Any thoughts on how you handled student differentiation in these after school programs?
I’m taking the dive and trying out an afterschool coding class for the last 13 weeks of school. Two sessions each week: 3rd - 5th and 6th - 8th. Never done this before, not a teacher but I am an IT person.
I have in mind to use the CODE CS Fundamentals Express, which claims to be good for that entire range of grades.
My plan is to start kids in that program, and if they get bored/are more advanced, get them into something like Scratch (general programming) or Gamestar Mechanic (game development).
The problem I had with Scratch so far is that even for me it’s not immediately obvious in the user interface how to do some simple things, so I wonder if there may be better tools. Students I’ve exposed to Scratch so far in the “club” have been confused by it.
Gamestar is more of an “on the rails” experience where they are led from activity to activity more directly.