Coding in the Classroom: Student Perspectives

As the LwICT Teacher Leader, something that I have supported in classrooms this year is coding.  Many PWSD students have had the opportunity to learn basic programming skills using student-friendly tools.   One such class is Mrs. Fransila's Grade 7/8 class in Inglis.   During my monthly school visits, the grade 7/8s have been learning to code using Wonder Workshop Dash robots.   We have done some "unplugged" coding activities with no technology and some mini-lessons on different topics.   The students are working their way through the Wonder Workshop challenge cards, which include a variety of programming tasks. 

The students recently reflected on their experiences with learning to code and I noticed their reflections posted in the classroom last time I visited their class.   I think it is really important to seek student feedback about teaching and learning, so I was eager to read what these students had to say!   I think the students shared some valuable insight, so (with their permission) I am sharing their ideas below:

Ready, Set, Go!
"Meet Dash, our classroom robot!  Dash has been with us since December.  We have had lots of fun programming and coding its instructions.  We had cards with steps and instructions so that we could give Dash specific commands.  We learned how to safely operate and care for Dash.  Sometimes, before we had a completed outcome, we had to practice getting the measurements and the steps just right.  In the introduction to coding, we learned how to sequence the steps in the order that it said on the cards.   After leveling up, we started learning about loops and conditions where we needed different materials, like obstacles, cups and bulldozer attachments.   After learning more and more about coding, more practice and adjustments were needed.  My group got to level C.  I like coding.  It is fun, sometimes a bit frustrating, but it is mostly enjoyable.  All I had to do was input different blocks into the iPad and press "go" when I was ready.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to code the Blockly app!  I think that coding is fun, I can't wait to finish the cards!"

The Adventures of Coding
"In December 2017, Mrs. Obach came to our classroom with robots to introduce us to coding.  Mrs. Obach taught us how to care for our robots.  We did some practice cards where we had to follow all the steps in proper sequence to get the desired outcome, but sometimes we had to adjust the conditions to get it right.  We learned that some cards needed materials like tape, cups, or the bulldozer blade.  We learned about loops and if/then [statements] and we had lots of fun."

Coding Dash

"In December, Mrs. Obach came and did an introduction on coding robots.  We learned how to take care of Dash (Dash is the robot).  We couldn't pick it up by its head when moving it and [we] also learned how to use the cards we were given to help it execute conditions and loops.  When using the cards, you would use the steps that are given to code Dash.  Sometimes we have to adjust the course so that Dash wouldn't hit anything.  The materials we used were tape, cups and bulldozer clips.  When we used the tape, it marked where Dash started and where to place the cups if they moved.  Dash sometimes went around the cups and sometimes pushed them into the tape that was a square.  The bulldozer clips are used to push the cups around.  In order to get a good sequence, you have to follow the cards step by step.  If you don't follow the order, then everything will be a big flop and would have to restart and go through the steps again.  To get a positive outcome, you have to have lots of practice.  When I was doing my last card, I had to keep redoing it because the cups weren't in the right spot or Dash wasn't in the right starting position.  It was an amazing experience.  I am thankful that I was able to learn about coding with Dash."

Crazy Coding
"In December, Mrs. Obach brought 2 robots into our classroom so we could learn coding.  There were instructions on cards that showed the steps you needed.  The introduction was learning how to sequence and adjust the commands when something wasn't working with the card outcome.  There were different materials you could use under different conditions.  There were different blocks you could use like go forward, go left __ degrees, loop and others.  We had practice and learned rules on how to care for the robots." 

While reading and re-reading the student reflections, a couple of key points stood out to me:

Try, Try Again:  The students refer to making multiple attempts at completing a given coding challenge/task.  One student mentions that they encountered some frustration.   The important thing I noticed is that, despite setbacks, all of these students persisted in their work.   I have shared my opinion that developing tenacity is one of the reasons that I think learning to code is valuable and this student feedback validated that for me.   Students learning to code often have to work through complex tasks and make multiple attempts to succeed.

How Technology Works:  Students mentioned learning to sequence commands, program loops and use conditions.   One student even comments on the relative simplicity of block coding versus the actual programming that might be required to build the Blockly app they've been using.   Although not all students will need to know how to program a computer, it is likely that most students will use technology in school and in their future.   Teaching students basic programming gives students an understanding of how technology works.   I think it is beneficial to develop this understanding of the basics since we so often rely on technology!

