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Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery
Teens talk to adults about how they develop motivation and mastery Through the voices of students themselves, Fires in the Mind brings a game-changing question to teachers of What does it take to get really good at something? Starting with what they already know and do well, teenagers from widely diverse backgrounds join a cutting-edge dialogue with adults about the development of mastery in and out of school. Their insights frame motivation, practice, and academic challenge in a new light that galvanizes more powerful learning for all. To put these students' ideas into practice, the book also includes practical tips for educators. From the acclaimed author of Fires in the Bathroom , this is the next-step book that pushes the conversation to next level, as teenagers tackle the pressing challenges of motivation and mastery.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
October 15, 2010
Kathleen Cushman worked with over 160 students to figure out what it takes to be really good at something. The book is a must read for all educators and administrators since it gives a first hand look into what students think about learning, motivation, and mastery. Some key criteria the students came up with were:
1. Link school to a purpose that has meaning to us.
2. Keep the community of learners small enough to know each other.
3. Make exploring new fields a big part of our learning.
4. Don't try to cover everything.
5. Organize learning around themes and projects.
6. Model collaboration among adults.
7. Connect us with experts in the community.
8. Provide opportunities for us to develop initiative and leadership.
9. Give us choices about how to learn important subjects.
10. Make performance a part of learning.
11. Do away with class rankings.
12. Listen to the perspectives of others, including youth.
If you are looking for a book that is inspiring and motivating about education, this is the one. This is educational reform within the four walls of your classroom!
1. Link school to a purpose that has meaning to us.
2. Keep the community of learners small enough to know each other.
3. Make exploring new fields a big part of our learning.
4. Don't try to cover everything.
5. Organize learning around themes and projects.
6. Model collaboration among adults.
7. Connect us with experts in the community.
8. Provide opportunities for us to develop initiative and leadership.
9. Give us choices about how to learn important subjects.
10. Make performance a part of learning.
11. Do away with class rankings.
12. Listen to the perspectives of others, including youth.
If you are looking for a book that is inspiring and motivating about education, this is the one. This is educational reform within the four walls of your classroom!
July 11, 2013
This has been a summer of attempting to get through many of those books which have lived on the shelves of three different houses now without actually having, you know, been read.
Aside from the weak-willed ordering of still more books from Amazon and picking up a few the other day at the local privately-owned book store, I'm making progress.
Today, I finished Kathleen Cushman's Fires in the Mind. It earned two stars from me on GoodReads.com, but I wanted to want to award it much more.
Cushman and her teenage collaborators take as their focus of investigation the idea of expertise and how a person becomes an expert. As they work through these ideas in the first few chapters, they turn their attention to schools and what formal education systems can do to encourage the same kinds of mind fires as students' outside interests as discussed in the first half of the book.
From just this premise, I was hopeful. It's a topic that has the potential to illuminate faculty meetings, and pre-service teacher classrooms everywhere. What are we doing in education if not working to encourage students' curiosity and ability to work toward expertise?
The book falls short in a few ways.
First, Cushman laces the text with quotations from her "collaborators" throughout. These were teenagers who participated in the Practice Project as an attempt to answer the questions mentioned above. The quotations made the reading choppy and I found myself working to hold on to a singular narrative voice. While appreciating the inclusion of direct ideas from students, I often found myself wishing they had written the book outright alongside Cushman rather than Cushman trying to put their words where she felt they belonged.
Similar to this, the student quotations are apparently taken verbatim from student interviews. As such, they include the odd error in traditional grammar. I suppose this is an attempt to validate the approach and show that these are regular kids offering up their ideas in their own voices. I celebrate that idea. At the same time, should Cushman have faltered from Standard Formal English, her editor would surely have dinged her on the mistake.
If we are talking about kids becoming authentic collaborators, it feels wrong to lower the bar for how their words are presented.
The other fault I found as I was reading was the lack of direct references to others who have walked this way before and done the work of research expertise and engagement. Perhaps this was done so as not to crowd out the students' voices. For me, though, it ended up taking the legs out from under the text. I would be far more likely to recommend this book to others if the student researchers' findings sat alongside and made reference to the others in the field doing this work. At the back of the book, Cushman acknowledges that the work of the Practice Project was informed by the writings and research of many others and lists those texts, writing that she was glad the students were able to read the other authors' work.
