 minutes planning a method for building their first tower. Each group should draw or write down the steps in their plan.

Circulate: Encourage students to begin building, and observe as they work. Keep your eyes open for signs of frustration and repeated failure. Make sure to acknowledge frustration and praise their persistence. Refer to the methods of dealing with frustration and the methods for productive persistence that are written on the board. Keep reminding individuals that the goal of this lesson is to experience frustration and persistence, so if they are failing, they're really succeeding!

When groups have reached a design they believe will meet conditions, move them to the "Testing and Iteration" phase.

Testing and Iteration

Model: The first time a group tests their structure, model for them them how you intend to test in line with the rules. Specifically you'll want to:

• Check that it's at least 2.5" tall
• Ensure that they are using only provided materials
• Gently place a text book on top and time how long it holds out.

Prompt: If the group's structure failed, ask them to discuss:

• Why it failed
• Whether their plan needs revision, or just another try
• How they're going to improve the next iteration

If the structure succeeded, push them to support more weight until it breaks, and then follow the same reflection and iteration process.

Circulate: Allow as much time as you can for groups to continue iterating on their plans. Make sure to be excited not only for the successes, but also the failures. Model for students how much you can learn from your failed attempts.

Wrap Up (10 min)

Vocabulary

Display: Present the vocab for this lesson, persistence, frustrated. Let the class know that they were showing persistence when they worked through failures in their structures.

Flash Chat: What did we learn?

Discuss: Reflect on the activity as a class, using the following prompts as a start.

• Did anyone feel frustrated during this lesson?

  • Can you share what that felt like?

• (Alternatively, you can ask "Who felt frustrated at some point during this lesson?" and cheer for the students who raise their hand.)

  • Then YOU won this lesson, and YOU won this lesson, and YOU won, too!

• Was there a time that you thought about giving up?

  • What were you feeling, saying, doing, or thinking at that time?
  • How did you get past that feeling?

• Do you think that you would be more proud of yourself for solving something that was easy, or something that was very, very hard?

End the discussion by bringing the context back to the warm-up.

Think: Where would you be now if you had not been persistent when you were learning to walk as a baby? Or if you had been too frustrated to keep going when you were learning to talk? What other things did you learn to do, even though they were very, very hard?

Pair: Have students discuss this thought exercise with an elbow partner to come up with 1-3 things that fit that description.

Share: Have students write the answers in their journals to remind themselves how strong they can be when faced with a challenge.