 |
| Students may make pictures of themselves with blurbs of positive self talk to set the stage for successful effort. |
Students and I will talk about the power of words, and times when they have experienced that power.Then I'll tell them that positive self talk is essential to learning well and how we talk to ourselves and others greatly affects our success in any endeavor.
To affirm that message, I've re-made this wonderful bulletin board language I found online. The remake can be used as reference sheet for student review and follow-up actions such as suggesting other phrases and making posters to reflect the positive self talk. The remake can also be enlarged and used as a bulletin board reminder of the strength of positive self talk.
Don’t Say
|
Say Instead
|
I don’t understand.
|
What am I missing?
|
I give up.
|
I’ll use some of the strategies I’ve learned.
|
I made a mistake.
|
Mistakes are stepping stones to success.
Mistakes help me improve.
|
This is too hard.
|
This may take some time and effort.
I can break this down into simpler steps.
|
It’s good enough.
|
Is this really my best work?
I can take another look at this tomorrow.
|
I’ll never be that smart.
|
I’m going to figure out what she/he does and try it.
Smart is what you do, not who you are.
|
I can’t make this any better.
|
I can always improve. I’ll keep trying.
|
I can’t read well enough.
|
I can train my brain to read better.
|
I’m not good at this.
|
I’m on the right track.
I’m not good at this now, but I can get better.
|