By hiding this until some curious reader tries to figure out what's happening, the book creates a sort of fence around the students' work that keeps it in a different arena than the experts. This keeps them as "student experts" rather than full-fledged "experts" and the separation was a perpetual frustration for me.
If you are going to pick up this book, and I'm sure there are those who would benefit from its reading, start in the middle. This is where the text starts to wrap the students' findings around the everyday work of schools. Each chapter in the concluding half included passages that sought to provide concrete suggestions for making homework worthwhile, creating engaging projects, etc. I almost missed this when I considered putting the book down and walking away early on.
As I was reading Fires in the Mind, I was hesitant to acknowledge my criticisms of the text. I finally came to terms with the fact that criticizing the book was not the same as criticizing the important work and her collaborators engaged in throughout the Practice Project.
The project sounds as though it was worthwhile, informative and engaging for students. The retelling of the project, however, left me wanting more.
Aside from the weak-willed ordering of still more books from Amazon and picking up a few the other day at the local privately-owned book store, I'm making progress.
Today, I finished Kathleen Cushman's Fires in the Mind. It earned two stars from me on GoodReads.com, but I wanted to want to award it much more.
Cushman and her teenage collaborators take as their focus of investigation the idea of expertise and how a person becomes an expert. As they work through these ideas in the first few chapters, they turn their attention to schools and what formal education systems can do to encourage the same kinds of mind fires as students' outside interests as discussed in the first half of the book.
From just this premise, I was hopeful. It's a topic that has the potential to illuminate faculty meetings, and pre-service teacher classrooms everywhere. What are we doing in education if not working to encourage students' curiosity and ability to work toward expertise?
The book falls short in a few ways.
First, Cushman laces the text with quotations from her "collaborators" throughout. These were teenagers who participated in the Practice Project as an attempt to answer the questions mentioned above. The quotations made the reading choppy and I found myself working to hold on to a singular narrative voice. While appreciating the inclusion of direct ideas from students, I often found myself wishing they had written the book outright alongside Cushman rather than Cushman trying to put their words where she felt they belonged.
Similar to this, the student quotations are apparently taken verbatim from student interviews. As such, they include the odd error in traditional grammar. I suppose this is an attempt to validate the approach and show that these are regular kids offering up their ideas in their own voices. I celebrate that idea. At the same time, should Cushman have faltered from Standard Formal English, her editor would surely have dinged her on the mistake.
If we are talking about kids becoming authentic collaborators, it feels wrong to lower the bar for how their words are presented.
The other fault I found as I was reading was the lack of direct references to others who have walked this way before and done the work of research expertise and engagement. Perhaps this was done so as not to crowd out the students' voices. For me, though, it ended up taking the legs out from under the text. I would be far more likely to recommend this book to others if the student researchers' findings sat alongside and made reference to the others in the field doing this work. At the back of the book, Cushman acknowledges that the work of the Practice Project was informed by the writings and research of many others and lists those texts, writing that she was glad the students were able to read the other authors' work.
By hiding this until some curious reader tries to figure out what's happening, the book creates a sort of fence around the students' work that keeps it in a different arena than the experts. This keeps them as "student experts" rather than full-fledged "experts" and the separation was a perpetual frustration for me.
If you are going to pick up this book, and I'm sure there are those who would benefit from its reading, start in the middle. This is where the text starts to wrap the students' findings around the everyday work of schools. Each chapter in the concluding half included passages that sought to provide concrete suggestions for making homework worthwhile, creating engaging projects, etc. I almost missed this when I considered putting the book down and walking away early on.
As I was reading Fires in the Mind, I was hesitant to acknowledge my criticisms of the text. I finally came to terms with the fact that criticizing the book was not the same as criticizing the important work and her collaborators engaged in throughout the Practice Project.
The project sounds as though it was worthwhile, informative and engaging for students. The retelling of the project, however, left me wanting more.
January 29, 2011
Interesting book about how to get really good at something. The project follows actual high school students as they first explore something they are especially good at, and then interview other "experts" to discover common themes of what it takes to get really good. Students apply what they've learned to a school setting, giving suggestions and ideas to teachers about how to design homework/assignments to capture students' interest and motivation.
