My class is about to begin Unit 3. As I am prepping, I am not seeing much explicit pair programming. How are others handling this? My students were very successful with pair programming in Unit 2.
I worked in Unit 3 with 2 8th grade classes for my first 9 weeks. We just finished up last week. This was their first exposure to CS Discoveries so they didn’t work in Unit 1 or 2. I had them work in pairs the first week and then the 2nd week gave them the option of working alone or with their same partner. Everyone in both classes chose to continue working with their partner. They all did a good job of trading back and forth who was on the computer and who was watching. Everyone was involved and worked hard. I didn’t see anyone not taking part. So maybe you can try doing the same, and eventually give them a choice. I gave them an end of course reflection and most said it was good working with a partner and made it less scary and easier to figure out what to do. They also realized learning to collaborate and work together is a good skill to develop.
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I have not taught Unit 3 yet but in our professional development for Unit 3, we discovered that working in pairs, or even small groups was very beneficial for all involved. Working individually was often frustrating. There are so many new concepts and information pieces that it is hard to be successful on your own.
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glad to know that it works out skipping units 1 and 2!
I appreciate that you gave your students an option to pair program or individually program. It is a valuable opportunity for them to reflect on their success individually or as a pair.