I was working with Bricolage Academy yesterday and they asked me if we had any documentation related to introducing Lexia to students that also talked about the social emotional aspect of supporting fellow students versus competing. I said I would ask.
I received this response.
Hi Jessie & Beth,
Our motivation and growth mindset white papers may be a good references points to pull examples from: https://www.lexialearning.
We don't have anything else formally written, however, Kate Ronstadt and I presented at an international motivation conference where we stressed the social-emotional aspect of Core5's development of relatedness through collaboration.
In practice, we find being on different levels more often fosters conversations about the places in the world where the students are working, rather than competition about the rank of the level. Students frequently share with each other the features of their level and learn from other students what they have to look forward to in future (or past) levels. For example, as I saw first hand, in a school that faces a beach, it is more likely to hear a student in second grade want to "do the beach level (level 2)" rather than make a competitive comment to another student who is working on the beach (i.e., kindergarten skills). Students also share with each other which "fun facts" they learned about the animals or places in their current level. Teachers can help support these conversations by celebrating the different locations students in the class "visit" in Core5.
Another important aspect of fostering collaboration instead of competition is to take the time to celebrate as a whole class when a student passes a level - regardless of what level it is. Praising students for their hard work and perseverance through a tricky skill, rather than the numerical level or their ranking in the class, also helps support collaboration, and growth mindset. There are many different ways classes have chosen to celebrate success that don't involve rank order of the levels. For example, we've seen classrooms add neurons to a brain, leaves to a tree, monkeys to a tree, fish in a sea, etc. for each level completed, as classroom or school-wide displays of success. Creating an visual representation of the levels completed together as a class or school reinforces the idea of working together rather than competing - everyone wants another fish or monkey added to the display!
I hope these examples help -- I'm also happy to talk through additional examples, if needed!
Thanks,
Elizabeth (Kazakoff)
For conference reference:
Kazakoff, E.R., & Ronstadt, K. (2016, June). Applying SDT in the Design of Literacy Software for Children. Presentation at The 6th International Conference on Self-Determination Theory. Victoria, B.C., Canada.
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