November 17, 2010
Another shove to get us way away from traditional education and into some transformational education! It is SO time!
September 30, 2019
I rate this book a 4.5, this book has changed my life in a way that no book has. This book helped me to understand the joy of reading and the importance of it. I give this book a 4.5 because it's a really well written book that not only helps you to start the habit of reading but also helps you to understand what kids think and how they feel about things.
The book is all about what kids think and feel. In each chapter diffrent students share their opinions about a lot of things, some of them would be inspiration, motivation, mastery, etc.
In this book, you will have the opportunity to be taught by kids. While reading this book kids teach you things that you would have never thought or known of.
Well, this book relates a lot to my hero’s journey because is basically written by kids and I’m a kid. I think why I loved this book so much was because I could relate a lot with some experiences kids shared. For example on page 83 there was this kid named Henry, he said “Cooking is chemistry and you need to add the right ingredients, same as you do in science when you’re making chemicals--it can all go wrong or you can create a fire. So when we do expiriments I really do learn how I can improve my cooking. -- Henry
I can relate a lot with him, not on the part where he learns how to improve his cooking doing experiments but on the part on learning how to improve his cooking using other tools or topics.
This book changed me as a reader in many ways. The most important way the book helped me was to learn and understand the joy of reading. While I was reading it I actually really enjoyed, I wanted to keep reading.
I would recommend this book to people that don’t understand the joy of reading. This book is the perfect book to start the race, because is a really easy book to read but challenging in a deeper aspect, and it teaches you the joy of reading!
Some quotes that I liked from the book:
“You need a hater and you need a motivator. The person that's telling you that you can’t do it---that’s your hater, and you need to prove them wrong. And your motivator is the person that’s supporting you. You try your best so you can make your motivator proud.--Lonya
What Rodrigo think about masters:
“Their work or ideas are recognized, and they actually have experience with it. It’s very different that you know something intellectually than when you know the facts in reality and can do something with them.---Rodrigo
In conclusion I loved this book because it opened my mind in many areas and it helped me to finally understand the meaning of reading and the joy behind it.
The book is all about what kids think and feel. In each chapter diffrent students share their opinions about a lot of things, some of them would be inspiration, motivation, mastery, etc.
In this book, you will have the opportunity to be taught by kids. While reading this book kids teach you things that you would have never thought or known of.
Well, this book relates a lot to my hero’s journey because is basically written by kids and I’m a kid. I think why I loved this book so much was because I could relate a lot with some experiences kids shared. For example on page 83 there was this kid named Henry, he said “Cooking is chemistry and you need to add the right ingredients, same as you do in science when you’re making chemicals--it can all go wrong or you can create a fire. So when we do expiriments I really do learn how I can improve my cooking. -- Henry
I can relate a lot with him, not on the part where he learns how to improve his cooking doing experiments but on the part on learning how to improve his cooking using other tools or topics.
This book changed me as a reader in many ways. The most important way the book helped me was to learn and understand the joy of reading. While I was reading it I actually really enjoyed, I wanted to keep reading.
I would recommend this book to people that don’t understand the joy of reading. This book is the perfect book to start the race, because is a really easy book to read but challenging in a deeper aspect, and it teaches you the joy of reading!
Some quotes that I liked from the book:
“You need a hater and you need a motivator. The person that's telling you that you can’t do it---that’s your hater, and you need to prove them wrong. And your motivator is the person that’s supporting you. You try your best so you can make your motivator proud.--Lonya
What Rodrigo think about masters:
“Their work or ideas are recognized, and they actually have experience with it. It’s very different that you know something intellectually than when you know the facts in reality and can do something with them.---Rodrigo
In conclusion I loved this book because it opened my mind in many areas and it helped me to finally understand the meaning of reading and the joy behind it.
October 15, 2019
I give this book 3.8 stars because it really helped me a lot, but there were parts were it was a little bit confusing because there were some ideas that for me were not so organized. I feel this book helps you a lot with finding your path and passion, and sometimes, that can be a big struggle. So this book becomes a tool, not something to read.
This book interviewed a lot of students so we, people who are lost, can see that we were not the only ones struggling with this, and there are solutions to find your passion and path. I feel that the best way to find your passion is by experiencing something, that way, you can see if you love it. Is very important to have a passion in life because it is like your alarm clock, is what makes you wake up everyday to go to school or work.
This book relates a lot to my Hero’s Journey because I’ not sure what I want to do when I grow up, so this book helped me a lot. It made me realize that I have time to find my passion, but there are other things that passion includes, so your life can work. Passion is everything in life, but it includes things like teamwork, excellence, discipline etc..
This book didn’t really changed me as a reader, because I haven’t found a book where I can say “wow! I’m in love”, and finding a book like that is very hard, but I feel each time I finish a book I like to read, because I learn something new.
I would recommend this book to someone who is lost, and does not know how to find a passion or something they like. I very important to know that, but it can be a struggle with that, so there are things that can help ou, like this book.
This book interviewed a lot of students so we, people who are lost, can see that we were not the only ones struggling with this, and there are solutions to find your passion and path. I feel that the best way to find your passion is by experiencing something, that way, you can see if you love it. Is very important to have a passion in life because it is like your alarm clock, is what makes you wake up everyday to go to school or work.
This book relates a lot to my Hero’s Journey because I’ not sure what I want to do when I grow up, so this book helped me a lot. It made me realize that I have time to find my passion, but there are other things that passion includes, so your life can work. Passion is everything in life, but it includes things like teamwork, excellence, discipline etc..
This book didn’t really changed me as a reader, because I haven’t found a book where I can say “wow! I’m in love”, and finding a book like that is very hard, but I feel each time I finish a book I like to read, because I learn something new.
I would recommend this book to someone who is lost, and does not know how to find a passion or something they like. I very important to know that, but it can be a struggle with that, so there are things that can help ou, like this book.
July 24, 2017
It was very interesting to hear the students views and opinions on how they learn and master material best. I wish the book had more that focused on how it can be applied to the Arts. The Arts was mentioned a couple of times but mostly English, Math, Science and History were referred to frequently. I would recommend this book to other educators!
February 24, 2017
Fires in the Mind by Kathleen Cushman
Reviewed by Alvaro Monzon
My star rating for this book is going to be three stars. I feel like at first it was a really good book because it seemed very interesting how a lot of kids were talking and giving their opinions and supporting everything that the author was saying, but the thing that I didn’t like is that all the book is about the kids talking and saying a lot of things and the author just gives kind of an introduction to what the kid is going to say most of the times. Then for me everything seemed very repetitive because he gives like a very big and complete summary about all the things that he is going to talk about. So when I read it in the chapter that the topic is in I would get bored because I kind of already knew what was all about.
This book relates a lot to my hero’s journey because the majority of the things that they talk about in the book are things that I have experienced or can do to get better at doing some things. Since mostly all of the book is about improving and getting better in what you like I think that it is something that everyone can relate to because it can sometimes get really hard to keep going and so you just give up. While I was reading some things I also started thinking about some of my fellow eagles because I know that they have gone through that stage.
I would recommend this book to people that really want to get better at what they do/job/passion/ what they like to do. In the book there are a lot of experiences from kids and youth that at least I could really relate to a lot. It is more for people that want to hear from other people and their experiences and learn from them and what they have to say.
My favorite quote of the book was in the chapter two when Kathleen says:”As these young people describe how they found their compelling interests, they are reminding us that fun ---especially when it involves challenge and companionship--- is an essential element that propels learning.” I like this quote because I also think a lot about how everything that you do should involve having fun. If it is not that fun, then you have to make it fun because for me that is an easier and better way to learn things and keep advancing in what you are doing.
My favorite chapter was the chapter three because that is where the part that is called “It’s worth the trouble” is. I really liked this part because it is in what I could mostly relate and it is something that I still can’t do very well. That is, keep doing things after something that happens disappoints you and you don’t want to continue anymore. It always happens to me that I am doing something and then either I get bored or I hear that it is not worth doing it or that it is really hard. But that only happens to me when it is about something that I am not completely interested about. But hearing/reading the kids experiences makes it feel like it is not that hard and that you should keep trying.
