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Coding in the Classroom: Why You Should Care About Teaching Computer Science
A book for anyone teaching computer science, from elementary school teachers and coding club coaches to parents looking for some guidance.
Computer science opens more doors for today's youth than any other discipline - which is why Coding in the Classroom is your key to unlocking students' future potential. Author Ryan Somma untangles the current state of CS education standards; describes the cognitive, academic, and professional benefits of learning CS; and provides numerous strategies to promote computational thinking and get kids coding!
Whether you're a teacher, an after-school coach, or a parent seeking accessible ways to boost your kid's computer savvy, Coding in the Classroom is here to help. With quick-start programming strategies, scaffolded exercises for every grade level, and ideas for designing CS events that promote student achievement, this book is a rock-solid roadmap to CS integration from a wide variety of on-ramps. You'll learn:
- tips and resources for teaching programming concepts via in-class activities and games, without a computer
- development environments that make coding and sharing web apps a breeze
- lesson plans for the software lifecycle process and techniques for facilitating long-term projects
- ways to craft interdisciplinary units that bridge CS and computational thinking with other content areas
Coding in the Classroom does more than make CS less formidable - it makes it more fun! From learning computational thinking via board games to building their own websites, students are offered a variety of entry points for acquiring the skills they need to succeed in the 21st-century workforce.
Moreover, Somma understands how schools operate - and he's got your back. You'll be empowered to advocate for the value of implementing CS across the curriculum, get stakeholder buy-in, and build the supportive, equitable coding community that your school deserves.
Computer science opens more doors for today's youth than any other discipline - which is why Coding in the Classroom is your key to unlocking students' future potential. Author Ryan Somma untangles the current state of CS education standards; describes the cognitive, academic, and professional benefits of learning CS; and provides numerous strategies to promote computational thinking and get kids coding!
Whether you're a teacher, an after-school coach, or a parent seeking accessible ways to boost your kid's computer savvy, Coding in the Classroom is here to help. With quick-start programming strategies, scaffolded exercises for every grade level, and ideas for designing CS events that promote student achievement, this book is a rock-solid roadmap to CS integration from a wide variety of on-ramps. You'll learn:
- tips and resources for teaching programming concepts via in-class activities and games, without a computer
- development environments that make coding and sharing web apps a breeze
- lesson plans for the software lifecycle process and techniques for facilitating long-term projects
- ways to craft interdisciplinary units that bridge CS and computational thinking with other content areas
Coding in the Classroom does more than make CS less formidable - it makes it more fun! From learning computational thinking via board games to building their own websites, students are offered a variety of entry points for acquiring the skills they need to succeed in the 21st-century workforce.
Moreover, Somma understands how schools operate - and he's got your back. You'll be empowered to advocate for the value of implementing CS across the curriculum, get stakeholder buy-in, and build the supportive, equitable coding community that your school deserves.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 20, 2020
2 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Somma
9 books4 followersRyan Somma has been a software developer for over 25 years and currently works in Laboratory Information Management Systems. He spent 10 years developing mission-critical aviation logistics applications for the US Coast Guard and five years developing professional development applications for teachers at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. A volunteer educator, Somma is interested in synthesizing various ideas from the technical and educational worlds, drawing on his own experience as an educator, as well as contemporary education research.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 29, 2021
In Chapter 9, where the author provides advice on "Coaching your Coders", he ends with encouraging the teacher/mentor to "take time to refresh your excitement [for computer science]" so you can share your enthusiasm with your students and give them "wow moments". I have been programming professionally since 1996. Despite the 25+ experience years I have under my belt, I still ran across "wow moments" in this book, particularly in Chapter 3 "Computer Science History". The author loves computer science and through all the examples and trivia he shares, his love of the field is infectious.
As you can expect with a book on coding, there is plenty of example code. The author is sensitive to the accessibility of those code examples. Rather than requiring a specific development environment to be installed, sometimes an intimidating and frustrating prerequisite, the author eases the reader in with exercises that can be started right away with just a web browser. That also means as the students progress, it is easy for them to share their work with friends and family. No special installs. All loved ones would need is a web browser to enjoy the student's work.
I think one of the most successful aspects of this book is the way the author explains computer science concepts by referencing a myriad of hobbies. Crochet, cross stitch, cooking, music, weaving all played roles when describing concepts like algorithms and functions. In fact, there is an entire chapter dedicated to teaching computational thinking while completely unplugged. I also enjoyed how some of the example code is inspired by games familiar to students like "Tic Tac Toe", a simple maze, and "Chutes and Ladders".
The book is marketed for K-12 educators which does encompass a large range of potential student knowledge and ability. I believe the author effectively shares ideas and guidance for teachers of all grades. There are discussions of more "mature" concepts like cybersecurity and licensing. At the same time, there are activities and passages geared towards younger students. Boolean logic, for example, is explained with kindergarten sight words.
Finally, I love how the author acknowledges and promotes the community of coders. There is a section on online coding playgrounds like JSFiddle that can be used to find example code and for experimentation. Online forums such as Stack Overflow are mentioned in multiple chapters to assist with troubleshooting. There are even tips on how to best phrase your question when doing a web search on an issue. The teacher and the students never have to be alone with a problem or challenge. There is an entire community of coders out there to help.
I suspect this book will help grow that community of coders who will, in turn, help the coders of the future and give them some "wow moments" of their own.
