Growth Mindset — I Can't Do It Yet
Subject: Character education Topic: Growth mindset Grades: Grades 3–9
Two columns. On the left the sentences students actually say; on the right the same sentence rewritten with one word changed. The board works because it quotes them rather than lecturing them.
Learning purpose
Students rewrite a fixed-mindset statement into a growth-mindset one, which gives them a specific sentence to use instead of a general instruction to try harder.
Students will be able to:
- Recognise fixed-mindset language in their own speech
- Rewrite a fixed-mindset statement as a growth-mindset one
- Describe a time effort changed an outcome for them
Choose your version
Costs are worked out from what each version actually consumes — paper, ink, card, laminating and backing. Enter your own prices below and all three update.
Your print pack
Every count below updates with the version, the printing and the paper size you choose.
Black and white prints as clean line art rather than a greyed-out copy of the colour version, so the class can colour it in. The preview above changes with this setting.
- Pages
- 16
- Colour pages
- 9
- Black & white
- 7
Paper
- White: 16 sheets — Everything in the print pack
- Red: 2 sheets
- Green: 2 sheets
- Yellow: 2 sheets — Title strip and YET
What is in the pack
Title letters — YET — 3 sheets, black and white
Y · E · T
YET prints one letter per sheet at full size. The rest of the title prints as a strip.
Title strip and column headings — 2 sheets, colour
I CAN'T DO IT ... · INSTEAD OF · TRY THINKING
Instead-of cards — 2 sheets, colour
I can't do this. · I made a mistake. · This is too hard. · I'm not good at maths. · She's just clever. · I give up.
Try-thinking cards — 2 sheets, colour
I can't do this yet. · Mistakes help me learn. · This will take time and effort. · I'm going to train my brain in maths. · She works hard at it. I can too. · I'll try a different way.
Arrows — 1 sheet, colour
Six arrows joining each pair of cards
Add your own strip — 2 sheets, black and white
A headed strip students pin their own sticky notes to · Twelve blank card slips for classes without sticky notes
Arrow border strip — 1 sheet, colour
Repeating arrow strip
Estimated cost
US retail prices
$4.50–$13.50
- White paper · 16 sheets$0.19–$0.38
- Colour printing · 9 pages$1.35–$4.50
- Black-and-white printing · 7 pages$0.21–$0.56
- Coloured paper · 6 sheets$0.12–$0.27
- Laminating · 6 pouches$0.72–$1.80
- Backing paper · 34 sheets$1.36–$4.08
- Glue, staples and tape · 1 board$0.50–$2
Make it yours
Anything you type here is printed into the pack. Leave a box empty to keep the board's own wording.
Change the title and the printable letters regenerate to match it.
Materials you need
Tick each item off as you gather it. Ticks are kept on this device.
Paper
Printing
Other materials
How to build this board
Estimated assembly time: about 25–35 minutes.
Step 1 — Prepare the background
Cover the board in a plain neutral so the red and green columns read clearly against it.
Step 2 — Add the title
Put I CAN'T DO IT ... as a strip across the top left, then the three big YET letters to the right of it. The gap between the strip and YET is what makes the joke land.
Step 3 — Add the column headings
INSTEAD OF over the left column, TRY THINKING over the right. Keep them level with each other.
Step 4 — Place the left column
Six red cards down the left, evenly spaced. Do all six before you start the right column.
Step 5 — Place the right column
Six green cards down the right, each level with its pair on the left. Check each row before you staple — a misaligned pair reads as the wrong rewrite.
Step 6 — Add the arrows
One arrow in the middle of each row, pointing left to right.
Step 7 — Add the sticky note strip and border
Strip along the bottom at student height, then the arrow border around the outside.
Where everything goes
This guide is printed in the pack too.
- Top
Board title
I CAN'T DO IT ... YET
- Left
Instead of
Six red cards
- Centre
Arrows joining each pair
- Right
Try thinking
Six green cards
- Bottom
Sticky note strip
Students add their own
Board size calculator
Enter your own board and see how tall to print the title and how much backing paper to buy.
- Board size
- 180 × 120 cm (2.16 m²)
- Title letter height
- about 15.6 cm
- Letters across
- 12 per row, 3 rows
- Sheets for the title
- 25
- Main diagram width
- about 61 cm
- Backing paper
- about 49 sheets
Recommended paper: A4.
- The title will not fit on one line — plan for 3 rows of letters.
- At this size a roll of bulletin-board paper is cheaper than sheets of backing paper.
Interactive bulletin board
Students write a fixed-mindset sentence they have caught themselves saying on a sticky note, then write the rewrite underneath it and pin both to the strip at the bottom.
What students do
- Write a sentence you have actually said on a sticky note.
- Underneath it, write the same sentence rewritten.
- Pin it to the strip at the bottom of the board.
- Read three others before you go.
For the teacher: Put one up yourself first, in your own handwriting, about something you are bad at. Nobody goes first on a board like this unless the teacher already has.
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