Learning Unit $7$: Teaching and Learning Programming

OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

discuss and apply various skills, strategies and activities to scaffold the learning of programming; and explain programming skills to learners and enable them to understand and implement these concepts successfully when planning and writing their own programs.

$7\mathrm{.}1$ INTRODUCTION

The teaching of computer programming is difficult, and teachers are therefore required to support learners. This implies that the teacher needs to use various skills, strategies and activities to scaffold the learning of programming. The purpose of this chapter is to provide guidelines in teaching computer programming.

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$7\mathrm{.}5$ CONCLUSION

The teaching of computer programming should not only focus on programming content, but also on the effective teaching thereof. The purpose of this chapter was to explain various ways how to teach programming concepts and skills to learners and enable them to understand and implement these successfully in their programs.

After reading through the remainder of Chapter $7,$ you can proceed to complete Assignment $7.$

ASSIGNMENT $7$

You have to design and develop a complete IT lesson, where you explain to learners how to

$-$ Utilise exceptions to catch errors on input and output.

Use the Lesson planning Word document available under Additional Resources. Examples of lesson plans given in the TMS$3718$ study material, IT textbooks and its teacher support material and your Teaching Practice Record may not be used for this purpose under any circumstances. It is also important to note that if $($parts of$)$ your lesson plan looks exactly like the example provided, this will not earn you any marks!

Clearly state the following for this lesson, as marks will be allocated as follows:

$($a$)$ The correct page number in IT CAPS document $(1)$

$($b$)$ Grade level $(1)$

$($c$)$ Subject Topic $(1)$

$($d$)$ Subject sub$-$topic $(1)$

$($e$)$ Time allocation $($whole section$),$ in week$($s$)/$ hours as indicated, as well as minutes $(3)$

$($f$)$ Time allocation for this lesson, in terms of number of periods and minutes $(2)$

$($g$)$ Indicate the content selected for this lesson on the page from the IT CAPS, and paste the page into your lesson plan. $(2)$

heart The time allocated to the lesson should be appropriate to the amount of content selected. $(3)$

$($i$)$ A balanced set of at least six lesson objectives $-$ one each for the six cognitive levels of the Revised Bloom$$s taxonomy $($indicate the taxonomy levels$)(6)$

$($j$)$ Describe at least three different resources $($LTSMs$)$ that you are going to use in this lesson $(3)$

$($k$)$ Indicate the main teaching strategy $($or strategies$)$ that you are going to use in the lesson $(1)$

$($l$)$ Teaching activities $($at least two for every lesson phase$)(7)$

$($m$)$ Learning activities $($at least two for every lesson phase$)(7)$

No Assessment activities $($at least two for every lesson phase$)(7)$

$($p$)$ Plan expanded opportunities for learners at the different ends of the scale of cognitive ability. In other words, plan enrichment activities for high achievers and remedial activities for lower achievers $(2)$

$($q$)$ Integration of lesson components $($see Chapter $2)(3)$

$[50]$