2nd grae scratch

I haven't posted in several days. Probably not a good habit to get into.

This week I decided to start teaching the second graders to use Scratch. I wasn't sure exactly how it would go, and in a lot of ways it went better than expected.

When I approach a new program, I think students should be given basics of functionality, and then time to work with the functions they have seen in order to solidify "how to." And, it also gives the more curious a chance to "play" with other buttons and see what happens.

And that is largely how scratch went.

And, like in most of my classes, there will be a small handful of students who figure out some very "fun" or "cool" functionality, and I'll have to reign the class in and demonstrate that as well.

The problem I find is that some students get so caught up in trying to discover new things, that they completely ignore what has been taught and "jump ahead." Those students then end up being the most frustrated. Nothing works. They don't understand. And when I work with them one on one I find that they did not at any point use any of the functions taught in class--even in the follow along phase--and therefore cannot remember the basics, and have not been able to figure out the more advanced (its really not surprising that a student who has not worked with the basics is having trouble with advanced functions).

And on the same day I saw the exact same scenario played out in an upper school elective.

Some students are very curious, and overly confident in the ability. I don't want to diminish the confidence of any student, but at the same time I have to work to create a way to reach those students and let them know that they have to work with the basics for a few minutes or they may end up confused, frustrated, and not enjoying a process that the rest of the class really wants to spend more time on.