Helping Kids with Coding For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935055
ISBN 978-1-119-38067-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-38066-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-38058-0 (ebk)
Welcome to the world of computer programming! Whether you’re an expert at programming or you’ve never written a line of code in your life, you can coach young people in learning the basics of coding. Just like learning to read, cook, or drive, basic principles define the discipline of coding, and the broader discipline from which coding is derived: computer science. This book coaches you step-by-step through the concepts and commands you need to help the kids in your life learn to program!
Coding is fast becoming a skill that every child needs to be educated for in the 21st Century. Knowing how to code means possessing a skill that allows the children you’re coaching to create things that are highly useful in modern society — apps, websites, analysis tools, and more. Helping kids learn how to code also means you’re assisting them in developing a skill that is highly marketable and sets them apart from peers at school and later, in their careers.
But coding is taught at only a small fraction of schools, and often only at the high school level. This book offers you an easy-to-understand, but comprehensive, overview of all the coding fundamentals you need to teach. We largely avoid a theoretical approach to the material, instead offering you hands-on, practical content and methods of instructing your kids in coding. Like content in all For Dummies titles, this book is clear, concise, and organized in an easy-access format.
Helping Kids with Coding For Dummies is structured in a progressive sequence, with introductory topics preceding more challenging topics. The book builds in complexity, but you can dive straight in to any chapter, to discover more about that topic at any time. You already know about variables but need a bit of guidance in assisting your kid with loops? Then head straight to Chapter 10 for help.
As you explore each chapter, keep in mind the following structure:
In this book, we make some assumptions (possibly foolish assumptions!) regarding you getting started in your role as a coding coach:
We’ve also made some assumptions with regard to the coding work you’ll be doing:
The Tip icon indicates tips and shortcuts that you can use to make your work easier. These tips may apply to away-from-computer activities or to actual coding. Tips applying to issues that pop up often may be repeated in several places through the book.
The Remember icon calls your attention to important ideas you want to keep in mind while performing a task.
The Warning icon advises you to watch out, informing you of critical information that helps you steer clear.
The Technical Stuff icon marks slightly more in-depth nuts and bolts of programming, some of which might be helpful in achieving coding success.
The programming concepts you use and coach are mostly universal. Because each concept features hands-on activities and pseudocode, you can teach these ideas to children as young as early elementary. But really, any age is the right age to start working on programming concepts, and there’s never any wrong age to learn something new!
Progressing from away-from-computer concepts and pseudocode to at-the-computer coding can be done at any time when your young coder expresses interest. The programming snippets in this book are presented in some of the most popular languages used by novice coders, used from kindergarten through high school. All the languages are free, and all have stood the test of time with regard to their ease-of-use. Scratch is a popular way to get started, but for many programming purists, Scratch’s drag-and-drop puzzle pieces are inauthentic — their preference is any text-based language such as Python, JavaScript, or Java. Samples of all these languages are included in each chapter.
Don’t forget to check out the cheat sheet that goes with this book. You can find what programming languages we recommend for each age group, all the projects we’ve created for this book, and more. Go to www.dummies.com and search by this book’s title.
Regardless of which activities and programming languages you explore with your young coders, remember to cultivate curiosity, praise achievement, and encourage leveling up. And above all, have fun!
Part 1
IN THIS PART …
Find out why kids are coding and how you fit into their journey.
Get the big picture of coding.
Find out which languages are the best for kids you’re teaching.
Meet Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniack, Ada Lovelace, and Guido van Rossum.
Chapter 1
IN THIS CHAPTER
Why kids are coding
Why you need to know coding
Where do you come in?
Working with young coders
Who are you and where do you fit into the brave new world of coding? You may be a newbie programmer who wants to learn or “level up” coding skills to coach the next generation of kiddos to programming success. Or perhaps you’re a seasoned programmer who wants to “dial it down” and explore a good starting point for kid coders. Or perhaps you’re someone in between — you’ve coded in a past school or career experience — maybe in a language that’s lost steam — and now you’re returning to the practice to learn the newest tricks of the trade.
Whoever you are and whatever your goal, we’re excited to welcome you to (or back to) coding!
In this chapter, you find out why kids are coding and why so much attention is currently focused in education on the discipline of computer programming. We also talk about the range of roles you can play in the teaching and learning of computer science, and identify strategies you can employ when working as a coding teacher, parent, or coach.
Literacy has been a societal goal for centuries, with conscientious parents and teachers working to ensure that the children in their charge learn the skills necessary to succeed in their careers and in life. Until the 1970s, literacy meant mastering the traditional three “R’s” of “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic” (spelling was considered less necessary). As technology started becoming commonplace, computers started appearing in educational settings, and tech literacy became viewed as the fourth literacy.
Fast-forwarding to the 21st century, technology has become so ubiquitous that not only is tech literacy a skill that makes you educated, it’s a skill that makes you highly marketable in the workplace. While tech literacy can include general skills such as word processing, generating spreadsheets, and creating slideshow presentations, the real skills lie in computer programming, or coding. That’s because coding allows people to be not just users of technology, but producers of it (at least on the software end of things).
Schools are recognizing that to prepare kids for their futures, a good education must include coding instruction. In some countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, coding instruction is a national directive. In others, such as the United States, fewer than 10 percent of schools teach coding. To fill in the gaps, many online courses, after-school programs, and summer camps are providing kids instruction in coding. Just like learning to ski or learning a foreign language, learning the basics of coding is best accomplished at a young age: Every learning experience is “new and different” and it’s easy to get back up when you fall down. Regardless of who is delivering the instruction, kids everywhere are coding — and you can help facilitate that learning with the kids in your life using the guidance provided in this book!
Kids are learning more than just coding. They’re devising solutions to problems, building games, and creating programs that do the routine and redundant work humans don’t want to do. There’s a lot kids have to learn to perform those tasks. Here’s a quick rundown of what they’re learning:
Kids are coding on their tablets, laptops, and desktops, using a variety of widely available software tools, many of which are free! They are using books, online resources, and tutorials in web and video formats, and discussions with friends to guide them.
Unlike the early days of coding, many of the programming languages and environments kids are using are visual in nature. Many offer tile or block-based formats in which kids can drag and assemble code blocks together like interlocking puzzle pieces to create programs. This type of structure allows kids to tinker without worrying about spelling commands correctly, syntax (grammar), or punctuation. Modern, introductory languages often feature built-in “assets” such as character costumes and sound effects. And they usually provide some sort of error reporting to help kids in their debugging.
If you tried coding before the 21st century, you probably learned text-based, also known as “line” coding; the new, visual ways of coding are most likely foreign to you. You may have used languages such as Basic, Pascal, COBOL, or FORTRAN. While these languages have mostly faded away in popularity, they were powerful tools and popular in their heyday. Other “older” languages you may have used which are still around today include C, Python, Visual Basic, Ruby, Lua, and R. If you had the opportunity to tackle some serious coding, you may have worked with C++, Java, or JavaScript — some of the past and current heavy hitters in the coding world. The main kid-friendly language of yesteryear was Logo, what you may recall as the “turtle” language. Invented by MIT professor Seymour Papert, Logo and its derivatives were popular in schools, and still exist in several modern incarnations today. “Turtle” languages were about as close as most kids got to non-text based coding prior to Y2K. Fortunately, the more kid-friendly coding environments now available provide a lower floor for entering easily into the world of programming.
Some purists are not fond of “kid” computer languages, especially those that are block-based, expressing concerns that this structure is not realistic, nor professional. They worry that these types of environments are not sufficiently authentic to lay proper foundations for future coding. However, research indicates that exploration in these languages still build the desired programming skills cultivated by working in more traditional, text-based, coding environments.
Your efforts in helping kids get started with coding lay the foundations for them to pursue more challenging programming activities in the future. You can help them build content skills, confidence, and the mindset required to succeed at coding. Whether they choose a career in computer science, or just dabble in writing small programs for various projects, your positive guidance and support contributes to developing an educated and confident young person. Who knows, you might even be responsible for cultivating the next Grace Hopper or Bill Gates!
You have this book in hand, but you may still be asking yourself why you need to know coding. Why should you learn to code when your young coder has a teacher or a camp instructor or a YouTube video guide?
You should learn to code for many reasons:
One of your biggest challenges in learning to code may be your own fear and self-doubt. Perhaps you think you’re “not smart enough.” Another challenge may be a genuine dislike or disinterest in code. Like any new endeavor, there is often a sense of concern that you won’t be capable of learning something new. Maybe you won’t like it. Maybe it’s too much work.
It may be worthwhile to note that a lot of other people who came before you shared the same fears (and loathing, of course) of coding. Like learning any new field — playing piano, ice-skating, speaking Mandarin, cooking, gardening, sewing — there is a learning curve in which the introductory phases are not especially fun or rewarding. But hopefully the experiences leading up to adulthood have shown you that, over time, sticking to the process of learning a new skill eventually results in elevated abilities and satisfaction in a job well done.