Reviewed by Alvaro Monzon
My star rating for this book is going to be three stars. I feel like at first it was a really good book because it seemed very interesting how a lot of kids were talking and giving their opinions and supporting everything that the author was saying, but the thing that I didn’t like is that all the book is about the kids talking and saying a lot of things and the author just gives kind of an introduction to what the kid is going to say most of the times. Then for me everything seemed very repetitive because he gives like a very big and complete summary about all the things that he is going to talk about. So when I read it in the chapter that the topic is in I would get bored because I kind of already knew what was all about.
This book relates a lot to my hero’s journey because the majority of the things that they talk about in the book are things that I have experienced or can do to get better at doing some things. Since mostly all of the book is about improving and getting better in what you like I think that it is something that everyone can relate to because it can sometimes get really hard to keep going and so you just give up. While I was reading some things I also started thinking about some of my fellow eagles because I know that they have gone through that stage.
I would recommend this book to people that really want to get better at what they do/job/passion/ what they like to do. In the book there are a lot of experiences from kids and youth that at least I could really relate to a lot. It is more for people that want to hear from other people and their experiences and learn from them and what they have to say.
My favorite quote of the book was in the chapter two when Kathleen says:”As these young people describe how they found their compelling interests, they are reminding us that fun ---especially when it involves challenge and companionship--- is an essential element that propels learning.” I like this quote because I also think a lot about how everything that you do should involve having fun. If it is not that fun, then you have to make it fun because for me that is an easier and better way to learn things and keep advancing in what you are doing.
My favorite chapter was the chapter three because that is where the part that is called “It’s worth the trouble” is. I really liked this part because it is in what I could mostly relate and it is something that I still can’t do very well. That is, keep doing things after something that happens disappoints you and you don’t want to continue anymore. It always happens to me that I am doing something and then either I get bored or I hear that it is not worth doing it or that it is really hard. But that only happens to me when it is about something that I am not completely interested about. But hearing/reading the kids experiences makes it feel like it is not that hard and that you should keep trying.
January 17, 2011
Read this for an online book club, but now I've forgotten which one...but I appreciated the premise of this book: ask kids! Trust them to know what works and what doesn't. This is a book about becoming an expert. What does that look like, feel like? Who know how to do it? What do you have to do? Cushman introduces the concept I first read in Malcolm Gladwell's OUTLIERS, the idea of 10,000 hours of practice is the only way to become an expert. But it's not mindless practice...it's focused, deliberate.
I see many ideas I can take into the classroom as we talk about reading and how to become an expert reader. I think the idea of 10,000 hours puts it into perspective...do the work! Care enough to do the work well, to be honest about what you need to practice.
The website is very helpful as well. Especially since I read the book on my kindle, I needed to see some of the worksheets, and print them out for myself.
I felt like the book was padded with student quotes, many of which I skipped over as I was trying to find her thesis. Then I realized she also wrote FIRES IN THE BATHROOM. She did the same thing there: Great, original ideas between lots of kids' voices. The ideas are what sold me on the book, not the kids. BUt perhaps others needed this.
NOW if I can just remember what group was going to discuss this and when that was going to happen.
I see many ideas I can take into the classroom as we talk about reading and how to become an expert reader. I think the idea of 10,000 hours puts it into perspective...do the work! Care enough to do the work well, to be honest about what you need to practice.
The website is very helpful as well. Especially since I read the book on my kindle, I needed to see some of the worksheets, and print them out for myself.
I felt like the book was padded with student quotes, many of which I skipped over as I was trying to find her thesis. Then I realized she also wrote FIRES IN THE BATHROOM. She did the same thing there: Great, original ideas between lots of kids' voices. The ideas are what sold me on the book, not the kids. BUt perhaps others needed this.
NOW if I can just remember what group was going to discuss this and when that was going to happen.
February 26, 2015
I liked it for the insights into effective learning presented from the students' point of view. I managed to find new ideas and rediscover nuggets of information that can probably help me frame my teaching (and students' learning) better and more effectively. The relevant checklists and questionnaires are pretty helpful. Overall I found her book easy to read although a bit repetitive at times (e.g. when she has a quote of the student raising a point and then touch on it again without much to add in her own body of text later on). I found the case studies at the end of the book a little unsatisfying. I would have liked to know a little more about how/if the objectives of the projects have been met (maybe contrasted with how different the results may have been otherwise). This book is definitely worth a read!
September 11, 2011
This book is the result of Ms. Cushman's students study of what makes an expert.
Experts ask good questions, break problems into parts, rely on evidence, look for patterns, consider other perspectives, follow hunches, use familiar ideas in new ways, collaborate, welcome critique, revise repeatedly, persist, seek out new challenges, and know their own best work styles.
Practice has an express purpose, demands attention and focus, involves conscious repetition or
rehearsal, is geared to the individual, takes careful timing, is not inherently enjoyable, develops new skills and knowledge, and applies to new endeavors.
Easy book to skim through without reading. A book all teachers should read.
Experts ask good questions, break problems into parts, rely on evidence, look for patterns, consider other perspectives, follow hunches, use familiar ideas in new ways, collaborate, welcome critique, revise repeatedly, persist, seek out new challenges, and know their own best work styles.
Practice has an express purpose, demands attention and focus, involves conscious repetition or
rehearsal, is geared to the individual, takes careful timing, is not inherently enjoyable, develops new skills and knowledge, and applies to new endeavors.
Easy book to skim through without reading. A book all teachers should read.
July 29, 2013
LIke other readers, I wanted to give this book a higher rating but in the end it just didn't live up to its potential. It did give me a lot to think about in terms of engaging kids in class, as feeling a connection with one's teacher was repeated over and over again as an aid in motivating students. In the end, the "practical" suggestions the author and her collaborators offered were not always terribly realistic.
Read
February 7, 2014This book was okay. I liked the student participation in the book but I didn't learn anything that was earth shattering or new. I guess because I counsel kids, I did not find any material surprising. I do like that we are moving away from success and motivation only being measured in superficial external entities. I like that we are now looking internally at what motivates young people. The changing measures of mastery are interesting as well.
February 10, 2011
Lunchtime Book Discussion in the Library being lead by Linda @ the SAU. Open to students and staff. The book discussion was successful but the book was less than I had hoped. With the endless quotations it reminded me of when I was learning to drive a standard and was bucking the car. The book was significantly better either reading just the quotes or just the author's txt.
August 25, 2013
nothing in this book is what you'd call earth shattering. common sense, really. the only interesting things is that high school students are the ones drawing some of the conclusions. I've read her other books- Fires in the Bathroom and Fires in the Middle School Bathroom, and those are also unsurprising common sense texts about teaching and education. those were slightly better, though.
January 20, 2011
Some good ideas and interesting anecdotes. I felt the book was based too much on student interviews and not enough real content though.
February 1, 2011
Interesting perspective.
February 4, 2011
I really liked the section about practice. It offers insights that definitely could be applied within the classroom.
February 21, 2011
I found this book very helpful. I met Kathleen Cushman at one of her book talks at Teachers College in April 2011. Meeting her and discussing some of her ideas was fantastic!
March 23, 2011
Loving this book
April 17, 2011
This is an important book that should be read by teachers and administrators. Very helpful!
August 15, 2011
I'm excited to apply the, sometimes, common-sense ideas about motivation and excellence in my classroom this year.
April 25, 2012
Pair this with Daniel Pink's Drive and educators should have a lot to think about when it comes to motivation!
September 4, 2012
Great book about what motivates kids to learn and how to invest them in the process.
December 6, 2012
Cushman interviews students to find out what they can share about their motivation and desire to work when things are "hard." Excellent!
July 11, 2013
I found some of the grey tabs and pages to be just as if not more helpful than the student's advice. I don't want to read every respondent's comments- I want the synthesis of it.
July 29, 2013
My favorite chapter was the one about homework. Thanks to my former students for contributing to this book!
December 8, 2013
eh. Boring. Vignette after vignette about the same thing: what got the kid interested in something. In no way revelatory.
July 10, 2014
The book was easy to read, but there was too much quoting of student comments. I got the gist within the first few chapters.
May 23, 2016
Kind of an odd collection of qualitative evidence about motivation and motivation theory. Overall it is alright.
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