Working at different speeds

[Zoe Deeley]

How do you guys deal with kids working at different speeds?

Do you always start everyone on a new project together and just expect that some won't finish or do you expect everyone to finish a project before moving onto the next?

I have some kids who race ahead - do the whole project and all the challenges while others can barely get through the first few steps. My fear is that if they don't get the majority of a project done then they are missing out on vital learning needed for later projects - but is this unfounded?

What do you do about kids who simply don't want to do the projects?

Looking for inspiration...

Zoe

[Paul Sinnett]

I don't worry too much about children working at different speeds. I don't start them on new projects together, I let them work at their own pace. If you have children racing ahead and finishing all the challenges that's great. But I would suggest for those that perhaps the projects are too easy for them and they should skip ahead onto something harder.

I would encourage the children to complete the projects they are working on if they are struggling. Skipping a project because it's too easy is fine. But skipping one because it's too hard might send the wrong signals.

Children that don't want to do the projects is something we struggle with at our club. Again there could be two reasons for this: they find the projects too easy, or they find the projects to challenging. YouTube and other online games are a massive distraction and in the library environment, where we run our club, we don't have any access control. Our approach is to engage with children that want to explore their own programming projects and ignore those that just want to play games or watch videos.

One thing we have started to do is to get the children to show their parents what they've been working on went the club finishes. This helps motivate some of the children as if they haven't done anything, they've got nothing to show. 

I don't know if something like that might work in a class environment by getting children to display their work to each other?

[mans048]

Good idea Paul, I'm going to pinch that one and have the kids show their parents what they have been doing. I have one or two who need prompting now and then and this might motivate them to stay more focused.

Steve

[Dan Powell]

On kids that don't want to do the projects - I've had this at my club. My response was to point out (in a positive way of course!) that me and the person I run the club with are both volunteers, and we've given up our time to come along and run Code Club - they can access Scratch or do online gaming at home and that's fine, but when they're at Code Club, they're there to code :) They were all fine with that. It's a public club at a Maker space in Brighton.

Dan

[Zoe Deeley]

It sounds like a good strategy Dan. I've said clearly at our first club that the rule is that they can only play on games that have been developed at code club otherwise they will be asked to leave. We've got a very small group this year -  only 7 children (probably as there are several other clubs running at the same time) so it should be much easier to manage than last year. 

Paul and Steve - I have run competitions in the past in our school club which the kids loved - they needed to demonstrate their project at the end of the lesson and the leaders chose a winner - that did motivate some and I'll use the strategy again once we have a certain level of ability gained and if there is enough enthusiasm for the idea.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SouthEastEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to southeastenglandco...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to southeasteng...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/southeastenglandcodeclub/d9a02620-da2a-4320-a3d4-34b6ae798e44%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Backmarker]

Zoe

I let the kids run at their own pace. I had one kid who was a full four projects ahead of the rest of the group at one point, but the gap closed as other kids caught up. I see it like physical growth (ie height), they grow both continuously, and in sudden bursts.I also have a couple of kids who can only attend every other week (due to joint custody) so I cant hold everyone else back, but I dont want to exclude them either just because their parents have split. Every child has to do every project, they have to produce a working 'game' (in the Scratch projects) that I enjoy playing, before they can move onto the next level (I do not make every child do every challenge if they can make a decent game without doing so - I use the challenges to stretch the more able). Most weeks there will be four different projects being worked on (by 12 kids).

I have never had a kid not want to do a project, but if I did then s/he would be kicked out instantly. I am offering my time (I work full time, getting flexitime to leave work at 3pm one afternoon a week has not been easy) to help kids lean to code. Code Club is invitation only, it is an opportunity to learn to code, and it is provided on a 'take it or leave it' basis. If they dont want to take it, they can leave. I am the only non teacher providing an afterschool activity who does not charge a commercial fee, which is fine, but I am not volunteering to provide an hours free childcare.

Regards

Backmarker

On Thursday, 10 September 2015 17:37:17 UTC+1, Zoe Deeley wrote: