Title: Graph Paper Programming

Grade: 3
Overall Goal: To build critical thinking skills by introducing fundamental programming concepts
to the students

Standards Learning Objective Assessment

Common Core English
Language Arts Standards
2.L.6, 2.SL.1, 2.SL.6
Common Core Math
Standards
2.G.3, MP.1, MP.2, MP.3,
MP.5, MP.6, MP.7, MP.8
Students will be able to: Hand out the assessment
1. Reframe a sequence worksheet and allow
of steps as an students to complete the
encoded program activity independently
2. Explain constraints after the instructions have
of translating been well explained.
problems from
human language to
machine language

Next Generation Science

Standards

ETS1

Key Terms & Definitions:

● Algorithm - A list of steps to finish a task.

● Program - An algorithm that has been coded into something that can be run by a
machine.

Lesson Introduction (Hook, Grabber):

Overview
By "programming" one another to draw pictures, students get an opportunity to experience
some of the core concepts of programming in a fun and accessible way. The class will start by
having students use symbols to instruct each other to color squares on graph paper in an effort
to reproduce an existing picture. If there’s time, the lesson can conclude with images that the
students create themselves.
Purpose
The goal of this activity is to build critical thinking skills and excitement for the course, while
introducing some of the fundamental programming concepts that will be used throughout the
course. By introducing basic concepts like sequencing and algorithms to the class in an
unplugged activity, students who are intimidated by computers can still build a foundation of
understanding on these topics. In this lesson, students will learn how to develop an algorithm
and encode it into a program.

Lesson Main:

1. Warm up (10 min)- CASSIE (kahoot)

Introduction to Graph Paper Programming

In this activity, students will encode instructions to guide each other toward making drawings
without letting the rest of their group see the original image. This warm-up frames the activity for
the class.

Display: Watch one of the videos below to give students context for the types of things that
robots can do:
● Asimo by Honda (3:58) - kahoot based on this video CASSIE

● What are algorithms? - Claire

○ https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/ab84c59e-ea70-45ca-98cf-2031edfa9a43

● Dancing Lego Robot (1:35)- kahoot based on this video Katelyn

Discuss: How do you suppose that robots know how to do the things that they do? Do they
have brains that work the same way that ours do?

Discussion Goal
The goal of this quick discussion is to call out that while robots may seem to behave like people,
they're actually responding only to their programming. Students will likely refer to robots from
movies and TV that behave more like humans. Push them to consider robots that they've seen
or heard of in real life, like Roombas, or even digital assistants like Amazon Alexa.

2. Main Activity (30 minutes)- Program B bots -Emma

Practice Together
In this activity, students will act as both programmers and robots, coloring in squares according
to programs that they have written for one another.

Distribute: Students will use 4x4 grids (or sheets of graph paper with 4x4 boxes sectioned off).
They will also need the image worksheet.
Display: Project these commands, or write them on the board. They won't persist long, but they
will help students make the transition from Algorithm to Program.

Move one square right

Move one square left
Move one square up
Move one square down
Fill in square with color

Say: Today, we all get to program robots...and they're already here in the room! It's you! We're
going to write programs using symbols with special meanings to help each other recreate a
picture. First, we'll practice together as if I am the robot and you are the programmers, then we
can break up into groups so that everyone can get a turn.

Display: Display both the image that you are going to have the students walk you through, and
a blank grid that you will fill-in with your ARM. Make sure that the instructions, grid, and image
remain visible at the same time.

Here is an image. Pretend that I am the robot with an Automatic Realization Machine (ARM).
These are the only instructions that I understand.

Starting at the upper left-hand corner, guide my ARM out loud with your words.

Model: The class might give you instructions like these below. As you hear an instruction that
you intend to follow, make sure to repeat it out loud so that the students can keep track of what
you are doing.
Move One Square Right
Fill In Square with Color
Move One Square Right
Move One Square Down
Fill In Square with Color
Continue with the activity until you have completed your sample square.

Capture: Write each of the commands down so that students can see all of the steps that went
into the one image.

