My Favorite No

Sort through students' responses to a problem and find favorite wrong answer. Walk students through process of why it was a great mistake to learn from.

Resource: [Video] My Favorite No: Learning From Mistakes

Summary

This activity from Teaching Channel supports students in developing a growth mindset by normalizing and valuing mistakes as a helpful part of the learning process. 

Steps

  1. Have warm up problem on the board when students walk in
  2. Hand out index cards
  3. Have students write answer on the card
  4. Collect and sort the cards 
    1. Say yes/no aloud while sorting
    2. “We have quite a few yeses and some very interesting noes”
    3. “This is my favorite no” – “It showed some good _____(math)”
  5. Analyze good first: “Did some things that I loved” “What am I happy to see?” “What do I like?”
  6. Analyze mistake: “Now what is incorrect?” “Where is the mistake?”
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Tags

Growth Mindset Messaging/framing

Details

Grades:  Any

Subjects:  Math,  English / Lit.,  Science,  Social Studies,  Other

Time of year:  Anytime

Class period:  Beginning

Related Practices

Mistake Game
Students engage in a "game" where they intentionally make mistakes and see if other students can spot their mistakes. This is to encourage students to feel comfortable making and learning from mistakes.
Mindset Works blog post: Mistakes Are Not All Created Equal
A great blog post from Mindset Works on the most useful types of mistakes and how to best learn from them.
Help students reflect on mistakes: See it in action
In this video, watch a second grade teacher, Mari Montoy-Wilson, help one of her students reflect on a mistake.
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