As you can expect with a book on coding, there is plenty of example code. The author is sensitive to the accessibility of those code examples. Rather than requiring a specific development environment to be installed, sometimes an intimidating and frustrating prerequisite, the author eases the reader in with exercises that can be started right away with just a web browser. That also means as the students progress, it is easy for them to share their work with friends and family. No special installs. All loved ones would need is a web browser to enjoy the student's work.
I think one of the most successful aspects of this book is the way the author explains computer science concepts by referencing a myriad of hobbies. Crochet, cross stitch, cooking, music, weaving all played roles when describing concepts like algorithms and functions. In fact, there is an entire chapter dedicated to teaching computational thinking while completely unplugged. I also enjoyed how some of the example code is inspired by games familiar to students like "Tic Tac Toe", a simple maze, and "Chutes and Ladders".
The book is marketed for K-12 educators which does encompass a large range of potential student knowledge and ability. I believe the author effectively shares ideas and guidance for teachers of all grades. There are discussions of more "mature" concepts like cybersecurity and licensing. At the same time, there are activities and passages geared towards younger students. Boolean logic, for example, is explained with kindergarten sight words.
Finally, I love how the author acknowledges and promotes the community of coders. There is a section on online coding playgrounds like JSFiddle that can be used to find example code and for experimentation. Online forums such as Stack Overflow are mentioned in multiple chapters to assist with troubleshooting. There are even tips on how to best phrase your question when doing a web search on an issue. The teacher and the students never have to be alone with a problem or challenge. There is an entire community of coders out there to help.
I suspect this book will help grow that community of coders who will, in turn, help the coders of the future and give them some "wow moments" of their own.
March 28, 2021
In Chapter 9, where the author provides advice on "Coaching your Coders", he ends with encouraging the teacher/mentor to "take time to refresh your excitement [for computer science]" so you can share your enthusiasm with your students and give them "wow moments". I have been programming professionally since 1996. Despite the 25+ experience years I have under my belt, I still ran across "wow moments" in this book, particularly in Chapter 3 "Computer Science History". The author loves computer science and through all the examples and trivia he shares, his love of the field is infectious.
As you can expect with a book on coding, there is plenty of example code. The author is sensitive to the accessibility of those code examples. Rather than requiring a specific development environment to be installed, sometimes an intimidating and frustrating prerequisite, the author eases the reader in with exercises that can be started right away with just a web browser. That also means as the students progress, it is easy for them to share their work with friends and family. No special installs. All loved ones would need is a web browser to enjoy the student's work.
I think one of the most successful aspects of this book is the way the author explains computer science concepts by referencing a myriad of hobbies. Crochet, cross stitch, cooking, music, weaving all played roles when describing concepts like algorithms and functions. In fact, there is an entire chapter dedicated to teaching computational thinking while completely unplugged. I also enjoyed how some of the example code is inspired by games familiar to students like "Tic Tac Toe", a simple maze, and "Chutes and Ladders".
The book is marketed for K-12 educators which does encompass a large range of potential student knowledge and ability. I believe the author effectively shares ideas and guidance for teachers of all grades. There are discussions of more "mature" concepts like cybersecurity and licensing. At the same time, there are activities and passages geared towards younger students. Boolean logic, for example, is explained with kindergarten sight words.
Finally, I love how the author acknowledges and promotes the community of coders. There is a section on online coding playgrounds like JSFiddle that can be used to find example code and for experimentation. Online forums such as Stack Overflow are mentioned in multiple chapters to assist with troubleshooting. There are even tips on how to best phrase your question when doing a web search on an issue. The teacher and the students never have to be alone with a problem or challenge. There is an entire community of coders out there to help.
I suspect this book will help grow that community of coders who will, in turn, help the coders of the future and give them some "wow moments" of their own.
As you can expect with a book on coding, there is plenty of example code. The author is sensitive to the accessibility of those code examples. Rather than requiring a specific development environment to be installed, sometimes an intimidating and frustrating prerequisite, the author eases the reader in with exercises that can be started right away with just a web browser. That also means as the students progress, it is easy for them to share their work with friends and family. No special installs. All loved ones would need is a web browser to enjoy the student's work.
I think one of the most successful aspects of this book is the way the author explains computer science concepts by referencing a myriad of hobbies. Crochet, cross stitch, cooking, music, weaving all played roles when describing concepts like algorithms and functions. In fact, there is an entire chapter dedicated to teaching computational thinking while completely unplugged. I also enjoyed how some of the example code is inspired by games familiar to students like "Tic Tac Toe", a simple maze, and "Chutes and Ladders".
The book is marketed for K-12 educators which does encompass a large range of potential student knowledge and ability. I believe the author effectively shares ideas and guidance for teachers of all grades. There are discussions of more "mature" concepts like cybersecurity and licensing. At the same time, there are activities and passages geared towards younger students. Boolean logic, for example, is explained with kindergarten sight words.
Finally, I love how the author acknowledges and promotes the community of coders. There is a section on online coding playgrounds like JSFiddle that can be used to find example code and for experimentation. Online forums such as Stack Overflow are mentioned in multiple chapters to assist with troubleshooting. There are even tips on how to best phrase your question when doing a web search on an issue. The teacher and the students never have to be alone with a problem or challenge. There is an entire community of coders out there to help.
I suspect this book will help grow that community of coders who will, in turn, help the coders of the future and give them some "wow moments" of their own.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews