Teaching python (programming) to children

[Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.]

"Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr." wrote:

> With regard to your question and general topic...
>

Well, I don't want to take issue with anyone so I'll
just reply to my own post.

What I'd like to report based on my own experience
of having done multi-week programming sessions
for Middle School kids at three different Middle
Schools for three years are the following items.
I have learned that they are important factors for
success in my teaching of computer programming
to Middle School Students--particularly as a volunteer.

* It's important to figure out how what you want to
do with teaching programming connects to the
>existing< curriculum.

For example, I learned that the existing curriculum is
the product of many years of development by
collaborations of teachers in the school district.  It
is very hard to get any long term involvement if
you can't give the teacher a line of reasoning that
goes from the existing curriculum to "and so we are
teaching x or y or z in computer club".

* It's important to understand what the typical
distribution of readiness is in the age group at
the school where you propose to teach the subject.

For example, I learned that the students I had would
have quite a range of skills in keyboarding and
accurate typing.  I also learned that the students would
have quite a range in their understanding of abstract
concepts (like what is an algorithm).  I learned that
they would do better at internally developing that
understanding if they were walked through a set
of tasks which exemplified that than if they were talked
to about the concept.

*It's important to match the approach of your teaching
the subject to those readiness factors.

For example, I changed from having the students
type the three line exercise into the computer to
having it all there already for them to use and then
asking them to make small changes in it.  I also
changed from a textbook approach where I talked to
them about concepts to a do it approach where they
were asked to do a recipe and then asked questions
about it afterwards.  In the doing of it almost even
in rote drill, I found that they would internally come
to some level of an understanding about what was
behind what they were doing.  In some cases, I would be
rewarded by the "Aha, I see" from the student.  In other
cases, they would just have fun and I learned to take that
as sufficient accomplishment of >their< goals (appropriate
for a club of course--may be different if you have your course
locked into a curriculum which downstream courses are
expecting to have the students know.)

*Finally, it's important to be humble when approaching
a teacher, computer learning center staff person, or administrative
person.

For example, I learned I had to realize that though I might think of
myself as quite an expert in X or Y or Z, there were a lot of
other factors involved in getting something up in running
like making sure it didn't get in the way of the existing
teaching of the existing curriculum and the running of the
school.  I learned also that it is important to partner with a
teacher who has a lot of class room experience and >>listen<<
to that individual when they express their opinion about
something and, at the outset start by assuming that they are
probably right, and then figure out how to move towards
whatever it is that they are suggesting.  I found that the
teachers were a lot more subtle in their suggestions than
I was used to experiencing in my professional work (i.e.,
they didn't exactly strongly confront you
like I was commonly used to)  and that it required a lot
of care on my part to tune in and react and adapt in order
to make the partnership work.

With those factors addressed in the described manner,
I have been able to do a computer club program as
detailed on my web site over several years time.
(See http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/ )

--David

P.S. This is Naperville School District 203 whose
8th graders were top-ranked in the world on the
TIMMS test.
--
Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.
djrassoc01 at mindspring.com
http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/