Flow in a Lesson
The following document was only one page (Monday) taken from the entire week's lesson plan the 7th grade Science team completed last school year. I have "blacked out" names due to privacy reasons.
According to the findings presented in Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi's chapter, The Conditions of Flow, of all the activities studied that were conducive to the flow theory they all had one thing in common. Every activity "provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. It transformed the self by making it more complex. In this growth of the self lies the key to flow activities." This lesson is not meeting the key factor in achieving flow, it is not pushing students to a higher level of performance. It is doing quite the opposite and could be re-written into a few simple words such as students build foldable and copy down what teacher writes on board. Csikszentimihalyi states, flow activities must provide enjoyable experiences, well based off this lesson plan the most enjoyable experience for this day would be making/building the foldable (and if we are being honest, kids hate even doing that).
After reading and understanding flow theory and its importance, I will be more cautious in the manner of how I plan and present material. I am fully aware of the flaws in this particular plan and feel somewhat of a failure to my previous students for teaching and following such a plan as this. Fortunately, for my students this year, I have not yet covered this material and I am able to make changes beforehand in order to achieve flow. Last year, I found a cool activity on Pinterest for the digestive system, but due to time constraints from the flood and testing I was not able to incorporate it in my lessons. However, the activity had students creating/building a digestive system out of pantyhose and the moving balls of clay(food) through the system to show the organs involved in the process. In addition, I would have my students use the Digestive System Gizmo to discover the exact function of each organ and from there jot down notes, ideas, & explanations from what they have learned in both of these activities.
After reading and understanding flow theory and its importance, I will be more cautious in the manner of how I plan and present material. I am fully aware of the flaws in this particular plan and feel somewhat of a failure to my previous students for teaching and following such a plan as this. Fortunately, for my students this year, I have not yet covered this material and I am able to make changes beforehand in order to achieve flow. Last year, I found a cool activity on Pinterest for the digestive system, but due to time constraints from the flood and testing I was not able to incorporate it in my lessons. However, the activity had students creating/building a digestive system out of pantyhose and the moving balls of clay(food) through the system to show the organs involved in the process. In addition, I would have my students use the Digestive System Gizmo to discover the exact function of each organ and from there jot down notes, ideas, & explanations from what they have learned in both of these activities.