Computer programmers are not smarter than you are; they’ve just been at it longer! Like you, they started with introductory coding, building their skills a bit at a time, learning new programming languages and writing many programs until they built a solid base of coding knowledge and skills. Congratulations on taking the first step of learning to code and coaching the next generation to early successes in the world of computer science.
If you’re panicking that you suddenly need a degree in computer science to learn coding to successfully help the kids in your life… don’t! You may already know more about coding and its underlying principles than you think. Just ask yourself a few questions:
Sarah has taught hundreds of adults to code for the purpose of engaging the kids in their lives in coding. You can do it, too!
You come in by guiding and supporting young people in their coding endeavors, as a classroom teacher, a camp or after-school coach, or a parent/mentor. You do not have to be an expert coder — just an interested and caring adult who is willing to co-learn and support your kids in their pursuit of the computer science mission! Here are some ways you can accomplish these feats.
You can select a variety of coding experiences for a classroom setting depending on factors including grade level, available technology, and expected contact time. In the classroom setting — which is more formal than other settings — where you may meet with students multiple times over a quarter, semester, or full school year, you likely have time to work on developing both a breadth (covering many topics) and depth of programming skills among your students (providing students time to grow a greater complexity of skills within a topic of focus). You want to choose a programming environment, a curriculum, and appropriate technology tools for getting kids coding in your classroom.
You can choose several excellent programming environments for coding instruction. Most are free, but be sure to check online for the latest information and updates on each product.
Grade 9 and up: Java, C++, and Swift are considered professional coding languages that your coder can migrate to as she elevates her programming prowess. They are used for authentic programs and for writing software for IoT devices. Java is currently the language used on the AP Computer Science A exam — your coder is probably going to see this before she leaves high school. C++ is used in a variety of applications, such as databases and video gaming. Swift is Apple’s powerful and easy-to-use programming platform.
App Inventor is a drag-and-drop teaching language for mobile devices. It provides a higher degree of complexity than other “easy to use” environments, while at the same time offering the use of Application Programming Interfaces (API), which are pre-written software that allows two applications to talk to each other. App Inventor permits your coder to do cool, “real” things such as integrate Google Maps and GPS location in apps.
Turn to Chapter 3 for more detailed information about each of these programming environnments and others that may be of interest to your young coders.
The curriculum you select for your classroom depends on a variety of factors. You may be required to follow school or district guidelines created by educators other than yourself. Or perhaps you must adhere to standards set at the state level, or the national level by a group such as CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association) or ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education).
Remember, coding is about creating authentic products that perform real tasks. Crafting your curriculum in a project-based model helps ensure students are doing the type of work that professional computer programmers perform. Try to create and customize activities in which students make real products, producing products including websites, online games, and apps. Encourage and support their innovations in crafting inventive graphics, multiple levels, and other customizations that make each child’s program stand apart from her peers.
Most curriculum is shaped by a scope and sequence that ensures learners grow in their coding skills to meet key goals, with short-term benchmarks established along the way. Classroom teachers still have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to differentiate instruction for students of varying ability levels to appropriately challenge each student to rise above his current level. Create tiered options in which each student can create programs that match his skill set. Your coding experience and understanding of each individual child can help you customize the coding experience to create a successful learning environment for your entire classroom community. For specific coding curricula and associated grade level designations, check out Part 5.
Training and professional development (PD) for specific curricula are offered by organizations and universities. For example, the University of Texas at Austin (Camille’s alma mater!) provides online and in-person PD for its UTeach AP Computer Science Principles course. The College of St. Scholastica offers an all online, four-course certification in CS Education. Such PD can result in credit to educators for things like raises or certifications.
With the increased attention on coding, more and more after-school programs and summer camps are popping up everywhere. If you’re an instructor in such a program, you have a unique role in helping the young coders in your charge. You probably don’t see the kids as consistently as a classroom teacher. And there may be greater variation in the experience and ability level of your kid community. But it’s also probable that you’re not locked into a highly structured curriculum.
Whatever the content and format of your workplace, remember to teach students first and coding second. Take time to learn each coder’s interests, experience, and programming goals. Ideally, take a few notes on each participant, update them following each coding session, and review them prior to your next meeting. Reminding yourself regularly of how each coder is progressing can help you to assist him in moving forward and reaching his goals.
As frequently as possible, communicate progress to your coder’s parent or guardian. Include samples of the work product, especially links to completed programs the coder’s family can view online!
Mentors foster and grow coding abilities in youth through a variety of informal contexts. Perhaps you’re a parent, friend, or co-worker of someone with a child who wants to learn coding. Or perhaps you’re the teacher whom “everyone comes to see” when students need assistance on special projects they’re tackling. Maybe you’re a professional programmer who volunteers your time at Girl Scouts or Boys Scouts workshops. (Both groups have coding badges that kids can earn!) Mentors often work on an as-needed basis helping kids grow their coding skills or track down an extra-hard-to-find-bug. They typically maintain a long-term partnership with the kids they mentor, suggesting new projects, languages, and courses to pursue. As a mentor, you may also be asked to write letters of recommendation about the coders in your charge, attesting to their coding interests and abilities, to help them gain admittance to special programs in high school or university.
There are wide range of dispositions when it comes to kids getting started with coding…here are a few of the personality types you may encounter:
Regardless of which kids and which coder personalities you encounter (likely all of them!), meet them where they are, and help lift them up to the next level. You have an important role in fostering their coding foundations and building both the hard and soft skills of a coder. Onwards!
Chapter 2
IN THIS CHAPTER
Coaching for coding
Thinking algorithmically
Commenting to plan and document programs
Understanding sequencing, repetition, and selection
This chapter helps you better understand the big concepts in coding, or computer programming: giving instructions to a computer so that it can perform a task. You see the big picture of writing a program before you focus on the specific details of writing lines of code.
Learning to program a computer is similar in many ways to playing football. You have to first think about the goal of the program. Then you focus on the big picture, or game plan, to develop the key parts of the program.
For example, the goal of football is outscoring your opponent. The big picture of football may include kicking the football, running with the football, avoiding getting tackled, and moving the football to the end zone. Drilling down into special plays and perfecting fancy footwork comes after players cement their understanding of the goal and the big picture.
In coding, the goal is to complete a process that would not easily be accomplished without a computer. This may be providing an airplane simulation game or a tool for searching for a home overseas. The big picture involves all the large parts of the program that contribute to achieving the goal. Creating an airplane simulation may consist of providing a user a virtual airplane, giving controls to fly the plane, providing environments for the plane to fly in, and making the plane react according to user input. Creating a tool for searching for a home overseas may consist of providing the user a map, building areas onscreen to enter information about the desired attributes of the home, and creating a search mechanism based on user-input attributes.
How can you represent the big picture? You can act it out, or draw pictures, or write words to describe the important parts. Each of these activities is unplugged — they don’t require the use of a computer — and each one helps you plan out your computer program before you sit down to begin coding.
Ask your young coders to think of something they’re good at, such as baking cookies, playing Minecraft, or taking care of the family pet. Then ask them to think about their special skill and how they would explain it, in very simple terms, to an alien who has just stopped in to visit Earth. What are the most important parts of understanding how to go from ingredients to yummy baked cookies? What are the big picture ideas you need to know to complete a successful dog walk?
Too many times, people dive into a project by focusing on the details before mapping out the big picture. Camille once had a scary assignment in fifth grade in which she made this mistake! When asked to write a summary of The Red Badge of Courage, she panicked and tried to write a detail from every page of the book, somehow stitching them together, but not making any sense at all. It was an awful three hours of tears at the dinner table. What she should have done was take a step back and write a 30-second movie trailer version of the book, hitting the highlights and the most important parts that captured only the main ideas.
Thinking about coding in terms of typing commands on a computer without stepping back to consider the big picture of what you want the program to do is a recipe for disaster. Plan before you code!
One way of understanding the big picture of a computer program is to act it out, without any computer at all. Invite your young coder to try acting out an everyday activity that is not computer related.
One possibility is dramatizing the process of washing socks (as if asking a kid to wash her own socks wouldn’t be drama enough!). For example:
Although you call this process “doing laundry” or “washing socks,” you can have her act it out so that she can see the process actually involves more steps (see Figure 2-1).
FIGURE 2-1: Acting out a process, such as washing socks, helps kids better understand steps in a process.
“Drive to the intersection and turn right” is an example of a similar task you may perform when writing code for a car race video game. Although this single phrase describes the big picture, you need to drill down to more specific steps in order to accomplish the bigger task. For example, you need to move forwards 150 pixels and then make a square turn (also called a 90 degree turn) to the right (or to the left). When coding these actions in a programming language, you can use a sequence of commands that looks something like forward 150 right turn 90.
Acting out a big picture doesn't have to involve props, but it’s often helpful to use them with new programmers. Making concrete connections to everyday objects and processes can help your kid form a mental model that she can refer to when she writes a computer program.
You can step through a number of daily tasks to help a young learner grasp the concept of process. Brainstorm a list of everyday processes with your child and then ask him to demonstrate the big picture of each process. Here are some you can try:
Get creative and see how many processes you can act out! Remember, you don’t have to actually use the real materials to act out a process. As in charades, you can use your imagination!