Day 1
01 Opener 02 Barriers 03 Break 04 Model 05 Lunch 06 Practices 07 Equity 08 Break 09 Plan 10 End

Session 7: Focus on Equity

60 minutes

discussion-based

Purpose

The purpose of this session is for participants to examine their role and CS teaching practices in support of sustaining equitable and inclusive CS Fundamentals classrooms.

Objectives

  • Participants will describe the influence they have over classroom CS culture and student success in CS.
  • Participants will identify challenges to implementing CS teaching practices.
  • Participants will identify strategies to address challenges to implementing CS teaching practices in support of inclusion.

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

  • Blank posters available for participants to use during the Poster Activity

Facilitator Materials:

Teacher Materials:

Agenda

Equity Journey (8 minutes)

Our Role in CS Equity (25 minutes)

CS Teaching Practices and Equity (27 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Equity Journey (8 minutes)

Remarks

When we talk about reaching equity in CS we are talking about access, diversity, and inclusion working together. Let’s take a look at these definitions.

(3 minutes) Equity-focused Language

(2 minutes) Participants read the following words and definitions on the corresponding slides.

  • Access: The right and opportunity for all students to learn and experience computer science.
  • Diversity: Ensuring CS courses and programs have student enrollment rates that reflect the demographics of the larger school or community population, particularly in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status.
  • Inclusion: Creating learning environments that are accessible and welcoming of students’ identities, backgrounds, differences and perspectives without barriers or judgement. This means actively attending to gender, race, ethnicity, ability or socioeconomics status.
  • Equity: Equitable education ensures that learning experiences are accessible and inclusive for all learners. This means that every student has what they uniquely need to succeed.

(1 minute) Provide an overview of the following image which provides a visual representation of how the definitions fit together in support of equity in CS. (Image taken from the Guide to Inclusive Computer Science Education, 2019.

Remarks

Reaching equity in CS is a journey that takes time. We recognize we are all on different paths with this work. Let’s reflect on how this work is going for each of us.

(5 minutes) Whole Group Discussion

Begin this activity by sharing your personal example, as the facilitator(s), to the prompts. Participants share their responses to the prompts with the whole group.

Prompts:

  • What success are you currently having in your school or classroom in supporting access, diversity, and inclusion for CS Fundamentals?

  • What struggles are you currently facing in your school or classroom in supporting access, diversity, and inclusion for CS Fundamentals?

    • Sample responses:
      • “As a tech specialist, I am able to bring CS Fundamentals to all students in my school. However, I’m having a hard time engaging some of my female students to feel successful during lessons."
      • " I’ve brought CS Fundamentals to my classroom, but I’m struggling to include all of my students. Right now it’s only available to kids who finish their work early because they have more free time and are able to engage with lessons with less of my help."

Our Role in CS Equity (25 minutes)

Remarks

In addition to talking about access, diversity, inclusion, and equity, let’s also talk about unconscious bias, privilege, and power in order to examine and reflect on our individual roles in reaching equity in CS.

(2 minutes) Equity-focused Language (continued)

Introduce the following words and definitions. Participants individually read the following words and definitions.

  • Unconscious bias:

    • Prejudice or unsupported judgments in favor of or against one thing, person, or group as compared to another, in a way that is usually considered unfair. [adapted from Vanderbilt University]

    • When the unconscious biases of well-intentioned teachers influence their judgment towards particular students (e.g., by race, ethnicity, gender, able-bodiedness), it can influence their instructional practices, the expectations they convey, and their recommendations for relevant outcomes like course placement, special education, and discipline. [Dee & Gershenson, 2017]

  • Privilege and power:

    • Privilege and power in computer science may include that of knowledge, experience, ability, age, education, race or ethnicity, positional authority, and social or economic advantage. People often do not recognize their own privilege and power.
    • Teachers should recognize that they have the power to influence students’ CS identities and trajectories.

(1 minute) Journal

Participants individually respond to the prompt.

Prompt:

  • What initial thoughts do you have about how unconcious bias, privilege, and power impact CS classroom culture and student success in CS?

Remarks

How we influence our classrooms is tied to our unconscious bias, privilege, and power. During the next activity, let’s keep in mind how our unconscious bias, privilege, and power:

  • influences what we do or say in our classrooms during CS,
  • might unintentionally sustain barriers in CS,
  • may intentionally create opportunities in CS for our students.

Again, a reminder to keep in mind that everyone is on a different path towards equity in CS and there is no single right answer to any of the prompts.

(21 minutes) Inside Outside Circle

Facilitator Tip

Consider the following alternatives to the Inside Outside Circle to best meet the logistical needs of your workshop:

  • Participants partner up with a different person for each prompt, for a total of four rounds.
  • Participants form a circle and each share their response to each prompt, for a total of four rounds.
  • Gather key takeaways as participants share responses to the prompt in order to briefly summarize them with the whole group at the end of the activity.

(21 minutes) Participants engage in an “Inside Outside Circle” as follows:

(1 minute) Participants pair up, form two circles, an inner circle and an outer circle, and face each other. Participants take turns responding to the prompts.

(5 minutes) Show Prompt #1: What influence do I have over who has access to CS in my classroom? In my school? In my community?

  • (1.5 minutes) Share, as a facilitator, your personal example in response to the prompt.

    • Sample response:
      • “I can influence who has access to CS in my classroom by ensuring all of my students can engage with CS Fundamentals courses as a class, instead of making it only available to students who finish their work early.”

  • (30 seconds) Individual participant “think time”.

  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the inner circle respond to the prompt.
    • Switch!
  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the outer circle respond to the prompt.Rotate to the left!

(5 minutes) Show Prompt #2: What influence do I have over my classroom CS culture and student success in CS?

  • (1.5 minutes) Share, as a facilitator, your personal example in response to the prompt.

    • Sample response:
      • “I can influence my CS classroom culture by showing my belief that all students can learn CS by encouraging students to persevere during lessons.

  • (30 seconds) Individual participant “think time”.

  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the inner circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt.
    • Switch!
  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the outer circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt.Rotate to the left!

(5 minutes) Show Prompt #3: What opportunities can I create within my classroom to represent varied perspectives, abilities, approaches, and solutions in CS?

  • (1.5 minute) Share, as a facilitator, your personal example in response to the prompt.

    • Sample response:
      • “I can create opportunities during the Wrap Up of every lesson, for all students to share their thinking and ideas so that students can get different perspectives on how to learn CS.”

  • (30 seconds) Individual participant “think time”.

  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the inner circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt.
    • Switch!
  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the outer circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt. Rotate to the left!

(5 minutes) Show Prompt #4: How will I know I’m making progress in support of equity for CS?

  • (1.5 minutes) Share, as a facilitator, your personal example in response to the prompt.

    • Sample response:
      • “I will know I’m making progress in support of equity for CS because I will see more students in my school having access to CS.”

  • (30 seconds) Individual participant “think time”.

  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the inner circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt.
    • Switch!
  • (1.5 minutes) Participants in the outer circle respond or pause to reflect on the prompt.

Participants return to their tables.

(1 minute) Facilitator Share Out

Briefly summarize for participants one key takeaway for each prompt that was shared during the activity.

CS Teaching Practices and Equity (27 minutes)

Remarks

Acknowledging that our unconscious bias, privilege, and power influence our classroom CS culture and student success in CS is an important step in support of equity in CS. In addition, identifying teaching practices that establish and sustain an equitable classroom CS culture further supports all students in having success in CS. During the previous session, we identified how lessons and CS teaching practices support students in developing student practices. During this session, we focus on how implementing CS teaching practices support sustaining an inclusive learning environment.

(11 minutes) Poster Activity Part I

Facilitator Note: This activity has two options to consider to best meet your participants’ and workshop needs. Considerations may include: how many participants are in the workshop or how big the space is where the workshop takes place.

  • Option A - participants create posters and the activity is run as suggested.

  • Option B - participants use designated slides in the slide deck, instead of creating posters.

  • If the slides in the slide deck will not be used for this activity and participants will create posters, then delete the facilitator note from the designated slide in the slide deck.

Participants work in small groups of 3-4.

  • Consider participants forming new groups with people they have not engaged with yet.
  • Either participants form new groups on their own or by other means such as counting off each person and then those numbered as a “1, 2...etc” form a new group.
  • Consider checking in with participants to ensure CS teaching practices are not duplicated among groups in order to create the opportunity to discuss more CS teaching practices.

(4 minutes) Participants discuss in small groups which one of the CS teaching practices to focus on for this activity from the following list. For example, the name of a CS teaching practice: Role of the Teacher; specific CS teaching practice: Teachers engage in active learning.

  • Name: Role of the Teacher

    • CS teaching practices:
      • Teachers support all students in first engaging with concepts through lesson activities rather than first providing explanations or lectures.
      • Teachers engage in active teaching.

  • Name: Discovery and Inquiry

    • CS teaching practices:
      • Teachers support all students in exploring concepts and building their own understanding of concepts.
      • Teachers support all students with building and strengthening their debugging skills individually.

  • Name: The Classroom Community

    • CS teaching practices:

      • Teachers support all students in engaging in active learning.
      • Teachers support all students in engaging with pair programming.
      • Teachers support all students in building and strengthening their understanding of debugging as a process.
      • Teachers and all students engage in an inclusive CS learning environment.

(2 minutes) Provide participants with posters to create a table similar to the one shown below (or alternatively, use the designated slides in the slide deck).

(5 minutes) Participants discuss the first prompt and fill in the first column of the poster shown below.

  • Participants discuss the second prompt and fill in the second column of the poster show below.

Facilitator Tip

If participants are struggling to respond to the prompts, consider sharing the following example:

  • Chosen CS teaching practice is Discovery and Inquiry: Students are exposed to concepts through lesson activities rather than explanations.
    • Implementation looks like: students going immediately into a lesson activity before asking questions about the content.
    • Implementation sounds like: students talking about what they did first in the activity, then asking questions.
    • Challenges may include establishing routines/procedures for students to first engage with the content, then ask questions.

Prompts:

  • What does implementing this CS teaching practice look and sound like in your classrooms?
  • What challenges, if any, are there to implementing this CS teaching practice?
    • Note: Participants will fill out the third column labeled “Addressing Challenges” during the next activity.

(5 minutes) Poster Activity Part II

Participants rotate as a small group to a different poster (or alternatively slide in the slide deck) and fill in the third column “Addressing Challenges in response to the following prompt.

Facilitator Tip

If participants are struggling to respond to the prompt, consider sharing the following example:

  • A strategy to address establishing routines/procedures to support when students ask questions is to create an anchor chart as a reminder for students such as:

1) Try it out!

2) Tell someone what you did.

3) Ask questions.

For younger students consider using images along with words.

Prompt:

  • Brainstorm and identify strategies to address the challenges identified on the table for implementing CS teaching practices.

Remarks

Now that we have shared ideas about how we can implement CS teaching practices in our classrooms in support of inclusion, let’s identify next steps by engaging in a Gallery Walk and picking out a strategy you want to commit to taking back to your classroom.

Facilitator Note: Alternatively, if using the designated slides in the slide deck, have each group identify a presenter to give a 1-minute overview of strategies suggested. Invite participants to follow along on their own computers to identify a strategy they want to commit to using when implementing CS teaching strategies in their classrooms.

Participants circulate around the room reading posters and pick out a strategy they want to commit to using when implementing CS teaching strategies in their classrooms. Participants return to their seats after four minutes.

(4 minutes) Partner Talk

Participants share their response to the prompts with a partner.

Facilitator Tip

Circulate throughout the room and support participants as needed in responding to the prompts.

Prompts:

  • What strategy do you commit to using when implementing CS teaching practices during CS Fundamentals lessons?
  • How will the strategy support inclusion during your CS Fundamentals lessons?

(4 minutes) Whole Group Share Out

Invite a few participants to share the strategy they commit to using and how it will support inclusion during their CS Fundamentals lesson.