I have an Intro to Coding class and I am following the CSD Units. I have 2 Special Ed students that are part of our life skills programs. They are low functioning and I want to modify some lessons so they feel included. They do have paras with them in class. Any suggestions on how to modify some lessons for them. Their life skills teacher suggested using some of the project lab stuff such as Star Wars and Dance party but that will only go so far with a half year course. Any suggestions would be great!!!
I’m sure there are a lot of different things you can try. The para’s suggestion may be a good one. There are also other courses you could assign beside CSD. One is the Accelerated Intro Course. This course has similar lessons, but on a more basic level, so it’s more than just the hour of code stuff.
If they start to do well with that, you could also supplement it with other things like Dance Party and Star Wars.
If you want to hand select activities, there is also a great resource here with hundreds of activities, but not all of them will work on all devices and the difficulty levels vary quite a bit. Also, some, but not all of them, are created by code.org, so managing them if you are needing to see what they complete may also be a little bit tricky if you use these.
If others have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Mike
Code.org lends itself to differentiation, a great strategy for inclusion.
What I do in my classes is allow students from the Special Ed program to finish the lessons at their own pace. The paraprofessional can help go through the lessons —but don’t let him/her do the lessons for them! Keep track of the lessons as they complete them.
At the end of the semester, if the students in the Special Ed program do not finish the whole Unit, it’s ok. You want those students to enjoy their learning within their capabilities.
Good stuff thanks I will check it out.
Thanks for the info. Thats what I have been doing. Some lessons are better set up for them than others. Also the group lessons are going because the students like to get their input.