The Power of Positivity

September 12, 2023

Special thanks to Judith Wolochow for inspiring this post.

I’ve been obsessed with the US Open. I’m not a big sports watcher usually, but this year I was absolutely captivated. The athleticism, the sportsmanship, the players’ stories, the tension and drama. I watched so many hours of tennis.

Watching, I also appreciated how it’s a mental game as much as a physical one.

I noticed players talking to themselves after an error—you could tell some were focused and undeterred, telling themselves “You’ve got this. Stay with it.” Others were visibly frustrated and angry at themselves, and though I couldn’t hear, I inferred from their body language and facial expressions that they were saying something like, “C’mon. I can’t believe you missed that shot. You have to do better.”

And I also watched the coaches.

Coaches sat in boxes near the ends of the courts with looks of concentration and intensity. When, between games, players would walk to the sidelines to towel off or get a drink, the interactions between players and coaches fascinated me almost as much as the game itself. Some coaches would articulate patterns they were seeing from the other side of the next, and suggest strategy: “Keep it down the line,” or “Her backhand looks weak, shoot cross-court.” Others would criticize or critique, trying to correct an issue they saw: “You’re not getting to the net fast enough,” or “Watch your backhand.” Still others seemed to give no correction, even when players asked for it, and they’d meet their player’s eyes with a raised fist, applause, or a quick, “You’ve got this, keep at it.”

And this all got me thinking about teaching, of course:

·      The importance of supporting those we coach with tools for positive self-talk, especially helpful in high-stakes situations.

·      The skill involved in knowing when coach to correct, when to coach to offer strategy, and when to coach to point out what’s working.

Positive Self-Talk

There’s cognitive science research on self talk. Researchers have found that positive and negative self-talk modulates brain states and impacts executive functions, motivation, engagement, endurance, and performance (even down to fine and gross motor control!).  Want better results on the court or in the classroom? Work on positive self-talk.

When children take on challenging tasks, we need to work on their ability to identify if negative self talk creeps in, and adjust their mindset. We need to model what positive self-talk looks like, and teach strategies for it—just as we teach strategies for any other skill.

Here’s an example from the Engagement chapter of  The Writing Strategies Book (Serravallo, 2017): Strategy 2.10 Silence the ‘It’s No Good’ Voice. This strategy tells writers to be aware if they hear a voice in their head telling them their ideas aren’t interesting or their writing isn’t good—that voice preventing them from getting words on the page—and dismiss it. Offer them the chance for lower-stakes writing, such as writing in a notebook, and the opportunity to write something they won’t need to share with you or peers. Teach them to tell themselves, “I’m going to write it down like how I’d say it. I know I can do it. I’m just going to get the words on the page and I’ll figure out later what I want to keep or what I want to cut or change. I’ve got this. I’m on a roll.”

One writing instructional approach, Self-Regulated Strategy Development, incorporates this important self-regulation skill of positive self-talk as part of daily classroom procedures. You can listen to Dr. Karen Harris and Dr. Steve Graham talk about the research behind it on two separate episodes of the To the Classroom Podcast, coming up later this season.

Coaching Moves: Corrections, Strategies, Positive Reinforcement

Coaches and teachers are similar: it’s likely we’re always going to see something we can suggest for improvement. But is it always the right time to say what a student or athlete should do differently or better? Or should we sometimes just acknowledge what’s going well, point it out, and leave it at that?

Sometimes, we’ll offer a strategy—“When you read, you should try to make your voice sound like the character. One way to do this is to think about how the character is feeling. Think about when you feel like that. Read the dialogue to match that feeling.” (Reading Strategies Book 2.0, Serravallo 2023). Explicit steps to help a student (or athlete) try something they are not yet doing, make them aware of something they can’t yet notice.

Sometimes, we’ll give corrections—“Try that again, and this time, stop using the character voice when you see the quotation mark.” Corrections point out where a student (or athlete)’s approximation isn’t quite there yet. They help them develop self-awareness so they can hopefully begin to self-correct, and change the course so that their practice doesn’t reinforce unhelpful moves.

Sometimes, we need to just compliment and provide positive reinforcement—“I could tell how the character is feeling based on how you read that. You’ve got it!” We can look for approximations the student is making that are moving toward the goal, name them clearly, celebrate their work, and leave it at that. You can try a compliment conference structure, moving around the classroom, spending 60-90 seconds with each student, and you can try to incorporate compliment-type feedback into any lesson.

(c) Serravallo 2019 A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences

So when do we use each type?

moving forward with positivity

While I was watching the Open I didn’t have a notebook out or anything, so this isn’t exactly scientific, but it seemed to me that the players whose coaches were the most positive and encouraging during the high-stress, high-stakes matches, the ones that simply held up their fist in congratulations, and said, “You’ve got this,” were coaching players who seemed to have this ability to stay focused, resolved to win the next point, and cheered themselves on with a “you’ve got this” under their breath. I couldn’t help but think this was no coincidence: that the coaches who understand the importance of positive self talk teach it to their athletes regularly, and also know that when the stakes are highest, positive coaching > corrective coaching.

In our classrooms, incorporating positive self-talk into our lessons—through modeling our own self-talk and encouraging children to find ways to talk to themselves—is a research-based practice worth teaching. And also, the way we coach kids sends a message and can influence their self-talk. It’s worth it to be conscious about offering regular positive reinforcement/compliments to all kids. At the beginning of the year, when stakes are high (meeting a new teacher! Being around new peers! Building trust!) erring on the side of more positivity is a wise move. When students are feeling defeated, when they’ve received a lot of recent corrections or have taken on new learning, or in situations where they have to show what they know and can do, such as during assessments—compliments are key.

How do you or might you incorporate positive self-talk and compliments into your lesson plans this school year?