This week for our Sandbox I decided to do the Hour of Code. Even though my third graders have done this for the past few years, I have never done it! I also am not the one who usually introduces it to my class. Usually my Instructional Technology Specialist does this lesson with my students and my role is to just to help out and make sure that the students are on task and not having huge issues. I decided that it would be good for me to explore Hour of Code on my own so that maybe I could be a little more helpful this year! 🙂
For my Hour of Code I decided to do the Dance Party. It looked cute and anything that includes music I am all for. I was surprised that there was a tutorial video for each puzzle and that you had to complete each step in order to move on. Clearly I haven’t been paying attention while my students are working on this! I think that it was very user friendly because of this and helps the students to feel confident to move on to the next, harder step. It was very sequential and orderly.
While exploring each puzzle I did make a few mistakes along the way. While I feel like this might be frustrating for some young children, as Snelling says “letting problems be real, and identified by children themselves, keeps students engaged and trying” (2016). I agree because after I realized that I had made the mistake I was very motivated to fix it. Hour of Code also gives you hints and lets you watch each video over again so there is a great chance that children can fix it on their own. The resources are there!
Moen says that “computer coding helps develop critical thinking and problem solving skills” (2018). I have observed this firsthand in my classroom and agree that doing the hard work in coding is helpful to young children. Working through issues and frustrations helps students find resilience. What an important skill!
I enjoyed playing around with the Hour of Code and will definitely be using it more on my own in the classroom this upcoming year. Moen says, “to help people understand how to solve problems using information effectively, which are skills that support people as lifelong learners.” (2018) I will continue to build a community of lifelong learners!
Moen, M. (2016, September 30). Computer coding and literacy: Librarians lead the connection. International Literacy Association. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2016/09/30/computer-coding-and-literacy-librarians-lead-the-connection
Snelling, J. (2018, April 3). Don’t stress about coding: Focus shifts to teaching problem solving not computer skills. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=dont-stress-coding-focus-shifts-teaching-problem-solving-not-computer-skills
I absolutely agree that computer coding creates creative and critical thinking. When it comes to coding or using computers in general, the obvious answer is not always the correct one. Having students identify the problem and do some flexible thinking will be so beneficial in the future.
I enjoyed reading about your classroom experience with the Hour of Code. My school always participates in this activity and my students love coding. We had a virtual coding guest speaker last Fall and he taught them Dance Party too! Before Covid, our IT would provide a coding lesson and I would just make sure students were on task. I really didn’t get into the details of how to complete it. It is definitely challenging and requires some great opportunities for problem solving.
I’m glad to see that you thought it was user friendly. I often say the kids are so much better at technology than us old folks. It sounds like you had a really good experience working with the Hour of Code. I did more research on the 3D printing, but I want to go back and explore more with coding.
Your willingness to learn more so you can be more involved with your students is inspirational. Great job on your post this week.
I used Dance Party too and it was so much fun! I’ve seen my own children do it and never really played around with it. As I was going through the tutorial I kept thinking back to the article about critical thinking as well and how they weren’t specifically teaching coding but rather to work through problems in a step by step manor. It was interesting to see how coding theory can be used in our classroom daily without direct coding instruction.