This document discusses how teaching coding can help develop students' writing skills. It argues that coding requires many of the same cognitive skills as writing, such as breaking problems into parts, recognizing patterns, and creating step-by-step processes. Coding can also be used to teach narrative elements like characters, plot, conflict, and resolution. Students can write and share stories through coding programs and platforms like Scratch Jr that use visual blocks. Overall, the document promotes coding as a new literacy that helps students learn computational thinking while also strengthening their writing abilities.

1. Using Coding to Teach
Writing
Prepared by
Gretchen Sting, Stephanie Bass
TeachersFirst Contributors

2. Using Coding to Teach
Writing
Gretchen Sting
Stephanie Bass
ISTE 2017

3. What Do Students Really
Know about Technology?

4. Why does it
matter what
students can do
with
technology?

5. What will the future be for the
students you teach?
How will you prepare them for their future?
By the year 2020 there will be more than one
million more computer science jobs than there are
students.
“Code.org

6. Stop!
I don’t
know how
to code!

7. Coding Does Not Fit
in my Curriculum!

8. What is Coding?
• Instructions
• Language
• Visual or Specific
• Logic

9. Computational
Thinking o Problem
Decomposition
o Patterns
o Abstraction
o Algorithms and
procedures

10. Programming Outcomes

11. ○ Thinking skills:
flow, sequence,
conditional
branching,
mathematical
operations, and
design of functions
○ Computational
thinking
○ Collaboration
○ Persistence

12. Core Computational Thinking Skills
● Decomposition: Breaking down a problem into its component parts.
● Abstraction: Removing extraneous/irrelevant details from a problem to define the elements of a solution that are
consistent.
● Pattern Recognition: Looking for common elements among different cases of a problem to help us define the rules that
we can use to solve it.
● Creating Algorithms: The detailed, step-by-step rules we use to solve a problem in a consistent and replicable way.
● Evaluation: Determining the effectiveness and efficiency of a solution and whether the solution accurately and precisely
solves the problem.

13. Thinking Skills
expand critical thinking and problem solving

14. Persistence

15. ○ Logic
○ Analytic thinking
○ Sequencing
○ Problem solving
○ Creativity

16. • Introduce early
• Experience
• Level Playing Field
• Not necessarily best students
• New Literacy
• Job opportunities
Teaching Computer Science

17. Vocabulary
Navigate your data and make queries to find algorithms!

18. Learning
• All ages
• Model
• Collaborate
• Learn from mistakes

19. Programming
concepts
o Sequencing
o Loops
o Conditionals

20. Creates an even playing field

21. Empower your students

22. Wait I don’t Know How to
Code!!!!!!!!

23. Resources for
Coding
1. Code.org
2. Kahn Academy
3. MOOC
4. You tube tutorials
5. The Webinators

24. BUT You Do Know
Standards!

25. Coding is a story
What do you want the computer to do? Why?

26. Coding is a
vessel to
share your
story.

27. 1. Story can be
shared through
1. Readers’ Theater
2. Powerpoint
3. Read aloud
4. Storytelling
5. Digital Storytelling
6. And CODING

28. Student Writing Becomes Alive!

29. Emotional
Connection to
Learning
Use Story

30. Narrative
Elements
●Read closely
●Central ideas or themes
●Point of view

31. English language Arts Standards
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.
English Language
Arts Standards

32. Use technology,
including the
Internet, to
produce and
publish writing
and to interact
and collaborate
with others.

33. CHARACTERS
● Main character
determines the
way the plot will
develop
● Face the
challenges
● Solve the
Problem

34. Setting

35. Plot

36. Conflict

37. Resolution

38. Combine How does coding show a story?
How does coding use narrative elements?
How does coding use author’s craft?

39. Narrative
Elements
• Dialogue
• Audience and purpose
• Transition words
• Cause and effect
• Point of view
• Predictions

40. Characterization
How is it shown?
Movement?
Sound?
Why?

41. Foreshadowing

43. Screencastify
and record the
audio! Keep the
story within the
simple code!

44. https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=v4UIZqWEntA

45. 1. Movement
2. Dialogue
3. Pauses
4. Avoidance
Characters in a coded program

46. Scratch Jr
Easy to use
Visual block based
Focus on narrative
http://www.scratchjr.org/teach.html

51. Make a
screencast
and add the
spoken story
to your
coding
program!

52. Coding First
1. Cubetto
2. Bloxels

53. 1. Save locally
2. Export
3. Screenshot
Saving

54. Scratch JR for
Writing Stories
http://www.scratchjr.org/teach.html#animated-genres

60. Scratch JR
Conversations
https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Conversations

61. Scratch Jr
Chat Boxes
https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Conversations

62. Projects-
Not necessarily a product-
engaging process of expression
1. Unscramble words
2. Build a rainforest
3. Build a dialogue about bumble bees
4. Create and build
5. Can bring in background object add
audio
6. Add Story

63. Start simple
1.Loop
2. Move

64. OHHHHH,
that’s not too
bad!
I CAN do
this!

65. You hold the
key...your
students need
your help

66. Sharing
1.Set experience up one
iPad
2. Airdrop
3. Screencast

67. Additional
Resources
1. Facebook Group
2. #
3. Code.org
4. http://scratched.gse.harvard.e
du/
5. Sam Patterson
6. https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=ACythfqYG9E&t=11s
Kodable
Scratch
Tynker
Hopscotch
Foos