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Computer Science in K-12

An A to Z Handbook on
teaching programming
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Introduction Video

Discussion/Reflection Questions

Questions from Dr. Tia Madkins (CSTA Equity in Action Summit Keynote, 2023)
  1. What can non-minoritized teachers working with minoritized students do to support creating equitable spaces in their classrooms/school?
  2. Discuss: Are we in the service of capitalism or in service of our community? What are our goals for teaching CS?
  3. CSTA Teacher Standard #2 is Equity & Inclusion with the following indicators for effective CS teaching. How do you enact these practices in your classroom?
    • Examine issues of equity in CS
    • Minimize threats to inclusion
    • Represent diverse perspectives
    • Use data for decision making to improve equity
    • Use accessible instructional materials
  4. What are ways in which you can embody/enact/engage the following equity-focused teaching practices?
    1⃣ relationships
    2⃣ love, value, and sense of belonging
    3⃣draw upon cultural practices (WITHOUT cultural appropriation)
    4⃣critical consciousness development
  5. Discuss: Learning is not the same as achievement.
A-Z Handbook-inspired and other #CSK8 Twitter Chats Moderated by Vicky Sedgwick

  • Chapter 12 talks about Learner-Centered and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP). How can we connect our students’ cultures and life experiences to their coding projects? Share some examples from the context of your classroom and your students.

  • In chapter 12, the guidelines for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) are divided into 3 categories; one of these is “Relationships with students, families, and communities”. How can building these relationships help creativity and personal expression to flourish in our K-8 CS classes? 

  • We’ve been talking about improving creative coding through scaffolding and an emphasis on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP). Now it’s time to see this in action. Please share your students’ creative projects and your scaffolded lessons.
  •  We often hear the phrase #CSforSocialJustice. What does it mean to you? How do you include CS for Social Justice in your classroom classroom? Please include links to lessons or activities. #csk8
    • How can we leverage ideas from culturally relevant pedagogy for “CS for Social Justice”?
Questions contributed by Dr. Christine Liebe (CSTeach Course, Colorado School of Mines)
  1. If you had students from other cultures, what would be some ways that you could learn about cultural “othering” or misundertandings they might experience?
  2. What are the many different kinds of problems affect students from diverse cultures? How could you adapt your CS teaching to mitigate such experiences in your classes and/or empower your students to address such issues/problems?
  3. How would you go about connecting to older successful CS students who are from the same background as your culturally diverse students (and who could serve as mentors to your classroom/students)?
Activity (Contributed by Jen Rosato, EDU 6740:CS Methods Course at College of St. Scholastica)

Using the examples from Chapter 12: Learner-Centered & Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, discuss creating a unit that involves a specific programming topic such as loops, conditional statements, variables, inheritance, etc. (Note: this could be a unit you plan to develop for your capstone project, but it does not have to be.  You can select the topic which best applies to your project or to one in which you’d like to do a little more research.)

The recommended steps to follow are:

Create a table for your topic that includes how one or more of the principles from the chapter and/or the CRSP framework are embodied in your unit.

Additional Materials/Resources

Culturally Relevent/Responsive Pedagogy

 

Presentations on Equity-focused Teaching: Designing STEM learning for Black girls

Designing STEM Learning For Black Girls (Jakita O. Thomas)


Equity-Focused Teaching (Tia Madkins, Nicol Howard, & Shomari Jones)