How to Incorporate Coding Activities into Your Elementary Curriculum

Incorporating coding activities into the elementary curriculum has become a crucial aspect of preparing students for the future. By embracing coding in the elementary classroom, educators foster critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills in students from an early age. These skills will empower them to thrive as technology continues to shape the way we work, communicate, and solve problems.

Why Incorporate Coding Activities?

We are seeing a big influx of technology programs marketed to schools that allow students to log in and work independently. While this has the benefit of being able to differentiate at the academic level of the learner, this type of independent practice isn’t ideal for mastering the use of technology. These programs very rarely ask students to type, create, explain, and problem solve as they are learning. A teacher guiding the same type of activities with planned stops for discussions and collaboration is the gold standard for students building real technology skills that can carry over into their lives.

Coding in particular enhances critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It also promotes perseverance, creativity and innovation.

Coding activities encourage collaboration and peer learning among students as well. Pairing them up for coding projects fosters teamwork and cooperative problem-solving skills, making the coding experience more engaging and interactive.

Do I need to have a background in computer science to incorporate coding activities into my teaching?

You do not need to be an expert! Model being a lifelong learner. Seeing you make a mistake, admit you don’t know something and take steps to learn it, or ask for help is a powerful example from an authority figure. You can even make a bounty board for things that neither you or anyone else in your class has been able to quite figure out, and let students work on solving the problem when they are done with other work.

Instead of attempting to master coding in snatched opportunities between periods, aim to be just two or three lessons in front of your students. Practice each lesson before class. Particularly if you are utilizing platforms or websites you aren’t used to, this will give you a chance to work out some bugs and familiarize yourself with the layout without 20-30 pairs of eyes peering into the back of your head.

Project Based Learning

Project based learning (PBL) is a method teachers employ that requires students to integrate and synthesize skills from different subjects to solve complex, real-world problems. For example, instead of requiring students to read a book on modern Japan, a teacher may assign a project. Students may have to give a series of presentations on Japanese art, modern political economy, and environmental challenges. These areas combine art, politics/history, and science into one theme. Such projects also force students to recognize information and distill it into a presentable format. Students can thus develop their reasoning skills and find creative solutions to questions that do not have a clear answer. If you want to find out more about Project Based Learning in the Classroom, it is well worth your time.

Coding activities are great candidates for project-based learning. What’s great is that with this strategy, integrating core subjects into coding activities can be a natural extension of the project.

Incorporating Coding with Presentations

As we just hinted, coding activities can create some unconventional and fantastically in-depth presentations. Students can code an avatar that presents the information in speech or thought bubbles, or even record audio clips for it to voice. They can also animate areas of their project to highlight as they discuss it, or use a coding project to demonstrate how something works.

Digital Dioramas & Diagrams

Similarly, coding activities are excellent candidates for creating digital dioramas and diagrams. Physical versions of these have long been used to show learning in subject areas such as science, social studies and reading. You can even have students explain their problem-solving strategies in math by coding and animating it!

Resources and Tools for Incorporating Coding

Overcome resource constraints by leveraging free online coding platforms, open-source software, and low-cost coding tools. Code.org has free curriculum, even if you are working on coding concepts without the benefit of devices. Tynker, Scratch, Lightbot and more excellent coding platforms are all free as well.

If you have the materials available, you can transform your classroom into a coding workshop by setting up dedicated coding stations and tech zones. Resources like laptops, tablets, robots, and coding kits inspire young minds.

VoCode

Coding meets vocabulary instruction with VoCode! Integrate those robots you have (or turn students into robots) to complete these coding challenges. 3 options for the activities mean that you can use this with ANY movable Bots and ANY grade level of students.

Assessing Student Learning in Coding Activities

Coding activities are somewhat self-correcting, thankfully. Student programs simply won’t behave the way they want them to if they haven’t coded them correctly.

That said however, you can implement formative assessment strategies like observation, peer evaluation, and self-assessment to track student progress in coding activities. Evaluate finished coding assignments based on creativity, problem-solving approach, and coding proficiency.

Conclusion

Incorporating coding activities into the elementary curriculum cultivates essential skills that are increasingly valued in today’s society. As we look towards the future, sustaining and expanding coding initiatives in elementary schools will empower our students with the tools and skills they need to succeed. By embracing coding education, educators can inspire a new generation of problem solvers, innovators, and collaborators.