•Teachers find their subjects awesome, wondrous, and intriguing
and express their sense of mystery and their exuberance and delight in
the presence of their students.
•Teachers exhibit the humility of admitting they do not know all
there is to know about teaching, learning, and the Habits of Mind, and
they develop strategies for continuous learning and improving their own
craft of teaching.
Assessment. Although these intangibles are difficult to measure, one
would expect that, as a result of modeling over time, students would
exhibit greater excitement about school, greater intrigue with problems to
solve, stronger bonds with classmates, more self-directedness, and more
enthusiasm for continued learning.
In Summary
We h a v e d e s c r i b e d s e v e n i n s t r u c t i o n a l a p p r o a c h e s i n t e n d e d t o f o c u s
on the gradual development of the Habits of Mind. Combined and
sequenced appropriately, and coupled with your own ingenuity and suc-
cessful past teaching and learning experiences, these instructional
approaches can be used to infuse the development of Habits of Mind
into units of work. Certainly these are not all of the ways that the habits
are taught. As continual learners, it would be important for school staffs
to share their strategies, to create electronic archives of successful lessons
for all to share, and to continue to refine and craft the lessons with more
powerful strategies and assessments. (For further suggestions for sharing
among school staff members, see Chapter 15.)
References
Angelou, M. (2002). I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Random House.
Fritz, J. (1987). The double life of Pocahontas. New York: Puffin Books.
Goodrich, F. (1993). The diary of Anne Frank.New York: Harcourt School.
Moulds, P. (2006, December). Rich tasks: Developing student learning around
important tasks. Educational Leadership, 61 (4), 75–78.
Piper, W. (1976). The little engine that could. New York: Platt & Monk.
Reagan, R. (2009). Cognitive composition: Thinking-based writing. In A. Costa &
B. Kallick (Eds.), Habits of mind across the curriculum: Practical and creative
strategies for teachers.Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Scieszka, J. (1989). The true story of the three little pigs by A. Wolf. New York:
Putnam/Penguin.
94 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind