Code-It: How To Teach Primary Programming Using Scratch

Phil Bagge

Description

The Scratch: The ideal place to begin programming!

Key Stage 2 Programming Curriculum Guide .

Most primary teachers and pupils have little – if any – experience programming. This book, classroom-tested and perfected by the author through his website code-it.co.uk, aids teachers in providing Key Stage 2 pupils with an exciting and challenging computer science curriculum.

Code It can be used to supplement existing programming modules or as a complete KS2 computer science program of study. It contains a series of programming projects that gradually introduce pupils to algorithm design and evaluation, generalisation and decomposition. Pupils will learn how to use sequence, repetition, selection and variables through becoming creators of a wide variety of programming projects. Maths, literacy, humanities, gaming, music and control skills are all put to the test.

There are four pupil workbooks to provide structure, resources and home learning links. These are designed to work in conjunction with the teacher book. A growing bank of online videos are also available, designed to help teachers improve their own skills and take full advantage of the cross-curricular benefits of developing depth in programming.

The Scratch programming language, already widely recognised in schools, is freely accessible online or as a download at home. Scratch is the ideal place to begin programming as there is no other system that allows pupils to create such a wide variety of projects across primary and secondary education. It also enables pupils to extend their understanding independently through the Scratch online community – the new computing curriculum is truly transformational!

Sujets

• Langages
• Computers
• EDUCATION
• Informatique
• General officer
• Programming language
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Legend Press
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781800317970
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
The University of Buckingham Press
Yeomanry House
Hunter Street
Buckingham MK18 1EG
The University of Buckingham Press

The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher nor may be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than the one in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
CIP catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library.
The Scratch images are used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT
Media Lab. See http://scratch.mit.edu .

