In this unit, we will be reviewing the concepts we covered in the previous weeks, and providing some ideas for an independent “mini-project” students can focus on in the next several classes. We will also introduce a framework for keeping students accountable to the work they are doing individually and in groups, and providing a rubric for assessment of the development process, as well as the finished product.
It is important to allow students to practice accounting for the work they are doing on a short “mini-project” like this, so that when they move on to an independent project spanning multiple weeks, it will be easier for you to keep track of what everybody is doing.
It also reinforces the important idea that how you solve problems is at least as important to learning as whether you solved them at all (or even got the right answer). Programming is a process of patient problem-solving, and finding ways to value, acknowledge, and reward the problem-solving process is an important part of assessment.