If you are interested in coding, check out my post on getting started with coding in the classroom.

Cultivate World Literacy 2018: HCI Grade 7 Book Drive

As the Literacy with ICT teacher leader, I have the chance to work with students and teachers on many different projects and learning activities.   This spring, we had 6 Park West School Division classes from 3 different schools participate in Cultivate World Literacy.   Cultivate World Literacy involved classrooms from around the world working together to explore the topic of literacy and the issue of illiteracy.   132 classrooms from 35 countries participated in this collaborative project.  Supported by technology, classrooms around the world could connect and share their learning.  Students and teachers were encouraged to examine local and global issues related to literacy over several weeks.   After learning about the global issue of illiteracy, participating classrooms were challenged to take action to promote literacy, raise awareness or make a difference.  One of the participating classes from PWSD chose to organize a book drive as their action to make a difference.  Check out the student-authored article below for details on the HCI Grade 7 Cultivate World Literacy Book Drive. 

Students Make Efforts to Promote Literacy
By Aiden Murray and Kendra Drake

According to Statistics Canada, 3.1 million Canadians from age 16-65 read at lower than middle school levels. Students from Hamiota Collegiate joined students from around the world for a project called Cultivate World Literacy. Two teachers named Julie Hembree and Tammy Dunbar created this project to improve lives by promoting literacy. This non-profit collaborative venture included a 5 week campaign for students around the world. Students in Park West School Division shared their work on a digital bulletin board called Padlet. In addition, students around the world shared their work at www.cultivateworldliteracy.com.

For week one, students celebrated reading. The grade 7 class did this by having a “book tasting” where students went around the classroom with snacks and read different books. Students kept note of titles of book they would like to read. During week two, the grade 7s teamed up with the grade 11 class to research the topic of illiteracy.  In week three, students created videos showcasing their schools and libraries. It was a surreal experience seeing schools from countries on the other side of the Earth. For the next week, students were making connections with other classes. The grade 7s created digital posters to raise awareness about illiteracy and shared them on social media. During week 5, students were challenged to make a difference. The grade 7 class made a goal to collect books for 3-10 year-old kids in Hamiota.

The grade 7s went through a process of steps to create their project. They started with brainstorming about an idea that would help stop illiteracy. After we decided which project to complete, we created the goal of what we wanted to accomplish. We had several steps that were completed by a variety of students. Our most important step was to get the donation boxes and posters to the businesses. Now we are hoping that the community will support our cause by donating books that are new or gently used targeting ages 3-10. These books can be dropped off at the following locations: Co-op, Country Crocus Bakery, Home Hardware Stores, Municipal Office, Hamiota Collegiate. 

Our class would like to thank you for doing your part in ending illiteracy!  

The article appeared in the April 2018 edition of the town newsletter and the book drive received great support, as evidenced by the many boxes of books the Grade  7s collected! 

Digital Publishing with Decker Colony Students

In my role as Literacy with ICT Teacher Leader for PWSD, I am fortunate to work in lots of great classrooms.   One class that I have worked with recently is Mr. Elias Wipf's Grade 7-9 ELA class at Decker Colony School.   This group of students decided to tackle a special writing project this year.   Their goal was to collaboratively write short stories and publish them digitally.   Their books are now available online and they have printed a copy for their school library.   The quality of their work is absolutely exceptional, so I'd encourage you to check out the books using the links below!

The Fish Said by Grace and Carrie Waldner

The 3 Little Swines by Daniel and Alex Waldner

Unsuspecting by Renae Wipf, Tamar Waldner, Adelheid Waldner and Natalya Waldner 

I have already written quite a bit about publishing digital books on this blog.  If you are interested in digital book creation, you can read more about the process in this post. You can also check out this post to see some more samples and read about why I think students should publish their writing.  A few things to note about the Decker Grades 7-9 books:

• Collaboration:  Students worked with their grade-level peers to write the stories.  They used a shared document (Google Doc) to write collaboratively.
• Planning: In addition to planning their stories, students also used a storyboard to plan the layout of their books.   Developing a storyboard allowed students to plan the illustrations they would need.   Having the storyboards helped students put their text and artwork together in the digital book by following the plan for which pages would contain text and which pages would contain illustrations. 
• Artwork:  The artwork included in these books is excellent!  The students developed their illustrations on paper and a combination of photographing and colour scanning was used to digitize the photos.  
• Revision: The shared documents made ongoing revision easier.   Students and teachers could read, re-read, edit and revise.  The writing in these books was revised and refined a number of times based on peer editing and teacher editing.   

Sharing Knowledge and Building Skills with Video Production

One way for students to demonstrate their understanding is through video production.  In my role as LwICT Teacher Leader, I was privileged to work with Mrs. Facey and her awesome group of Grade 8s on a video production project this term.   The grade 8 class was working on a "Power of Media" theme along with Project 11 activities on self-esteem.  Mrs. Facey gave her students the opportunity to produce videos as part of their learning.  Not only did the class create some powerful videos to share, they also engaged in deep, meaningful learning.

Although I was not in the classroom every day of this project, it was evident during my classroom visits that the grade 8s were learning a lot.   Their project included a wide variety of learning activities/assignments, such as:

• research on self-esteem
• viewing and analyzing existing media related to self-esteem
• planning: students identified their target audience and intended message, they planned a style/format for their video and identified setting, actors etc.
• script writing: students learned to use a two column script to plan for audio and visual aspects of their videos
• revising and editing: students worked hard to make their work high quality, which involved revising based on peer feedback and teacher feedback
• videography: students filmed, edited and shared their videos 

When students completed their scripts, they were grouped into video production teams.   The team then had to review each team member's script and decide which video(s) to produce.  When I met with a team at this stage of the project, I was so impressed with the collaboration, negotiation and discussion taking place.  Once a script was selected by the team, they undertook further revisions and planned their set, props and costumes.   Next, the groups assigned roles such as director, assistant director, videographer and editor.  They selected actors to fill each role.   Once their plans were in place, students used the school's available video equipment and filmed footage on an iPad.   Upon completing filming, editors worked in iMovie.  The final products were shared on the class YouTube channel in hopes of reaching their target audiences.  Students started sharing their work and made a plan to reach their targeted audiences.

The final videos are very well done and very powerful.   I would encourage you to watch them below.  However, the final videos can only begin to show the meaningful learning that these students engaged in throughout the project.   I'm sure that my short description above cannot fully convey all of the learning that took place, but from meeting with this class, I know that they gained valuable knowledge and developed important skills through this project. 

Why I Think This Project is Awesome
Yes, the videos are excellent and that definitely makes this project awesome, but behind those videos was a lot of learning that make this kind of project so worthwhile.  As a teacher, I saw a lot of good things happening with this project. 


Purpose for Learning: I've written before about students doing "work that matters" and I think this is an excellent example. Students created these videos because they wanted to share an important message and have an impact with their work.  Some groups focused on educating others about self-esteem while other groups shared messages to encourage and uplift others.  Regardless of the message, students were writing, revising, editing, filming and sharing for a purpose. They had a reason to read, write, view, analyze and discuss. 

Authentic Audience:  Students identified an audience that they wanted to reach and actually shared their videos in places where those people could access them.   I love when audiences outside of the classroom get to see the great work that students are doing!

Building Skills: The variety of learning activities involved in completing this project provided opportunities for students to develop skills in collaboration, communication, problem solving and critical thinking.

How to Create Digital Books

Publishing digital books is a great way for students to share their work with a wider audience.  In my role as LwICT Teacher Leader, I am fortunate to work with many teachers and students on a variety of LwICT projects.

This term, Mrs. Dreilich worked with students in her Grade 7/8 ICT class to support them in creating digital books.  Mrs. Dreilich shared sample digital books created by my class to provide inspiration, then she guided her students through planning, drafting and revising their own writing.  Many students chose to write children's books and several of them used a question and answer format.

(samples no longer available)

Ms. Cowling's grade 7 class collaboratively published their first digital book, which is a collection of poems.  Each student contributed a "bio poem" for the collection. I especially liked the plan the Grade 7s created for sharing their digital book:

So how can my students publish books?
I've helped students publish books in a few different ways.   Here is one process that might work for you and your students:

Writing
Provide the same structure that you normally would when students are doing a writing project.   Students will need to plan, draft, revise and edit as part of the writing process.  Often, traditional pencil and paper are the best tools for these first steps.  Sometimes, students may draft and edit using a word processor or online document.   Whatever the case, writing mini-lessons and student conferencing will be important to help your writers develop quality written work.  I have found it also helps to identify a target audience and a plan for sharing early in the process.

Illustrating
Often, students create their illustrations on paper.   The illustrations can then be digitized by using colour scanning (most school copiers will do this efficiently) or by photographing each illustration.   Another option is to have students plan the images they need and then take their own photographs or source royalty-free images online (I like Pixabay).

Publishing
The next step is to put together the writing and the illustrations.  One tool I have used is a digital scrapbooking tool called Mixbook. I typically  upload images to Mixbook with/for students and then have students put together their illustrations and text on each page.   Students may wish to type directly on each page in Mixbook or they may have their typing saved so they can copy and paste their text into the book.  

Sharing
Mixbook creates a beautiful digital book and you can "flip through" the pages of your book on their website. Mixbook allows you to share a display link or embed your book in a website or blog.  My class often shares their work through this blog or by sharing the link on social media (such as Twitter).   The book links can also easily be emailed to families, partner classrooms and other stakeholders.

Variations

• Students complete their writing and illustrations on paper and then photograph/scan the finished pages to include in the book.  
• Students type their story and print out the text they want on each page with blank space for illustrations, then draw illustrations.  When the pages are complete, then photograph/scan the finished pages to include in the book.  
• Book Creator is a great app if you want to create digital books on an iPad.  The files export as a PDF or video file.   Book Creator offers the option of adding a recording to each page, so students can easily create an audio book! 

Digital Books: Christmas Mysteries by Ms. Fraser's Class

I have been helping students publish digital books over the last few years.  After students go through  planning, drafting, revising and editing, students digitize their book.  Why?   I am passionate about students doing work that matters and work that has a purpose beyond the classroom.  Whether it is taking action to solve a problem through project-based learning or creating something amazing to share with others, I think that students benefit from learning beyond the classroom.  Extending the writing process to include digital publishing allows students to share their work with a wider audience.  Rather than just the teacher and (maybe) peers seeing student work, digital books can easily be accessed online by families, community members, partner classrooms and others.  It is highly motivating and engaging for students to write for a real audience outside the classroom.   

In my role as LwICT Teacher Leader, I was excited to work with a class to publish their Christmas Mysteries this holiday season!  This week, I visited Ms. Fraser's grade 4/5/6 class.   They had their mysteries written and were diligently working to finish illustrations when I arrived in their classroom.   I was able to support students in digitizing their finished books during my classroom visit.  I was so impressed by the interesting stories and beautiful illustrations!  The grade 4/5/6 class agreed that I could share their work here on my blog, so please take a look at some of their books below and feel free to leave a comment to pass on to them. 

The Case of the Missing Skidoo by Matthew

Where are Blitzen and Donner by Josie

The Mystery of Santa’s Eaten Cookies by Damion

Lost Little Santa Paws Finds a Friend by Kylee

The Mystery of Frosty’s Hat by Sean

Kids Who Code: Get Started with Coding in the Classroom

For the last few years, I have supported my early years students in planning a special Code-a-thon event for Computer Science Education Week.  This year, my week looks a little different.  Since I'm currently acting as the LwICT Teacher Leader for Park West School Division, I get to work with dozens of classes on coding and computer science this December!   I kicked off the week with a coding workshop for teachers and I'm scheduled to work on coding with many classes this week.  For those interested in getting started with coding in the classroom, I would suggest trying one or more of the following:

Unplugged Coding
I typically introduce students to unplugged coding first.  For middle years and high school students, I have modified this Grid Paper Programming Lesson from code.org.  For younger learners, I prefer to start working on the 100 grid of a learning carpet or a smaller 4X4 grid taped on the floor.   I use arrows printed on cardstock and demonstrate how we can "program" a stuffed toy to move around the grid using left, right, up and down arrows.  Students can then work with a partner using a paper copy of the grid and a smaller manipulative to practice "programming" the manipulative to move around the grid.  

unplugged coding for early years

Hour of Code(TM)
Signing up for Hour of Code is great way to get started with coding in the classroom.  There are TONS of great tutorials available from code.org with different options for different grade levels.  You might want to try one of the tutorials yourself and then share it with your students or just jump right in and learn alongside them.  

Code-a-thon
Using a project-based learning model, I've guided my class in planning and hosting three Code-a-thon events.  Each year involved different tools, partners and activities, but each event was a great success!  Check out my Kids Who Code Code-a-thon guide below for tips on planning your own event.