Day 1
01 Workshop Opener 02 Intro to Unit 4 03 Break 04 ML - U4L1 05 ML - U4L2 06 Lunch 07 Lesson Exploration - U4L3 08 Lesson Exploration - U4L4 09 Break 10 EIPM and The Big Picture 11 Collaborative Work 12 Wrap-Up

Session 11: Collaborative and Independent Work in Unit 4

40 minutes

discussion-based

Purpose

Most of the day was spent in the weeks of EIPM. In this session we pull back and look at the bigger picture - not only of Unit 4, but also in the context of “what do we value?”. Participants brainstorm why they might want students to work collaboratively vs independently while programming.

We then connect this philosophical discussion to the context of Unit 4 and address when participants want to emphasize or encourage collaborative versus independent work.

Objectives

  • Participants understand the structure of Unit 4.
  • Participants have developed a philosophy around when, how and why they will encourage collaborative vs independent work in class.
  • Participants know what the end project looks like for Unit 4.
  • Participants can identify biases they may possess about CS education

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup

  • Set-up the room with a piece of poster paper behind each group for each group to work with.

Facilitator Supplies

Teacher Materials

  • Poster paper
  • Markers
  • Journals

Agenda

Unit 4 Conclusions and Connections (15 minutes)

Independent vs. Collaborative Work (25 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Unit 4 Conclusions and Connections (15 minutes)

Use your slides to guide your review of Unit 4. Now that we have looked at EIPM, we want to give participants a chance to look at the larger context.

  • 💷 Before Unit 4 (1 min)

    • We have built a classroom culture of problem solving and collaboration throughout units 1 and 2.
    • In Unit 3, students learn how to design a User Interface and understand how basic event handlers work.
    • Students learn debugging stills and work towards developing a debugging mindset.

  • 💷 During Unit 4 (12 mins)

    • There are 3 EIPM sequences in Unit 4. One on Variables, one on Conditionals, and one on functions.
    • At the end of the unit, students make a “decider app” as a final project for the unit. There is also a multiple choice test built into the unit.
      • In the project students work in pairs to create an app that helps a person make a decision. This app has specific requirements and includes a rubric.
      • (10 minutes) Spend some time allowing participants to look at:
        • The project guide for the the project, including the rubric
        • Exemplar projects in Code Studio

  • 💷 After Unit 4 (2 mins)

    • Unit 5 is on Lists, Loops, and Traversals.
    • It uses the the same pedagogy of EIPM and the unit ends with another large “Hackathon” project
    • From a timing perspective, this should be the last unit of the semester.
    • We will cover this unit in our next workshop.

Independent vs. Collaborative Work (25 minutes)

(5 mins) Our Role in the Classroom

💷 Show the Equity Framework and highlight Understanding Self.

Remarks

As we look at Unit 4, it can be helpful to think about how we want to plan for students to work together and or independently when programming. An important step for creating an inclusive classroom where students can work collaboratively and independently is examining our role in creating it. We bring our beliefs, experiences, and even biases with us when building a classroom culture. Even the best-intentioned teachers make assumptions about students and their capabilities.

Facilitator Tip

This portion of the agenda requires you to generate a personal example in advance about when an assumption you made about a student was challenged. This is a great place to model vulnerability and engagement with the “Understanding Self” portion of the Professional Learning Equity Framework.

Facilitator shares a personal example of a time when their original assumption about a student’s readiness was challenged, and they changed how they viewed that student.

💷 Think-Share (3 mins)

  • How can we check our implicit biases about students’ ability to work independently or collaboratively as we release responsibility to them in an EIPM sequence?
  • Given your role and power as the teacher, what responsibility do you have to ensure that all students feel like they can succeed in your classroom?

(10 mins) "Why" Poster

Remarks

Let’s start to look at why we as teachers might want to encourage collaboration during a lesson and why we might want to encourage working independently.


💷 Introduce the task: In groups of 4, create a poster that looks at the pros and cons of working independently or collaboratively when programming. To do this, create a grid on your poster that looks like this:

Pros Cons
Working independently
Working collaboratively


You will have 8 minutes to work on this with your table.

💷 Have groups share out (4 mins) Have each group present to one other group. If there is an odd number of groups, consider having a group of 3 groups present to one another.

Have teachers return to tables.

Discussion Goal

Here we want participants to go from the theoretical “why collaborate?” to the practical “when do I actually do this”. Encourage connections between what they talked about in the “why” section to this part of the session.

(10 mins) Discussion

Remarks

Now that we have some ideas for “why” we might encourage collaborative or independent work, let’s talk about the “when” we would encourage collaborative or independent work?

💷 Think-Pair-Share (1 min - 2 mins - 6 mins)

Prompts:

  • Based on what you saw today in Unit 4, when would you encourage collaborative or independent work during the Unit?
  • What support can you provide for collaborative or independent work?

Summarize the big ideas from the conversation and remind participants that we will continue to think about this in future units as well.