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Session 16: TLO #1: U1L7 - Black and White Images

65 minutes

lesson exploration

Purpose

TLOs are intended to help participants experience part of the curriculum as a learner and also practice teaching lessons from the curriculum. We use the debrief to discuss important aspects of teaching CS Principles in classrooms.

Objectives

  • Participants understand how to use widgets in the classroom to support understanding of computer science content

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

  • Full Cohort
  • Table Groups (3-4)

Facilitator Supplies and Prep:

Teacher Materials:

Agenda

Intro and Lesson (46 minutes)

Debrief (19 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Intro and Lesson (46 minutes)

Producer Tip

You should have information from the teaching group on how they would like to handle breakout rooms. Verify that the information is correct during the break prior to the session

(3 minutes) Teaching Group Set Up

Teaching group sets up whatever they need for the lesson. If they can do this during break it will mean more debrief time.

Producer: Temporarily give the teaching group Co-Host privileges so that they can move in between breakout rooms.

Producer: If using breakout rooms, set up the participant rooms, a “Teacher” room, and a “Facilitator” room

(2 minutes) Previously On

Using the slides, fill in the gap of the lessons or activities they would have seen between the last lesson and this one. (Slides in Deck)

  • Participants will have already been introduced to the binary number system as a way to represent numbers.
  • In the curriculum, students will also get additional experience with the binary number system through talking about overflow and, in a separate lesson, they will use binary numbers to represent a text-based message.

(1 minute) Reinforce Roles

Remind participants of what it means to be a learner or a teacher. Have them put their hats on before handing it over to the teaching group.

Facilitator Tip

To make teachers feel more comfortable, it may be a good idea to turn off your camera throughout the lesson and/or change your name to “Facilitator - Ignore Me”. This can be helpful while moving through breakout rooms so “students” do not look to you for answers.

Facilitator Tip

If breakout rooms are used, it is important to get a sense of what is happening in them. As you move through the rooms, make sure that you are not providing input. If you are asked for it, remind teachers using chat that you are not a teacher right now and they can use the call for help button if needed.

Producer Tip

Just as with facilitators in breakout rooms, you may need to act as a “messenger” for the teachers. If a group presses the “call for help” button, you will need to find the teachers and inform them that a group is asking for help.

(40 minutes) Lesson

Facilitator Instructions

Be attentive to what is happening during the lesson as you select your debrief goals, reflection prompts, and discussion prompts. During the lesson, it is recommended that you communicate with your co-facilitator to share what you are seeing in the lesson and develop a shared understanding of the goal of the debrief for the lesson. You can communicate through Slack or through passing notes to one another. You are looking for the teaching group to demonstrate the “Essential practice” and “Teaching group decisions” identified in the debrief below.

Lesson Plan Link

Lesson Slides Link

Lesson Overview

Students explore how black and white images are represented. Students use the black and white pixelation widget to represent each pixel of an image with black or white light. They learn how to sample an analog image using small squares of uniform size (each represented with a black or white value) and reflect on the pros and cons of choosing a smaller or larger square size when sampling.

Debrief (19 minutes)

Producer Tip

You will need a breakout room for the teaching group to debrief while the main group does their reflections.

  • (~5 minutes) Start with displaying the reflection prompt slide. Have the participants who acted as learners reflect on the reflection prompt(s) individually.
    • While the room is reflecting, have the teaching group in a breakout room and discuss and be prepared to share their “Choices, Advice, and Takeaways”.
  • When the teaching group is ready, have them share their Choices, Advice, and Takeaways with the room to start the debrief.
  • After they have shared, applaud the teaching group and lead the group discussion using the discussion prompts. Once again, post discussion prompts on a slide to help keep track of the conversation.

Suggested Debrief Plan
To Watch for During the Lesson Essential
Practices
Learners spend much of the time in the tool and use the tool to engage in the CS content.
Potential Teaching Group Decisions
  • Teachers connect the vocabulary to the learner’s experiences in the widget.
  • Teachers allow learners to pick their own image in Challenge 4 and play around with sampling.
  • Teachers are signaling to learners when they should be working on different challenges.
  • Teachers are asking probing questions while students are working.
If the essential practices, listed above, are present in the lesson we recommend the following for your debrief:
Debrief Direction Topic Discovery based instruction - Tools and widgets
Goal Teachers understand how to use widgets in the classroom to support understanding of computer science content.
To reach this goal, consider using the following reflection and discussion prompts:
Debrief Suggestions Reflection
Prompt
The learning objectives for this lesson were:

  • Students will be able to explain how bits can be used to represent the individual pixels of a black and white image.
  • Students will be able to explain how sampling is used to create a digital form of an analog image

As a learner, during which of the following challenges did each of the learning objectives “click” for you?

  • Challenge A: Sampling on a large grid
  • Challenge B: Sampling on the smaller grid
  • Challenge C: Creating a logo using sampling
Discussion
Prompts
  • As a teacher, what benefits do you see in using widgets in the classroom?
  • What role does the widget itself play in supporting discovery in the classroom?
  • What role can you as the teacher have in supporting discovery in a widget-based lesson like this one?
  • How did the lesson and widget support discovery or understanding of these learning objectives?

FACILITATOR NOTE:
As you discuss this prompt, look for places to draw out the decisions for this lesson, listed above.

FACILITATOR NOTE: During your debrief, avoid the topic of teaching in the virtual world unless you know the majority of teachers will be virtual next year. Many teachers will be in person, and conversations about choices made for the virtual setting will not be helpful as teachers return to the classroom.