Quinn Burke
Yasmin B. Kafai
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the potential to introduce basic programming concepts to middle school children within the context of a classroom writing-workshop. In this paper we describe how students drafted, revised, and published their own digital stories using the introductory programming language Scratch and in the process learned fundamental CS concepts as well as the wider connection between programming and writing as interrelated processes of composition.
- Black, R.W. 2008. Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
- Brown, A., and Campione, J. 1994. Guided discovery in a community of learners. In K. McGilly (Ed.), Classroom Lessons: Integrating Cognitive Theory and Classroom Practice (pp. 229--290). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Burke, Q. and Kafai, Y.B. 2010. Programming and storytelling: Opportunities for learning about coding and composition. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children Conference 2010 (Barcelona, Spain, June 09--11), pp. 348--51. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Calkins, L. 1986. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
- Calkins, L. 1994. The Art of Teaching Writing (2nd Ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
- Costa, N. 2009. Animating Aesop's Fables. Teachers Network. Retrieved August 12, 2011 from http://teachers network.org/grantwinners/Teachnet09NancyCosta.htm.Google Scholar
- Denner, J., Werner, L., Bean, S. and Campe, S. 2005. The girls creating games program: Strategies for engaging middle-school girls in information technology. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 26, 1, 90--98.Google ScholarCross Ref
- DiSalvo, B. and Bruckman, A. 2011. From interests to values. Communications of the ACM, 54, 8 (Aug 2011), 27--29. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dougherty, D. 2010. Teachers as makers. O'Reilly Radar (December 11, 2010. Retreived August 23, 2011 from http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/12/teachers-as-makers.html.Google Scholar
- Feinberg, B. 2007. The Lucy Calkins Project. Education Next, 7, 3, 26--31.Google Scholar
- Harel, I., and Papert, S. 1990. Software design as a learning environment. Interactive Learning Environments, 1, 1--32.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kafai, Y. B. 2005. The classroom as living laboratory: Design-based research for understanding,comparing, and evaluating learning science through design. Educational Technology, 45, 28--33.Google Scholar
- Kafai, Y.B., Fields, D.A., Burke, Q. 2011 (accepted). Collaborative agency in youth online creative production in Scratch. In. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Computers in Education (Chiang Mai, Thailand, Nov 28 -- Dec 2).Google Scholar
- Kelleher,C. and Pausch, R. 2005. Lowering the barriers to programming: A taxonomy of programming environments and languages for novice programmers. ACM Computing Surveys, 37, 2, 83--137. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kelleher,C. and Pausch, R. 2007. Using storytelling to motivate programming. Communications of the ACM, 50, 7, 59--64. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lave, J., and Wenger, E. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Lensmire, T. 1994. When Children Write: Critical Re-visions of the Writing Workshop. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
- McGrath-Cohoon, J. and Asprey, W. (Eds.) 2006. Women and Information Technology: Research on Under-representation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- National Research Council. 2010. Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
- Palumbo, D.B. 1990. Programming language/problem-solving research: A review of relevant issues," Review of Educational Research, 60, 1, 65--89.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Resnick, L.B. 1987. Education and learning to think. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
- Robertson, J. and Good, J. 2005. Story creation in virtual game worlds. Communications of the ACM, 48, 1, 61--65. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shaffer, D. W., and Resnick, M. 1999. Thick authenticity: New media and authentic learning. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 10, 2, 195--215. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wilson, C., Sudol, L., Stephenson, C., and Stehlik, M. 2010. Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K--12 Computer Science in the Digital Age. ACM. DOI = http://www.acm.org/runningonempty/fullreport.pdf.Google Scholar
- Wing, J.M. 2006. Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49, 3, 33--35.Texas Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wolz, U., Ouyang, Y., Leutenegger, S.T. 2011. Scratching the subject surface. In Proceedings of the 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (Dallas, TX, March 09--12). ACM, New York, NY, 48--90. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- The writers' workshop for youth programmers: digital storytelling with scratch in middle school classrooms
Recommendations
Spreading the word: introducing pre-service teachers to programming in the K12 classroom
SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science educationWe present our experiences and outcomes from a programming camp held for sixth through ninth grade students. The instructional team included five pre-service teachers who earned field experience credit for this work, and one in-service teacher. The pre-...
Bringing Grades K-5 to the Mainstream of Computer Science Education
SIGCSE '15: Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationAs awareness of computer science education grows in the general public, it is important to showcase computer science education as accessible for all grades K-12 and beyond. As panelists present the projects and research they've been conducting, we will ...
Undergraduates Teach Game Programming Using Scratch
A new class at the University of Washington Bothell trains undergraduate computer science majors to teach coding concepts to middle school students using the game-programming language Scratch.
Comments