Teaching Coding and Programming: Best Practices for Elementary School Teachers

Coding and programming are essential skills for anyone interested in technology. Teaching coding nurtures crucial cognitive abilities such as problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking. We highlight both the benefits and challenges involved in this innovative educational arena. This article delves into the best practices for elementary school teachers to effectively teach coding and programming concepts, including outlining strategies for integration and assessment. We also have a line on the resources you’ll need to accomplish this!

Benefits

When we code, we learn:

Critical Thinking
Perseverance
Creativity
Story Telling
Problem Solving
Teamwork
Self-Confidence
Risk Taking

Teaching these skills early will benefit students regardless of what subjects they gravitate towards later. Coding teaches the exact process of breaking down problems that computational thinking requires. Computational Thinking is one of the seven over-arching focus areas which the ISTE standards address, and with good reason. Programming is a low-risk, concrete way to test and strengthen logic skills.

Challenges

Ignorance of these benefits among staff, administration and parents is one of the biggest challenges to teaching coding and programming in elementary school. The best practice, therefore, is to begin by educating your opponents rather than your students.

Other challenges include a lack of resources to enact a coding and programming educational endeavor. However, let it be said that there are many ways to work around a lack of devices, such as unplugged activities. In fact, unplugged activities are often more effective in teaching beginning coding concepts since students are not distracted by their devices.

There are also ways we will discuss later in this article to incorporate coding into other subjects which work around objections regarding the class time teaching programming may demand.

The further hurdle to overcome is often teachers who perceive themselves to be incompetent when asked to teach a previously unknown skill. You do not need to be an expert in order to learn alongside your students! In fact, we dedicated a whole article to Teaching Coding Concepts if You Don’t Know How to Code.

Best Practices

Teach Computer Fundamentals and even opting to Start with Keyboarding! are often better choices than diving straight into teaching coding. You don’t want a lack of basic computer skills to hinder success with more complicated tasks. Hands-on activities are usually best for younger students, or those who have yet to develop computer skills.

Vocabulary instruction is always an important first step, no mater what the subject matter. Definitions should be paired with the topics you are teaching, growing in complexity as your students are ready. You can then periodically review a broader selection of terms to make sure knowledge isn’t being lost over time.

Coding Robots are an excellent way to let students test out their coding logic with built in self-correction. Robots only do what they’re told! If they program it incorrectly it will not behave the way they are hoping it will. This chance to see immediate consequences often reaches students in a way that lessons devoid of practical implementation simply never will.

Teaching Coding with Scratch or other block-based coding platforms will help them figure out the logistics of coding without getting too bogged down in the minutia of learning a programming language.

An excellent next step for students who have block-style coding well in hand however is to encourage them to begin developing proficiency in multiple programming languages. Text-coding, CoffeeScript, Javascript and Python are all highly accessible for more experienced students.

3D modeling with your students in later grades is a practical way to implement what they have learned in coding. Our 3D Printing Lesson and 3 Leveled Tasks has what you need to dive into Tinkercad and start getting more coding training out of your 3D printer.

Integrating Programming into Multiple Subjects

Our guide on How to Incorporate Coding Activities into Your Elementary Curriculum will help you incorporate coding into projects, presentations, diagrams and more no matter what subjects you teach.

Resources to Teach Coding and Programing

Free initiatives like Hour of Code and the Code.org Curriculum Catalog as well as curriculums like CS First have great lessons, leveled to make your students more and more proficient programmers.

Tynker, Scratch, CoSpaces Edu, Blockly, Code Monkey, Lightbot and more excellent coding platforms are all free as well.

If you need unplugged activities for your coding instruction, we’ve got you covered. Code.org Fundamentals Unplugged, CS Unplugged, and Kodable’s Ultimate Guide to Unplugged Coding Activities are all great places to find lessons, printable resources and even downloadable instructional videos.

There are a variety of great books out there to help invigorate your coding and programming instruction. Everything from informational Guides to Coding and Coding eBooks to our curated Coding Themed Read-Aloud Book List are available to add depth and dimension to the topics you are tackling.

Our Activities

Coding Interactive Activities

Fully digital Coding Activities that are perfect for your grades 2-5 students. Let your students learn about computer languages in a fun and engaging way. These activities are independent click and go lessons on binary, coding, and problem solving.

Story Coding Challenge

**Challenge your students during STEM or Computer Lab time to plan and code a story that promotes being a good digital citizen.**

VoCode

Coding meets vocabulary instruction! 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.

Coding Quests

Each of these printable board games practices a different coding or computer science skill in a way that is fun and engaging for students. They will be challenged to problem solve but will love every minute of it!

Robot Craftivity

A hands-on experience designed to familiarize students with basic coding concepts and robotics vocabulary. By crafting their unique paper robots, students will see firsthand how different components come together to breathe life into a character.

YouTube Channels for Coding and Programming

Here are some of the best YouTube channels for teaching coding and programming skills to elementary students.

Scratch

Scratch is a visual programming language that is designed specifically for children. It’s easy to learn and can be used to create games, animations, and interactive stories. The Scratch YouTube channel offers a wealth of resources, including tutorials and project ideas.

Khan Academy Code

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that offers free educational resources. Their Computing channel offers tutorials on a variety of programming languages, including JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and SQL.

Code.org

Code.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science. Their YouTube channel offers tutorials on programming concepts and features famous guests such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

Assessment Strategies

Since programming is fundamentally about building and problem-solving the implementation of digital products, coding activities are thankfully somewhat self-correcting. 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 a rubric which takes creativity, problem-solving approach, and coding proficiency into consideration.

Conclusion

Teaching coding to young students prepares them for the technology-driven world they will inherit. By fostering a supportive and engaging environment for young learners to explore the world of coding, educators can empower students to become proficient in this critical 21st-century skill set.