ISBN 9781800317970
Acknowledgements
Thank you:
Thanks to my wife Rachael, who has put up with me dropping salary and leaving a secure teaching job to pursue primary computing science. Thanks also to my wonderful children Antonio and Marissa who have put up with far less family Minecraft and been my first guinea pigs for many new ideas.
Thanks to the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, for organising Computing CPD activities. Thanks also to Professor Les Carr, who has put up with an endless string of questions about computational thinking, programming, networks and the Internet. I would never have arrived at this book without your patience.
Thanks to Sally-Ann Evans, Brendan Carroll, Steve Summerton, Trevor Walker, Lisa Marshal Lynne Thorne, who saw something in what I was trying to achieve and employed me to teach computing science in their schools. Without your belief many of the ideas in this book would not have been attempted, let alone refined and improved.
Thanks to my ICT friends in Hampshire, Emma Goto, Jon Audain, Sue Savory and Ian Addison, who have put up with me expounding the benefits of computing science and still talk to me!
Thanks to the many passionate advocates of computing science in CAS that I have had the pleasure of working with over the years, Mark Dorling, John Woollard, Miles Berry, Simon Peyton Jones, Simon Humphries, Graham Hastings, Chip Chippindal, Jane Waite, Alan O Donohoe, Jo Badge, Dave Ames Sarah Zaman.
Thanks also to my publisher Christopher Woodhead for asking me to write the one book I really wanted to write.
Phil Bagge 11th October 2015
Foreword
We live in interesting times! From the 1980s until the 2000s PCs dominated the computing landscape and, despite their gradual appearance in our homes for education, entertainment and hobbies, it was business programming for the corporate environment that was the order of the day. It was only natural that our National Curriculum reflected that, by emphasising the business uses of information and computing technology (ICT). However, the last decade has seen the emergence of the Web, the Cloud and mobile devices with an insatiable demand for new kinds of programs - Web sites, social networks, media players, fitness and health trackers, apps for smartphones, tablets and watches as well as notebook, laptop and desktop PCs. The information revolution that was predicted in the 1970s has just hit top gear, and our National Curriculum has been revised to reflect that our children will need to be able to understand, control and create these new technologies - that they need to learn how to program.
This book is a fantastic introduction to computing and programming, giving primary school children the basic skills and tools of programming. It distils some brilliant classroom experiences of creating new things (quizzes, games, calculators, simulators, displays, musical instruments) and solving new problems (in arithmetic, geometry, literacy and control). It provides educators with the resources to create valuable learning experiences of their own that draw out computational understanding through computational practice and it encourages children to join the information revolution as creative programmers able to take full advantage of all the opportunities of a connected society.
Professor Leslie Carr
Web Science Institute Department of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton
Contents
Introduction
0A. Ways To Use This Book
0B. Teacher Book Pupil Workbooks
0C. Hint Card Video Support
0D. Why Scratch?
0E. Computational Thinking
0F. Computational Doing
0G. Learned Helplessness
0H. Programming Elements
0I. Design Strategies
0J. Teaching Methods
0K. Maths
0L. Versions of Scratch
0M. Module Overview
0N. Module Dependencies
0O. Progression Chart
0P. Assessment
Chapter 1
1A. Smoking Car Puzzle Game
1B. Music Machine
1C. Conversation
1D. Interactive Display
1E. Dressing Up Game
1F. Action Planning Assessment
Chapter 2
2A. Maths Quiz
2B. Music Algorithm to Music Code
2C. Slug Trail
2D. Selection Investigation
2E. Train Your Computer To Do Maths
Chapter 3
3A. Counting Machine
3B. Music Abstraction
3C. Random Word or Sentence Generator
3D. Coins
3E. Crab Maze
3F. Toilet Fan
3G. Car Park Barrier
3H. Angle Sorter
Chapter 4
4A. Times Tables Game
4B. Perimeter
4C. Clock
4D. Cartesian Coordinates
4E. Translation, Enlargement 1/4 Turn Rotation
4F. Primary Games Maker
4G. Tilt Switch
4H. Chatbot
Chapter 5
5A. Additional Computer Science Resources
5B. Independent Tasks Hints and Answers
Introduction
Author introduction
I have been a primary school teacher, lead teacher and advanced skills teacher in Information and Communication Technology for many years and in that time I have tried many new technologies in the classroom. Looking for something that would stretch my pupils' thinking, in 2012 I joined CAS (Computing at Schools), a grassroots organisation dedicated to promoting Computer Science. There I discovered the challenge of programming and computational thinking. I was so impressed with pupils positive responses to this more challenging work that I approached a group of Hampshire primary head teachers and asked them if they would employ me to teach a strand of computing science.
For the last three years I have taught over 1300 hours of Computer Science in six schools. In these years I have made plenty of mistakes while discovering what works and what helps develop resilience and problem solving skills in my pupils. I set up my own website, code-it.co.uk, to record my journey and help others benefit from my experiences. These resources have been edited and revised many times and downloaded by teachers tens of thousands of times for use within classrooms across the country. It has been a real joy writing this book as it has given me the chance to do one definitive version reflecting the way I teach computing science now. The Scratch resources on my website will remain there but this book is the best, most up to date version of these.
0 A . Ways to use this book
This book can be used by:-
Experienced teacher - programmers as a guide to what works in the classroom when delivering the National Curriculum
Teachers with little experience of programming, who would value a way in to teaching computing with confidence
Parents who want to help their children gain important skills and work on a topic that they have an enthusiasm for
This book can be used:-
As a full programming strand for KS2 (7-11 year olds) for all four year groups
As a resource book of programming planning that emphasises computational thinking
As a supplementary strand of programming that emphasises Music, Maths, Literacy or Gaming
As a starting place to think through and create your own programming planning
As a home tutoring guide to develop Computer Science knowledge and skills through programming
As a set of projects to work through with your child if their school has chosen to teach only the barest minimum Computer Science or teach lots of it in an unplugged fashion. Please ask your school if they are using or intend to use the scheme first.
0 B . Teacher Book Pupil Workbooks
This volume goes alongside four pupils' workbooks. These are printed in black and white and are priced so they can be bought for each child as a workbook, saving teachers and support staff time.
Pupil Workbooks
Each programming module has reference to resources in the pupil workbooks when pupils need to use them. Each Scratch module also has an overview page in the pupil workbooks briefly describing the project and key computational thinking ideas. These pages also contain further home projects that pupils could complete independently once they have fully completed the module at school. Pupils could take the book home to complete these. Projects are graded.
First Steps These are reinforcement activities
Next Steps These require more investigation
Further Steps Designed to challenge the more able
You may also wish to point out the pupil parent guidance sheet found at the front of the pupil workbooks the first time you send one of the further challenges home, as it stresses the independent nature of the tasks.
0 C . Hint Cards Video Support
Many projects contain hint cards. These can be photocopied and folded to make A4 booklets. Some contain code samples that pupils can use to help them debug errors and some contain hints that help to trigger the next step in learning. It is worth printing these before the lesson and using with those pupils who need them.
The author is working on a set of videos to support many of the modules found in the book.
You can find these and other online files mentioned in the book at:
http://code-it.co.uk/bookmedia
0 D . Why Scratch and why mainly Scratch in KS2?
When I first started teaching Computer Science in five schools I flitted about between