Move One Square Right

Fill In Square with Color
Move One Square Right
Move One Square Down
Fill In Square with Color

Say: You just gave me a list of steps to finish a task. In programming, they call that an
algorithm. Algorithms are great, because they are easy for you to understand as the
programmer. BUT, what happens when we want to write down the algorithm for a drawing like
this?

Display: Show the students a more complicated image, like the one below.

Next, begin writing down some of the instructions that it would take to replicate that image.
Hopefully, students will see that writing everything out longhand would quickly become a bit of a
nightmare.

Move One Square Right

Fill In Square with Color
Move One Square Right
Move One Square Right
Fill In Square with Color
Move One Square Down
Move One Square Left
Fill In Square with Color
Move One Square Left
Move One Square Left
Fill In Square with Color
PLUS 12 MORE INSTRUCTIONS!.

Display: Show the students this list of symbols.

Discussion: How could we use these symbols to make our instructions easier?

Draw out ideas that relate to transitioning from the verbal instructions to the symbols. Once the
students get to that place, point out that this text:

“Move one square right, Move one square right, Fill-in square with color”
would now correspond to the program:

Model: Now, have the class help you draw the larger image using only symbols. Do not worry
about unnecessary steps for now. If their final program works to create the image, consider it a
win.

The classroom may be buzzing with suggestions by this point. If the class gets the gist of the
exercise, this is a good place to discuss alternate ways of filling out the same grid. If there is still
confusion, save that piece for another day and work with another example.

See a sample solution below:

The Students' Turn

Group: Divide students into pairs or small groups.

Have each pair/group choose an image from the worksheet.

Discuss the algorithm to draw chosen image with partner(s).
Convert algorithm into a program using symbols.
Trade programs with another pair/group and draw one another's image.
Choose another image and go again!

3. Wrap Up (15 min)

Journaling / Flash Chat
Having students write about what they learned, why it’s useful, and how they feel about it can
help solidify any knowledge they obtained today and build a review sheet for them to look to in
the future.

Journal Prompts:

● What was today’s lesson about?

● How did you feel during today’s lesson?
● Draw another image that you could code. Can you write the program that goes with this
drawing?
● What other types of robots could we program if we changed what the arrows meant?

Assessment Rubric: KENZIE: QR CODE QUESTIONS TO WRAP UP LESSON

Ex: what was hard? What did you like? What would you do differently? etc...
Great Average Poor

Indicator Description Description Description

Resources / Artifacts:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=13vY5rkrHJBu-aPb7yMyC0jlojE7gEWY9
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GkV6zhHk-0Y4X6j62HHitmOxm3Uk_s8D
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Gw08zjK9j_wZequfvfsGu9gAl33zJr5w
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1keSfjFKRRXr0Z9iTffskG7v-EZsOgrgQ
https://create.piktochart.com/output/33802157-graph-paper-programming (Xinlei Xu)
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/ab84c59e-ea70-45ca-98cf-2031edfa9a43 (Claire)
https://edpuzzle.com/media/5bd61bd82a8d5840d312d570 (Vicky)
https://edpuzzle.com/media/5bd67c959cb784407ae2e054(Vicky)

Differentiation: （Xinlei & Vicky）

1. Differentiation for ability levels

● For low ability learners, we have help them approach the class material slowly and
smoothly. So for this kind of students, teachers can repeat one thing several times in
class. Also, teachers can give them handout with all the main points of this class for
 them to look at. This would help with those kids might not have time to do understanding
and taking notes at the same time, or those kids don’t have time to take notes.
● For high ability learners, they can be paired with low ability learners in the beginning of
the class. High ability learners can help low ability learners when they have some
difficulties. For example, when low ability learners don’t understand what teachers are
talking now, and high ability learners can explain to them. For another example, if low
ability learners are confused about the class work, and high ability learners can help
them to do after high ability learners finish their own work.
● Start the high ability learners off with a more difficult image, while low ability learners
begin at the most basic image.
● For the differentiation of ability levels, we can avoid to set a task only has one right
answer. We need to set tasks or assignments which have flexible ways to reach out their
personal results. Also, we need to tell clear rules and directions for students before their
do the tasks which can avoid low ability levels fail too low. This also can encourage high
ability students to find more ways to solve one problem. For example, student would find
many sets of algorithm in one activity of this lesson. Before they work, we would tell
them that there are different solutions because there are different ways to arrive the final
point.
● In order to narrow the gap of different ability levels students, teachers should have
ongoing assessments or after class assessments. These can help teachers to know
whether students know these materials. The most important one is that teachers can
help low ability students to catch up during spare time.

