Saturday, February 20, 2016

Flow

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the state of mind you find yourself in when you are fully immersed in an activity that gives you focus and enjoyment.  To achieve flow, the activity must require a skill level and challenge that is high enough to be engaging, but not to the point of frustration.  Educators have recently applied the study of flow to the classroom, and this week a few of our activities reminded me of why the concept is especially important to gifted students and the ASPIRE Academy.

We often hear that students and parents turn to ASPIRE so that the scholars will be challenged.  After all, if a learner has high ability and the work is not challenging, Csikszentmihalyi's model shows that it could lead to boredom and apathy.  However, if the skill level is not as high as the challenge, it can cause anxiety and worry.  This presents the task that ASPIRE (and all) teachers face, which is to find the right balance of challenge and skill.  Of course, this is different for all students, which demonstrates the need for differentiation.  However, I wanted to highlight a few recent activities that I believe either reached flow, or were very close.

The one that stands out the most was an equation puzzle.  Ms. Moore and I created an intermediate and expert one-step equation puzzle that required scholars to solve problems and match them with answers to form a 15 piece rectangle.  They were filled with challenging problems, misleading matches, and edge equations that didn't even have matches.  Students worked in pairs on the level of their choice.  You could feel the determination, struggle, excitement, frustration, and focus all at the same time.  It was definitely an unexpected "in the zone" activity that found the right balance.

Another activity from the week was the Circuit Analysis Lab.  Scholars gathered electric equipment of their choice such as batteries, switches, motors, lights, and wires, and built series and parallel circuits.  When they completed their circuits, scholars created digital products to reflect their components, energy transformations, and direction of current.  Skill level was already high because of circuit labs earlier in the week, but the challenge was new and open ended, which allowed scholars to adapt the activity to their level.  The scholars did a great job of creating a circuit that pushed the levels of their comfort zone, as some used multiple devices and pathways.

In addition, our "Soapy Raft" activity in social studies pushed the students to the verge of flow.  The scholars had to choose from a list of stakeholders, occasions, audiences, purposes, and subjects to express the aftermath of the American Revolution.  (For example, one choice was a British soldier writing a letter to King George as an apology upon his return home to England.)  Skill level was generally high, as the students had knowledge to draw on from our Revolutionary War unit, and the challenge was again adjustable to fit individual needs.  Students wrote poems, letters, speeches, proposals, and declarations.  Some had to research angles and perspectives that we had never considered during our studies.  The work was engaging and the final products revealed creativity, research, analysis, inferences, and effort.

What do all three of these activities have in common in addition to skill and challenge level?  There was always a tangible intensity in the room while the students were working, and all three activities required a stopping point for class change, specials, or lunch.  Every time there was disappointment, as they wanted to continue working.  Imagine, a class that does not want to stop for lunch!  Total immersion allows students to lose that sense of time, and makes school a worthwhile endeavor.  That feeling is my goal every time I create a lesson.  I don't always get there.  Boredom, apathy, and relaxation still exist in my classroom.  However, that doesn't stop us from constantly striving to improve until they are eliminated, and flow is a constant state achieved by all learners.


Thursday, February 4, 2016

Genius Bar

One of the strategies we are employing on a regular basis in 6th Grade Accelerated Math this year is the Genius Bar.  Differentiation is paramount to the success of our class, which includes 25 scholars.  As we move through the curriculum at a rapid pace, our students need different ways to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and skills.  Some need the repetition necessary to become confident and fluent.  Others want to apply the skills to real-world situations to justify the purpose for learning them in the first place.  And then there are the scholars who are ready to integrate concepts with related skills they haven't even learned about before.  We call this option the Genius Bar.

For a typical math choiceboard, there are four levels of assignments, including novice, practitioner, expert, and genius.  Three to four students routinely choose to work on the Genius Bar problems.  We find them from a variety of sources, but my favorite is Challenge Math for the Elementary and Middle School Student by Edward Zaccaro.  They usually require a little bit of coaching, such as introducing a formula.  Other than that, the scholars must rely on their problem solving ability and number sense.

The benefits of our Genius Bar are easy to see.  The students feel challenged and free to test their abilities to solve unique and relevant problems.  When they solve them correctly I can sense the excitement and pride they must feel.  It is often fun to work on them together.  There are some negative issues we are working to improve.  Many times the students who need to do them the most choose an easier assignment just to avoid a challenge.  In addition, sometimes students that need to be practicing the fundamentals want to try problems they aren't quite ready for.  It is an ongoing process to teach students about making good choices that fit their interests and abilities.  However, I believe that leveled choiceboards have been a successful part of our math class this year, and I am very proud of my Genius Bar group for pushing their limits and working outside of their comfort zone to become the best they can be.