Lessons in Perseverance Through Nature and Our Elders
According to the online dictionary, “perseverance” is described as “steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.” Synonyms for perseverance include dedication, determination, endurance, grit, persistence, stamina, steadfastness, and tenacity.
Begin your first lesson with a minds-on activity that explores the meaning of perseverance. This can include reviewing the dictionary definition and synonyms. Students can also be invited to share stories of perseverance in their own lives, or about characters in a book or movie. This can be followed by taking students through the three lessons detailed below.
NATURE (Creation)
There is much to be learned about perseverance through the observation of nature. Think of the process it takes for a tiny seed to grow into a mighty tree, a squirrel to prepare for winter by spending the late summer and all of fall collecting nuts, or a honey bee community creating their hive made up of waxy interlocking hexagonal cells.
Invite students to study nature through the perspective of perseverance. They can choose between a living being or non-living thing. If they choose a living being, have them consider what process it must go through to survive? If students choose a non-living thing, have them consider how it is impacted by time and effort? Here are examples that students can choose from:
Living beings
Salmon swimming upstream to lay eggs
Turtles hatching and traveling to the ocean
Winter migration of birds and monarch butterflies
Birds building nests to feed their babies
Mountain goats scaling near-vertical cliffs
Non-living things
Water changing the earth’s surface over time
Earth’s tectonic plates smashing together to create mountains
Thunderstorms with the right set of circumstances to become tornadoes
Collision of nitrogen and oxygen molecules with electrons to create light (Aurora Borealis)
Give students enough time to select and research a topic of their choice (this can be done in partners). They must be able to demonstrate how the living being or non-living thing is an example of perseverance. Students can explain their findings in small groups. They can also create an informative poster to display on the classroom wall for a gallery walk.
ELDER (Wisdom)
There is much to be learned about perseverance through the stories of our elders. Our parents, grandparents, other members of our family, and even our older neighbours and friends have wonderful stories to share about overcoming adversity. Invite students to interview one or two elders to listen to their stories of perseverance. Possible questions they can ask while interviewing their elder:
Can you share a story about a time in your life when you had to persevere?
Did you ever feel you wanted to give up? Why didn’t you?
What helped you to get through the challenges or obstacles you faced?
Invite each student to listen intently to an elder’s story. They can take notes as they are listening, if they need to. Afterwards, have the students write the story in their own words and include a reflection on what they learned from their elder. What stood out to them the most about how their elder persevered? How might they apply what they learned to their own life? Can they make a connection between their elder’s story and perseverance in nature (the topic they researched)? Provide time in class for each student to share what they learned (this may take several lessons to get through).
SELF (Life experience)
There is much to be learned about perseverance through our own lived experiences. Invite students to set a long term goal that they can work on between the time of this exercise to the end of the school year (at least four to five months). It could be something related to the curriculum or something of their choosing that’s unrelated to school. Give students time to decide on their goal and share with you what they hope to achieve by the end of the school year (e.g., learn to play three new songs on the piano, bake five desserts from scratch, write a new poem every week until June, etc.). Have a weekly check-in where students can share their progress with each other. Questions they can answer:
What are they learning about themselves?
What challenges are coming up for them?
What do they do to keep going when the going gets tough?
Who can they go to for support when they need motivation to continue?
Create a perseverance wall to document the students’ progress and learning. For example, the wall can begin with a tree to represent perseverance and growth. Students can share their progress by adding to the nature scape with images, captions, single words, etc.
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Traci L. Scheepstra, Ph.D., is the CEO/Founder of Embodied Learnings. Read here to learn more about her work in education.