Hi CSTA Community,
Our team is currently revising our 6th grade computer science curriculum over the summer, and I'd love your input.
We currently use CodeHS to introduce HTML to our 6th graders. Over the past two years, we've noticed that many of our students struggle with the lessons taking significantly longer than anticipated-largely because they're still building keyboarding skills and are brand new to coding.
We're considering starting with block-based HTML coding as an entry point to help students focus more on structure and tags before fully transitioning to text-based coding later in the unit or school year. The idea is to scaffold the learning, gradually reducing the block support as they gain confidence and fluency.
Has anyone here tried this approach-starting HTML with blocks and then moving to text?
Do you think this is developmentally appropriate for 6th graders?
Any recommendations, success stories, or tools you'd suggest?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts-thank you in advance for sharing your experience and wisdom!
Best,
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Paula Martino, CREC/CS Teacher
East Hartford CT
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