Day 1
01 Opener 02 Model 03 Break 04 Debugging 05 Equity 06 Lunch 07 Resources 08 Planning 09 Break 10 Barriers 11 End

Session 8: Lesson Planning

75 minutes

lesson exploration

Purpose

The purpose of this session is for participants to become familiar with CS Fundamentals courses as they plan a context-setting lesson and a skill-building lessons they will teach in their classrooms after the workshop.

Objectives

  • Participants will locate where and how to access lesson materials (lesson plans, activity guides, etc).
  • Participants will plan a lesson incorporating CS Fundamental teaching practices that supports inclusion during the lesson.
  • Participants will revise their lesson plans based on peer feedback.

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

Participants sit in a group of at least four with others that teach the same grade or are within the same grade band (K-1, 2-3, 4-5).

Facilitator Supplies:

Teacher Materials:

Agenda

Curriculum Guide Overview (3 minutes)

Lesson Planning Process (7 minutes)

Lesson Planning Activities (65 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Curriculum Guide Overview (3 minutes)

Remarks

This session is an opportunity to plan and envision your CS Fundamentals classroom. Let’s take a look at the CS Fundamentals course structure, lessons, and resources available to use as you plan.

(3 minutes) Curriculum Guide Tour

Invite participants to following along with the corresponding pages of the Curriculum Guide during the brief “tour of the Curriculum Guide":

  • Pages 3- 4, Code.org Values and Philosophy

    • When curriculum writers design learning experiences, they draw from a variety of teaching and learning strategies all with the goal of constructing an equitable and engaging learning environment.

  • Page 6, Course structure

    • Digital Citizenship - a lesson from Common Sense Media is included in all courses to teach students about online safety.
    • Concept Chunks - big ideas in each course from which lessons are based on.
      • Each course is designed to stand alone and does not require a student to take a course in sequence. This means students can begin learning CS with any age appropriate course.

  • Page 7, Lesson types

  • Context-setting Lessons: Introduce students to concepts, usually in a hands-on way and often without computers.
  • Skill-building Lessons: Typically involve programming on the computer and designed to give students structured practice with a new tool or concept.
  • Mini-Projects: Only in courses C-F; on the computer to apply what they have learned by creating a more extensive program step-by-step.
  • Exploratory Lessons: Introduce essential concepts on the computer, but may not be directly related to other lessons in the course.

  • Projects: Open-ended lessons found at the end of each course.

  • Page 22-23, Lesson structure

    • Components of a Lesson: all lessons include a Warm Up, Main Activity, and Wrap Up.
    • Types of Levels: different levels within a lesson such as
      • Online which features Code.org tools (e.g. Artist, Play Lab, Sprite Lab)
      • Videos introduce tools or explain new CS concepts.
      • Lesson extras are optional at the end of each lesson where students can revisit concepts.
      • Each Type of Level has a specific purpose such as making predictions, challenges to test students' persistence, or free play to get creative.

  • Page 24, Teaching and Learning Strategies

    • Introduced throughout the workshop (e.g. Lead Learner, Pair Programming)

Lesson Planning Process (7 minutes)

(2 minutes) Introduction to Lesson Implementation Guide

Remarks

During this session, we have time to plan lessons we can bring back to our classrooms after the workshop. First we will collaborate on planning two lessons - a context-setting lesson and a skill-building lesson. Then we will engage in a Think Aloud of how we would implement and teach the lessons in our classrooms. The Think Aloud is an opportunity to share how we envision teaching the planned lessons to our students, get feedback from another group, revise the lessons if necessary, and ultimately determine what will work best for our students and classrooms.

Facilitator Tip

These questions are meant to highlight and introduce participants to key factors to keep in mind when planning CS Fundamentals lessons. These questions also present an opportunity to address concerns participants may have about navigating resources or making sense of CS teaching practices.

We will be using the Lesson Implementation Guide in Appendix B of the Curriculum Guide.

The Lesson Implementation Guide includes the following questions:

  • What CS concept does the lesson introduce to students and how?
  • What skill does the lesson help students practice and how?
  • What classroom routine/procedure is needed for the lesson?
  • When will any of the following CS teaching practices be used during the lesson?
    • Lead Learner
    • Discovery and Inquiry
    • Debugging
    • Pair Programming
    • The Classroom Community (active learning, communication)
  • How will students share their thinking and demonstrate what they learned?
  • How will the lesson be inclusive for students?

(5 minutes) Lesson Planning Activities Overview

Share with participants they will engage in the following. Be sure to invite participants to ask any clarifying questions as you share.

Lesson Planning

  • Participants collaborate with a partner(s) who teaches the same grade or within the same grade band.
  • Participants use the Lesson Implementation Guide in Appendix B of the Curriculum Guide Appendix to plan for two lessons: context-setting Lesson and a skill-building Lesson.
  • Pairs use the Lesson Assignment Table to choose lessons they plan to implement and teach with their students.
  • Participants navigate and use the lesson plans posted online.
  • If the lesson calls for additional materials, participants should make a note to ensure that material is available and ready before teaching the lesson.

Lesson Think Aloud

  • After planning time, participants engage in a Think Aloud and talk through their responses to the Lesson Planning Guide questions and how they envision implementing and teaching their lessons. During this time, participants also engage in giving and receiving peer feedback in order to support revising their lessons.

Lesson Planning Activities (65 minutes)

(30 minutes) Lesson Planning Collaboration

Facilitator Tip

Support teachers in managing their planning time by providing intermittent time checks. Also,circulate between pairs answering any questions and helping to navigate to lesson materials and resources online.

Participants collaborate with a partner to plan two lessons for their grade level.

(30 minutes) Lesson Think Aloud

Participants engage in a Think Aloud for their lessons with another pair.

(15 minutes) First Think Aloud

(13 minutes) One pair of participants go through a Think Aloud of their lessons and share their responses to the questions on the Lesson Implementation Guide.

(2 minutes) Partners ask clarifying questions and provide feedback using the following sentence starters.

  • I like…
  • I wish…
  • I wonder...

(15 minutes) Second Think Aloud

(13 minutes) The other pair of participants go through a Think Aloud of their lessons and share their responses to the questions on the Lesson Implementation Guide.

(2 minutes) Partners ask clarifying questions and provide feedback using the following sentence starters.

  • I like…
  • I wish…
  • I wonder...

(5 minutes) Reflection

Discussion Goal

Support participants as they make connections between what they envision and concrete steps they can take to implement and teach CS Fundamentals lessons in their classrooms.

Ask for a few participants to briefly share responses to the prompts:

  • What questions in the lesson implementation guide were easiest to plan for?
  • What questions in the lesson implementation guide were the most challenging to plan for?