Episode 51: Engaging Your Students With The Right Language Featuring @jolson_codes

Teaching Python

Sean and Kelly invite Jeff Olson (@jolson_codes) to the show. Let’s take a look at language in the Computer Science classroom and focus on how we can put our students first by engaging them in the “right language for their learning.”

Special Guest: Jeff Olson.

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Links:

• Model inclusive language - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University — As instructors, you can have a great impact on the classroom climate through the very language you use. Yet it can be hard to recognize in one’s own speech that some of the most basic idioms and examples are often not inclusive, for they are actually very specific to one group in society (e.g. men/women, Christians, whites, heterosexuals, etc.). This tendency can inadvertently marginalize minority groups. For instance, research has shown that using gender-exclusive language (e.g., using he to indicate he or she) in professional settings affects women’s sense of belonging and lowers motivation (Stout and Dasgupta, 2011; Sczesny, Formanowicz, & Moser, 2016).
• The Trouble with Real-ish Problems — We've all seen math problems like this. Problems where the context or numbers are ridiculous. And what might we say to a kid in this situation? "Don't worry about that, just do the math."
• What Are You Talking About?! The Need for Common Language around Personalized Learning | EDUCAUSE — As a former language teacher, I love examples of translations that didn't turn out quite as they were intended. There's the famous example when the U.S. auto-maker Chevrolet marketed the Nova in Latin America: no va in Spanish means "doesn't go". Airports seem to be a great place to find language problems, such as the sign helping people find the restrooms. My point is that language matters.
• Students Don’t Need Simple Examples | by Jeff Olson | upperlinecode — In my post about coding for predictions, I wrote a sentence that got edited out of the final draft, but that’s played on repeat in my head ever since. Students don’t need simple examples. They need clear ones. I’m realizing that this catchy little antithesis is essentially my whole teaching philosophy rolled up into one line.
• Education Summit 2020 - YouTube — The Summit is a gathering of teachers and educators focused on bringing coding literacy, through Python, to as broad a group of audiences as possible. -Jeffrey L. Olson Jr, Foo and “Bar” Must Die - Teach Less and Do More with Context, Predictions, and Playtime
• Humble Book Bundle: Learn to Code the Fun Way by No Starch Press (pay what you want and help charity) — Sean's Win of the Week is the If Hemingway Wrote Javascript from the current Humble Bundle. --- We've teamed up with No Starch Press for our newest bundle! Get ebooks like Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!, Practical SQL, and Eloquent JavaScript 3rd Edition. Plus, your purchase will support UNCF and No Starch Press Foundation!
• Amazon.com: If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript eBook: Croll, Angus: Kindle Store — What if William Shakespeare were asked to generate the Fibonacci series or Jane Austen had to write a factorial program? In If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript, author Angus Croll imagines short JavaScript programs as written by famous wordsmiths. The result is a peculiar and charming combination of prose, poetry, and programming.