CSP Syllabus Timeline

CS Principles Resources, Tools, Differentiation
1

Hello,

I was looking over the CSP Syllabus provided here and noticed that it only has 28 weeks of instruction.
Unit 1 - 6 Weeks
Unit 2 - 6 Weeks
Unit 3 - 8 Weeks
Unit 4 - 4 Weeks
Unit 5 - 4 Weeks

Unit 5 is the PT. What is usually done in class with the other 8 weeks in a traditional 36 week school year?

thanks
Roscoe

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2

hi, roscoe-- this is a great question! because of the timing of the AP exam, students need to be completely done with all required content by the first week of may. we will be releasing a set of post-AP project ideas and materials, which are intended to be used to fill the time after the exam, but before the end of the school year.

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3

I have an odd class schedule and I need to see if the rest of the curriculum will fit into the classes I have. Can I convert 4 weeks = 20 classes? or do your weeks already include the fact that some weeks have holidays/assemblies/high stakes testing/snow days/half days etc. etc. etc. (not that I’m frustrated with all the lost days or anything :wink:

Also I’m assuming when you say a lesson will take 3 days you have included that in your week estimates.

Thanks

4

Yikes! I just matched the lessons up to my calendar and I have about 25! lessons that don’t fit!! What should I cut?

5

Eighteen days left and I’m on lesson 17 (Unit 3)! I am thinking about having the students complete through Lesson 25 in Unit 3 and then try to move on to Unit 4 - Data. Or would it be better to complete all the lessons in Unit 3 (minus big projects) and try a little of Unit 4? If so, what five lessons in Unit 4 would anyone suggest for a final week of new lessons? Thanks

6

Hi,

Here are some options:

  1. Move on to unit 4 after Lesson 21 - Digital Assistant. You’ll miss some more advanced topics - more advanced loops and array processing - but students have programmed enough after lesson 21 to successfully build a program that meets the requirements of the Create PT.

  2. Lesson 25 is a good stopping point if only because there is an assessment that covers lessons 22-25, but you might consider stopping after Lesson 23, as lesson 24 starts a new topic entirely.

  3. There are ways to shorten Unit 4 and get a decent experience - and I would try as it might make for a good big-picture wrap-up to the course (big data, privacy, security, etc.)

I could make some recommendations about how to carve out a custom unit 4 that fits your needs as best as possible, but it depends how much time you actually have though. My first-pass recommendation would be do lessons Unit 4 lessons 10-14. If you wanted to add to that, I would consider doing lessons 1-4 minus the data tracker project.

Feel free to ping me directly (using @baker) from the forum or email me baker [at] code.org if you prefer.

-Baker
Code.org CSP Team

7

Thanks, Baker! This really helps!

8

Has anyone created a pacing chart for those that are on block schedule? I meet with my class every other day for 100 minutes. It would be easy to say just complete two 50 minute lessons in one day, but some are 2-3 days. I would like to know if I’m on pace or if I need to hurry up! Thanks!

9

Hi Jennifer. There is another discussion thread about this - you should re-post there and hopefully the other block schedule teachers can give you some advice about where they are. The link is here. Thanks!