'20-'21 will be by second year teaching CSP. Our school will be fully remote to start the school year, and I’m looking for guidance from Code.org or other CSP teachers on how to adapt each unit to fully remote learning.
I saw a post from March in which Code.org provided tips per unit on how to finish the '19-'20 school year under remote learning, so now I’m looking for something similar for starting an entire new school year.
Thanks!
Randy
@rhodge This is a great place to see what other ideas people have in our community about “going virtual” next year.
Keep in mind, Code.org will be creating some guidance on this which will be released later this summer. We are offering a “sneak peek” in a webinar next week - you can register for the webinar on our Course Updates page.
Awesome, thanks @kaitie. I’ll register for the webinar. We start school August 11, so “later this summer” can’t come soon enough 
This may be WAY out there but I’m thinking of starting with Unit 3, doing the programming stuff first and then jump back to Unit 1 and 2. I feel Unit 1 and 2 are very in-person and loosely connected to the programming, but essential overall content. I feel Unit 3 would be better in a virtual setting and then praying we’re all back in school in January, but it may not be until March when we hit Units 1 and 2.
Do you think it could work? Anyone willing to Pros and Cons with me?
We start in-person school August 31, but we are told there can be NO cooperative learning, so it makes units 1 and 2 hard to do, unless Code.org is going to provide adaptation for in-person but non-paired learning — which is really against the whole philosophy of the program! But YES, I like your idea of starting with Unit 3.
I was told there are virtual learning adaptations provided for all lessons in Unit 1, 2 and 3 in the lesson plans for each lesson. I looked at the first one, the Technology Innovation, and the adaptation was for each student to do a slide in a Google slideshow on their own. While this is a good adaptation, I’m weighing the opportunity costs. I feel the lesson is more impactful as a group lesson and therefore feel its important to wait.
@jlaw one of the reasons why we start the year NOT programming is because once we get to programming, some students have some prior experiences that can make other students feel inferior or “less good” than other students. This gap might be exasperated by students who are working at home remotely who might have families who can help them. That would be one reason to start with Unit 1 instead of Unit 3 this fall.
It looks like you have already found the modifications for virtual and socially-distanced classrooms, but you might want to check out this webinar (linked in the forum post) which talks about HOW to use the resources.
Hi Josh,
I am completely a fan of starting with the team building and level playing field of Units 1 and 2. Unfortunately, I also am facing a situation where I will have my students for about 9 weeks (1 term) and then not again until 3rd term starting in January (or worse yet, 2nd and 4th terms for my other section).
Because of this, and the points you acknowledged, I too am considering going almost directly to Unit 3 through 7 for those first nine weeks. I am concerned about the impact to students with less programming experience (as Kaitie suggests) but also know that most of my students have had some CSD curriculum before showing up for CSP. I think I will have to work hard during the first two weeks to build community, trust, and patience as we speed to and through programming. I’m curious on what you decided to do, seeing that your students arrive tomorrow.
With any luck, I will have more in person time for students during terms 3 and 4 for many of those awesome group activities in Units 1 and 2.
Chad,
I’ve been in session for 4 weeks now, and with the way the modules are created in the 20-21 curriculum, I don’t feel like any of my less experienced programmers are missing out at all. The curriculum does a good job of starting from scratch and building them up. I also like that it gets them in and creating right off the bat. I will circle back around to units 1 and 2 when normalcy returns, but for now, I’ve not seen any big set-back from jumping to Unit 3 and moving forward. 75% of my students are at-home learning with 25% hybrid.
Thanks for the quick reply and update. That is good news to hear. The fact that we are not in person until Sept 14th is also going to be a disadvantage, but we will do what we can of course.
I am totally with you in starting the year with Unit 3. That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Units 1 and 2 are awesome when we are in person. But I can not wrap my head around doing them in a meaningful way with a hybrid model.
Does anyone know if there will be AP CSP material imported into canvas for virtual learning? Or if anyone has access to some pre-made curriculum using this platform?
Hi @kate.poirier,
I don’t believe there’s an official effort of that happening, but it sounds like another teacher is creating resources that might address your needs.
Hello Kate,
I put Unit 1 Canvas course in the Canvas Commons - My name is Nicole Reitz-Larsen. I’ll be updating Unit 2 here soon and releasing that in the Commons area.
Best,
Nicole
Wow that is fantastic!! You are so awesome!!
I’m doing Unit 3 now and find that it is actually a nice slow roll into programming AND to the curriculum. Not ideal, but feels better than forcing Units 1 and 2 with so much group work. By the second semester, I will be a pro at this and can manage those units in person or online. Hope you got yours going smoothly too.
I have no idea how I’d do this in an asynchronous model, but I’ve been having pretty good luck with Unit 1 in a hybrid/synchronous model (I’m teaching in-person and remote students simultaneously on a set schedule). We’re using Zoom for remote learners, and I’m making extensive use of breakout rooms, Google Slides (from Code.org) and Jamboard. Generally, I’ve been doing it like this: