In fact he was so upset about the book he told me he didn't want to come to lunch bunch with me anymore if we were going to read a book about 'dumb kids'. Most of our students get embrace the culture. We actively work on embedding Dweck's theory into our routines, our teacher language, and how we talk to kids about their work. I'm also a huge fan of the book Mindset by Carol Dweck, and my school has put a significant emphasis on adapting the culture of Mindset into our daily work. Everyone just has one brain and it's either smart or dumb.' 'Whatever,' he replied, 'My brain doesn't work like that. One third grader even got into the concept of right brain and left brain and how people have different strengths but he wouldn't let it go. No matter what I said to him, or what his sympathetic peers said to him, we couldn't convince him that Tricia wasn't dumb just because she couldn't read. 'Stop drawing and start working! If I was her father I wouldn't let her draw anymore, I'd lock her in her room until she started reading!' 'Why doesn't she just try harder?' he exclaimed with frustration.

Only a few pages into the book he was going crazy with how 'dumb' Tricia, the main character is. Like many children with autism he is a very literal thinker. One of the students in this group is a child with autism. This year I read it with my third grade lunch-bunch/book club.

I love the book and I love reading it with students to watch them either connect with the text or grapple with the concept of what it means to be smart and dumb.* In fact, at the 2012 National Book Festival I was able to shake Patricia Palacco's hand and tell her that this was the book that made me want to be a special education teacher. I know because that little girl was me, Patricia Polacco.One of my favorite books of all time is Thank you, Mr. The rest of the year became an odyssey of discovery and adventure for the little girl. Falker and Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes. He picked a paragraph in the middle of a page and pointed at it.Īlmost as if it were magic, or as if light poured into her brain, the words and sentences started to take shape on the page as they never had before. And deep down she still felt dumb.Īnd then one spring day - had it been three months or four months since they had started? - Mr. And that felt good.īut, though she'd read words, she hadn't read a whole sentence. Still other days she worked with wooden blocks and built words.

Another day they flicked letters on a screen, and Trisha shouted them out loud.

Thank you mister falker