Using Coding to Teach Writing

by, Gretchen Sting

Description:  Discover new ways to bring narrative writing instruction in the upper elementary grades into the digital age by using computer programming elements. Using computer programming to motivate, students become more persistent and determined to produce excellent narratives.  Presentation participants will review the main story structure and elements in teaching writing.

 

Purpose and Objectives:

Teaching writing to elementary students who have grown up in the digital age needs to change. Teachers need to reach students through their way of encountering the world, in a multimedia type of format, with digital age learning in the forefront.  Using computational thinking skills, students can enhance their knowledge of computer science concepts to increase motivation and the desire to develop well-written narratives.  Additionally, student writing will become more structured, more detailed, better developed, and thoughtful.  While using logic, analytic thinking, and sequencing, students will problem solve to increase creativity by taking complex writing structures and breaking them into simpler parts. Combining both fields, writing and computer programming, students will be excited, motivated, and inspired to go beyond the necessary assignment, and create a written masterpiece that embodies all of the narrative elements in a digital age learning style.