I have fallen in love with Google forms. I never thought of them as something you would use to conduct formative assessment until this past weekend.  We had our bi-annual CS Principles meeting, and the presenters integrated several 1 - 2 question surveys for us to complete and provide feedback. It was quick and easy!  It is Tuesday, and I have already created 5 forms for my students to fill out.  It has provided me with very quick feedback on what my students are thinking, at what stage of learning they are at, misconceptions that they have, how they are working in groups, what stage their project is in, and most importantly, what they think of my class today!  It is shaping how I present my next class and changing the way I teach.  Excellent tool.

I wanted to share the results of one of the surveys I provided to my CSP students. The survey that students participated in this morning had 2 questions.  

• What was your favorite topic, project or activity we did this year? 
  
• Why was that your favorite? 
  

I really only had 1 negative response, and I am affirmed by the number of students who's favorite topic or project involved some kind of programming. 

This past weekend, I attended the SIGCSE conference in Atlanta, near where I live.  This was the first time I have had the opportunity to attend SIGCSE, and I am so glad that I did. This conference is a phenomenal way to collaborate with CS teachers at all levels. I learned so much this weekend.  

We just finished second semester conferences for my elementary aged children.  In the conference for my daughter Emelia, our teacher began talking about her reading level and reading comprehension.  Time and research has been spent looking at student's ability to read words and their comprehension of the text and we know that these two quantities are not always equal.  Highlighted by the kindergarten teacher's reminder to be sure that Emelia is able to retell the story afterwards, have an understanding of beginning, middle and end of the story, and to further show comprehension through inferences about why things are happening, how characters are feeling, etc. At the end of this conversation, which my husband and I have heard repeatedly as each one of our children has passed through kindergarten, the teacher remarks that she has several children who can read every word in a chapter book, but they have no comprehension of what they have read. 

Isn't this true for computer science too?  Some of our students have the ability to write code, but they have no "coding comprehension".  As I look at some of the drag and drop programs that so many are turning to as a means to incorporate more "coding" into the classroom, I wonder if we are at the same time building "coding comprehension". Are the students really understanding the code that they are writing? Can they explain it? Do they know how to alter it to make it do something new? Can they apply these structures to something new?

I'm currently helping some elementary teachers teach an after school club on coding.  We have been using the code.org curriculum, and the students love it.  It is excellent for the teachers as well, because they do not need a lot of experience in order to use the curriculum with their students.  I believe this program has been a benefit to increasing awareness for computer science, and will definitely increase the number of students taking computer science courses when they arrive in high school.  

As much as I feel this is a benefit, I am concerned that these drag and drop programs and self-guided learning may not be increasing students "coding comprehension". Looking at my own classes where I have students who take an introductory programming class, and then move on to AP, I can see the lack of comprehension from one year to the next. Students who created beautiful Alice projects, are unable to apply the concepts of loops, conditionals and arrays to Java when they get to our AP class. How can we utilize these drag and drop programs as introductory coding tools, and still build code comprehension? Without the comprehension, students are not understanding what they are writing, just like a student who has a low reading comprehension is not understanding what they are reading.