Hi all. I am on a pretty tight timeline for getting through all of the CSA curriculum from code.org. I am in a 4 by 4 schedule and am teaching CSA just in the 2nd semester (I just started last week) for 1 hour 25 minute blocks up until the AP test on May 3rd.
Keeping that in mind, does anybody have any recommendations on what I might be able to cut out? I’m looking to cut out about 5-10 lessons so that I can make sure I have enough time to finish all of Unit 9 and properly review for the AP test. So far I’ve already cut out a few of the lessons from the beginning of Unit 1. I have noticed that each unit has a 3 day project-- so perhaps recommendations on which ones of those I might be able to skip or cut short.
Thanks for any input!
Tim
@timothy.lee - Hi Timothy, you are not the only one with this problem. Some teachers that started last semester are struggling to get all the material covered - me included. I have opted to skip some of the projects. I am concentrating on the FRQ’s at the end of each unit and assign all the extra practice lessons for homework. These activities are excellent for getting your students ready for the exam. I did streamline the FRQ for Unit 1 and Unit 2. Please view the link posts to get some ideas from other teachers.
I hope this helps. Please let us know how things are going.
Hi Timothy,
I completed the pilot of the curriculum last year, and found myself needing to cut some things out. I would recommend trying to cover all of the content from Code’s units 1-6. You might check out the one day project options in the lesson plans. I have found that my students really like the projects and get a lot of learning out of them so I would try to keep the full projects if possible.
Units 7 and 8 cover content that is only covered on the Multiple Choice portions of the AP exam. I love that Code’s curriculum gives some practice with writing searching and sorting algorithms, and with writing code for recursion, BUT-- if can be cut short if you are needing to for time. In my classroom, my current plan is to skip around a bit in those units and to save the Unit 7 and Unit 8 projects for after the AP exam.
I know there are others on block schedules out there, and that pacing on block is a tricky situation- please report back with how it goes!
Lindsay