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Doable Repertoire and a Growth Mindset

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost a cinch- you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost;
For out in this world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can!
- Walter D. Wintle

It is SO fascinating how much mindset and thinking play a role in our success!  As I have been observing high school choir classes, I have seen how having a growth mindset is crucial to success and learning.  If a student has the common mantra of "I can't sing" then they are right.  This is an example of a fixed mindset - the mindset we try to avoid.  However, if a student comes in with (or the teacher can sell them on) the mindset of "I want to learn to be a singer" then they can be coached into a successful situation.  The student's part is to keep an open mind and listen to instructions as to how to perform better.  The teacher's part is two-fold.
1. To give solid pedagogical instruction at a level the student can understand
2. To choose a repertoire that will keep them in the ZPD (zone of proximal development)

Repertoire choice can be the tightrope between a challenging and successful program and a class that students want to take for an "easy A" aka being bored for an hour in your class!  I have watched my cooperating teacher choose rep with this in mind.  There is this conglomeration of student buy-in, mental attitude (hopefully founded in a growth mindset), pedagogical considerations, and just plain finding something you like enough to work on for a few months straight.  When students notice the progress they are making they get excited to be committed to the program.  
One last thing...  Mr. Choir had this really awesome end of term project that I thought was absolutely amazing to promote growth mindset.  At the top of our Utah core standards for choir is the strand Create.  The end of term project included a lot of options for differentiation but the one I'd like to tell you about is where the students were asked to either perform a song or create a composition and share it with the class.  It was awesome to see what students came up and how willing they were to share.  Many students were visibly nervous about opening up and sharing but, after seeing the support from the other students (which has been carefully cultivated in the classroom culture), all the students seemed to walk away from the project thinking one simple thought, "Yeah, I can do this!"

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