We teach them about variables, input, output, selection etc using edublocks. My SOW is available on TES. #TeamCompSci

I.e rather than the ‘scratch’ unit which introduce all programming concepts, I work through each programming concept and tasks are available for concrete (physical), pictorial (scratch) and abstract (textual). Pupils can switch between depending on their progress. Just riffing really. [4/4]

I want to make the most of the engaging nature of microbits/robots etc, but want to make sure it’s worthwhile in laying the foundations of programming knowledge and skills. I’m considering a system whereby pupils can more easily move between concrete, pictorial and abstract at any stage. [3/4]

What seems to happen when they come to do edublocks is they’ve not really learned any core programming concepts from their scratch experience. This is despite them being referred to explicitly when the learning is happening. [2/?]

Yeah I try to do this, but the amount of knowledge that actually comes through when they revisit isn’t what I’d like. Typically just now it looks like: Primary - maybe scratch, maybe robots, maybe nothing S1 (Y7) - scratch S2 (Y8) - edublocks S3 onwards - textual programming [1/?]