2. Differentiation for demographics

● Gender: We can encourage students to group cooperatively and collaboratively learning

rather than boys-versus-girls competition. We can give more choices for students of
reading, writing and other assignments which in order to fulfill the different prefers for
boys and girls.
● Race & Culture: We could not make assumption of individual on their race and culture,
we need to treat them fairly and we need to know them after class individually. We also
need to avoid talk some sensitive topics in the class.
● Sexual Identity: We need to encourage students to show their own sexual identity in the
class. We also need to tell with students that we need to respect each other although
some of them are different with you. We need to have the strict rule of cyberbullying in
the class.

3. Differentiation for languages

● The class might have some students whose first language is not English. At this time,
translator like google translator and should be allowed for them which could help them
understand the class material better.
● This lesson also has some parts need students to have discussion with others. For this
situation, some students whose language are not English would be afraid of talking with
 others. Thus, we need to find advanced students to pair with these students which can
help them to be more engaged and confidence in the class.

4. Differentiation for access & resources

● For some students, they might not have computers at home. And schools should allow
them to use the computer lab if possible to help them get familiar with how the computer
works.
● If there is the activity which needs to use computers and teachers need to find some
other activities which cannot use computers to replace. This is because some students
don’t have computers in their home so they cannot do some tasks after class. In order to
ensure every student can do the work, teachers need to provide variety different kinds of
activities or tasks for students to choose by themselves.

Anticipated Difficulties: (Xinlei & VIcky)

● One of the difficulties would be the difficulty in thinking in a computational way for some
students. Because for some students they don’t have a computer at home so they can
hardly use computers outside of school. And this means they might lack of a
computational way of thinking. When you say give a mission to the computer, they might
be confused that “how do we tell the robot what to do?” And this might happen to some
students. When there is a gap between students, it’s even harder for the teachers to
control the teaching steps because some students do not need explanation but others
might find it hard to understand. At this time, I think it’s better to talk to the students’
parents and suggest to have a computer at home to help them better understand how
the computer works. And schools can also offer more opening time for computer lab and
let the students explore the technology. Another difficulty is that some students are not
attracted by some parts of the class such as the concept explaining part which might
make some students feel boring. At this time, it’s our teachers’ job to arrange more
activities in the class to help the students raise their interests.

● Another difficulty might happens in this class would be recognize symbols. When
students are doing graph paper programming, they need to use verbal words or symbols
to represent the steps of algorithm. Some student might have difficulties to match each
symbol with verbal word, which I mean some student would forget which symbol
represents which verbal word. Some students might be confused about some symbols
like the symbol for move one square down and the symbol for fill-in one square. This is
because these two symbols looks like same. Some students might have difficulties when
they need to use symbols and verbal words together. In the following situations,
teachers can help students to do lots of practise about symbols, and teachers should
ensure most of students know symbols well and then to begin the next section.
● The other difficulty would happen in this class would be the activity part. One of activities
for this lesson is creating algorithm and programming in a blank grid paper by students
selves. This activity can evaluate whether each student has known what is algorithm and
programming but this activity is also really hard for students to do because it requires
students to know these materials very well. While, in a common class, just only small
part of students can learn a new material well in short time and the most of students
need to practise that again and again. For this situation, teachers can prepare other
activities for students who have difficulty to do the original activity or students who are
not interested about the original activity.