Today's tasks
Weeks 1 and 2 — Building a Picture of the Curriculum
Today you will examine all eight lessons of Weeks 1 and 2. Your goal is not just to read the lessons but to build a record of what you're seeing — something you can use to compare, argue with, and draw conclusions from. A quick skim produces quick forgetting. The chart below is your tool for slowing down in the right places.
Your unit's CS concepts for these two weeks:
- CS+Fables — Week 1: Sequence • Week 2: Event
- CS+Data — Week 1: Sequence • Week 2: Events
- CS+Community — Week 1: Event • Week 2: Repeat
- CS+Earth — Week 1: Repeat • Week 2: If-then
A note about pacing: some lessons are marked "skip if low on time." These labels are a tool for classroom teachers managing real time constraints — not a judgment that those lessons are unimportant. As pre-service teachers studying the full curriculum, you should read every lesson. As teachers, you can move through each lesson in a fraction of the student time shown — you are reading and analyzing, not doing every activity.
Step 1 — Work through Weeks 1 and 2 and fill in the chart (30 min)
As you read each week, create a table like the one shown below and fill in the row for each week as you go. You can do this in your reflection document or on paper — either way, write something down before moving to the next week. The act of writing forces you to decide what matters.
The chart:
| What CS concept is introduced, and how does the curriculum explain it to students in everyday terms? | What role does the subject matter play? Is it doing conceptual work, or providing familiar context? | What is the CS+Me topic, and how well does it connect to what students are learning that week? | One specific thing you would change about this week, and why. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||||
| Week 2 |
Step 2 — Compare the two weeks using your chart (10 min)
Once both rows are filled in, look across them before discussing. The comparison is the point — not the individual weeks in isolation.
Discuss with your group: Compare your two chart rows. What stayed consistent from Week 1 to Week 2 — in lesson structure, in how the subject matter is used, in what the lessons are doing? What changed? Most importantly: does the curriculum feel like it is building from Week 1 to Week 2, or does each week feel like a fresh start with a new concept? Find at least one specific piece of evidence in the lessons that supports your answer.
Discuss with your group: Look at the "skip if low on time" labels across both weeks. Looking at what those lessons actually contain: do you agree with the curriculum authors' judgment about which lessons are optional? What would a student lose by skipping them? Does your answer change how you think about what the curriculum considers essential?
For your project document
Former Day 3 Reflection Questions
- As you wrap up today, what is one thing that surprised you or shifted your thinking as you moved from the introductory framework into the actual content weeks? What question do you now have about how this curriculum works over time?
- Every Week 1 lesson opens with an anchor chart and a choral read that connects the CS concept to everyday life before students touch Scratch. What does this design choice tell you about the assumptions the curriculum makes about its learners — both students and teachers? What would be lost if a lesson skipped straight to the Scratch project?
- The CS+Me lessons weave digital citizenship into every week of the curriculum rather than teaching it as a separate standalone unit. What does that design choice say about what the curriculum authors believe belongs in a CS education? How well does the specific CS+Me topic in your unit's Week 1 connect to the rest of what students are learning that week?
- Look carefully at the moment in Week 1 where the subject matter of your unit does the most work in teaching the CS concept. Describe that moment specifically. Is the subject knowledge genuinely necessary to understand the CS idea, or could the same lesson have used any other context? What is the difference between integration and illustration — and which one is happening here?
Former Day 4 Reflection Questions
- As you wrap up Week 2, what is one thing you noticed about how this week's lessons were designed compared to Week 1? What stayed the same, and what changed?
- By Week 2 all four units in this curriculum are teaching different CS concepts. From what you can see in your own unit, how does the curriculum sequence its CS concepts from week to week? Is there a logic to the order, or does each week feel independent?
- You have now seen two consecutive weeks of your unit. How is the subject matter (fables, weather data, community, or earth science) being used at this point in the curriculum — is its role deepening as the CS concepts get more complex, staying about the same, or fading into the background? Use a specific example from Week 2 to support your answer.