10 Things to Ask About a Coding Curriculum: Question 9 Curriculum Approach

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     Curriculum approach is an interesting piece when you look at what you need in a coding curriculum. It basically comes down to the way that a curriculum platform teaches coding. It needs to be engaging, interactive, and really catch the attention of students, and there a couple of very clear ways to do that.
    It starts with the ways you teach students, and do those ways translate from both a block format to also being in text formats. There are really two ways that make sense to approach this. The first is with puzzles. These are where you are putting blocks together to move a character to a goal. While most block programs have these, I think what you will find is that many of the text coding platforms will get away from these even they are great to get students started with basic concepts. I think looking for these and the engagement that comes with them is always important,
    The other activity that you will see in platforms projects. These are the creative output that comes with coding, and really the key with them is how platforms progress students to create better projects. Are there tutorials to get them started? Do those tutorials start simply and then gradually add more skills? It’s always something to consider.
​    I think when you look at the curriculum approach you have to also look at goals. What is the platform leading students to create? Are they trying to build games, animation, or stories? Are they coding to show what they know in CORE classes? The better ones that are out there take things that kids are interested in and they drive learning with them.
    Really, the key is how the platform peaks a student’s interest and keeps it. If see something like lots of video tutorials it’s probably not great. If you see engaging interactives that you know will keep kids in, you should latch on to it.