Should I be assigning partners for Unit 3 that will work together throughout the entire unit? I am teaching in a hybrid environment where some days one “cohort” of students is in the building and other days the second “cohort” is in the building. Our classes are synchronous with both virtual and in-building students “attending” class at the same time.
Suggestions? Should I attempt to have students work in partners or should I have them work independently? Should I make partners within the same “cohort” so that they can at least “see” each other on some days? I would love to hear from anyone working in a similar environment.
I should mention that I have 24 students in a class so that would mean using 12 breakout rooms unless I group them by cohort. Is this even feasible? We have to use Google Meet.
I’m struggling with Pair Programming in code.org this year. It sounds like you have many students in school in each cohort - definitely make sure partners are in the same cohort. Basically, what I’ve discovered is that code.org does not support pair programming for partners who are remote - instead, they must be working at the same computer and in one student’s account (https://support.code.org/hc/en-us/articles/115002122788-How-does-pair-programming-within-Code-Studio-work-)
It’s just a mess for me. Most of my students are remote. I want them to work together on this U3 project. I’d like to use code.org. I don’t know…
Yes, I know they can’t do “pair programming” the way code.org originally presents it. I would like them to do a program where they need to split some of the work and then put it together into one project. I have been teaching AP CSP using code. org for 4 years and my students always enjoyed the old Ch 3 group project where they worked together to make a final “turtle” drawing. They had fun and made them more aware of the need for good naming conventions and good organization for their code. I am not sure how to get that same benefit this year. Between the change in curriculum and the hybrid learning environment, I don’t know if I can make it happen. If I just have each student do their own project, it just doesn’t have the same benefits.
Sorry to hear about the challenges. That’s definitely a sticky situation.
Unfortunately I don’t have much advice from experience, but I wanted to make sure first that you’ve already gone through the lesson modifications listed near the top of each lesson, including adaptations for pair programming
I am just getting to Unit 3 and had the same issues and concerns. I finally decided go more the Virtual Asynchronous route for this unit. Most of the work will be done individually with feedback from others.
For some variety, I thought I’d share that I’m pairing students with someone who is NOT in the room with them at the same time. I used to do this in the digital design project (at the end of the turtle unit) even before this school year (by creating partnerships between students who weren’t in the same block). I like that it means they have to really articulate what they’ve done and how they’ve done it in words because they’re not going to be right there with their partner at all times.
For this year, I plan to have a virtual student with an in class student. Each pair will work together for all of Unit 3, and be able to chat in their own breakout room. Students can ‘pair program’ by having one student share their screen as the driver, and the other talk them through the process as the navigator. When I want students to switch or at the end of the class period to ‘save’ their work, I’ll have students share the javascript (in text format) in a google doc or email with their partner, who then pastes it in to their own App Lab environment. When building screens, they can be in the chat together but work in design mode independently - sharing the screens as needed and then importing one another’s screens once they’re completed.
Part of my motivation is definitely to get kids to talk about what needs to be done (rather than taking over the keyboard for their partner), but its also partially logistical. I worry that if my partners are in the classroom they’re going to be looking over one another’s shoulders, sharing keyboards, and all together not socially distancing.
I have no idea how it will work, but I want to try it too. I think that it is very important for students to learn to collaborate and work together as well as to think and articulate their ideas clearly. I am not sure at this point how to put the same kids in the same breakout rooms with the same partners every day. I don’t think that google meet has this option. Anybody tried it?
There is no easy way to move the students to the same breakout rooms in Google Meet. You need to manually move them which for me was not reasonable with the time I have. Also, my students tell me that their chromebooks get too slow if they try to keep Google Meet video on and run programs in code.org. I am not sure what would happen if they tried to share their screen in the Google Meet and run their programs. This may just be an issue with our environment. The chromebooks seem to slow down if there are too many tabs going at once.
Okay, so I am currently on lessons 8,9 and 10 in Unit 3. I have them paired up and working on their individual screens then pairing them up together in these lessons. It is not going well. How are they suppose to have the screen layouts in the “owner” account? It makes it difficult for scoring purposes. I miss the old Unit 3 project. It would have worked really nicely in this environment. We are completely virtual. Live and learn I guess. Any suggestions how to have them share? I thought about having them use the remix button then submit the link to the project after they were finished. But not sure how that would work either. Guess I screwed up this one. And I have taught CSP with code.org for four years.
What ended up working “best” (and I mean that in a very general sense…it was really rough for us to do this virtually) was:
have the kids be in shared meet with their partner create a single screen together (one as driver presenting) then use the share link to copy/import that screen to the other person.
split remaining screens and design them individually using the same info/naming/themes as the first screen
gMeet again, share links again, so both can import all screens…then design one part of the code (like one onEvent) together.
split and individually create the rest of the code. Share via a google doc. Each person is responsible to copy/paste into their own version.
gMeet to troubleshoot together.
I did like the older “scene” Unit 3 project…maybe it can be worked into Unit 5 or 7 (maybe even Unit 6?)
