Free, Self-Paced PD: Teaching Culturally Relevant Coding Projects Grades 3-5

Outline

Session Outline (30 minutes)

0:00–2:00 | Welcome and Framing

Content: Introduce session goals, the free PD (bit.ly/ECFORALL), and the research-backed Scratch-based curriculum.

Engagement: Quick poll (hands raised or digital) — “Who has used Scratch before?” “Who teaches grades 3–5?”

Process: Immediate connection by recognizing diverse experience levels.

2:00–7:00 | Why This Work Matters

Content: Present the project’s background (UC Irvine, Santa Ana Unified, NSF/Dept. of Education funding, teacher co-design). Share key outcomes: increased engagement, improvement among struggling students, growth in environmental awareness and STEM identity.

Engagement: Audience “think-pair-share” on challenges they’ve faced teaching coding/literacy.

Process: Peer-to-peer interaction every few minutes to prevent passive listening.

7:00–15:00 | Curriculum and PD Walkthrough

Content: Demonstrate how the curriculum integrates Scratch coding with literacy and environmental projects. Highlight:

Weekly lesson structure

Videos featuring diverse computer scientists (1–3 min) + reflection workbooks

Supports for English learners and struggling students

Assessment tools (identity survey, computational thinking test, reflection rubrics)

Engagement: Attendees follow a short live demo in Scratch (coding a simple story scene).

Process: Device-based activity; presenter codes alongside audience and encourages them to adapt the example to their own community/subject.

15:00–22:00 | Instructional Strategies and Teacher Support

Content: Showcase professional development model — self-paced modules, scaffolded inquiry, no prior coding required.

Engagement: Participants work in small pairs or trios to identify where this could fit in their own classroom/PD context.

Process: Peer-to-peer exchange + brief group share-out.

22:00–27:00 | Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Content: Share implementation insights from 100+ classrooms:

What worked best for student engagement

Challenges and how they were addressed

Importance of co-design with teachers

Engagement: Prompt audience to brainstorm “one barrier” and “one enabler” they foresee in their context, and share in chat/padlet/with partner.

Process: Reflection activity reinforces relevance.

27:00–30:00 | Takeaways and Call to Action

Content: Recap key resources, link to free PD and curriculum (bit.ly/ECFORALL), highlight community of practice.

Engagement: Attendees share one actionable next step via quick chat post or exit poll.

Process: Ends with participant-generated commitments, reinforcing transfer to practice.

Outcomes

Participant Outcomes:
After this session, participants will be able to:

Access a free, self-paced professional development and Scratch-based elementary computing curriculum (bit.ly/ECFORALL).

Implement ready-to-use lesson plans, scaffolds, and assessments that integrate coding, literacy, and environmental projects in grades 3–5.

Support English learners and struggling students by applying strategies that combine language development with computational thinking.

Apply research-based practices and lessons learned from co-design with teachers and over 100 classrooms.

Foster student creativity, social engagement, environmental awareness, and STEM

Supporting research

Eatinger, D., Saito-Stehberger, D., Krause, S., Tsan, J., Jacob, S.R., Warschauer, M., Franklin, D. (2023) Leveraging virtual professional development to promote computer science education for multilingual students. In L. England, L. D. Kamhi-Stein, & G. Kormpas (Eds.) English Language Teacher Education in Changing Times. Routledge.

2022 Presented “Take-aways of transitioning to a virtual PD” at the March 17 EIR webinar “Rediscovering professional
learning: Creating engaging and meaningful professional development in virtual settings.” https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IzrqboOJ9325GybLs2F9FmWXCJURqMycXJaq5axbfdU/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

Jacob, S., Garcia, L., & Warschauer, M. (2020). Leveraging multilingual identities in computer science education. In Technology and the psychology of second language learners and users (pp. 309-331). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Saito-Stehberger, D., Garcia, L., & Warschauer, M. (2021, June). Modifying curriculum for novice computational thinking elementary teachers and English language learners. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 (pp. 136-142).

Baek, C., Saito-Stehberger, D., Nam, A., Lopez, G., Jacob, S., & Warschauer, M. (2024). Empowering Latine elementary school students with disabilities: Computer programming through culturally sustaining curriculum. Computer Science Education, 1-26.

Saito-Stehberger, D. (2022, March). Examples of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Computational Thinking Curriculum. In Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 (pp. 1055-1055).

Ojeda-Ramirez, S., Tsan, J., Eatinger, D., Jacob, S., Saito-Stehberger, D., Franklin, D., & Warschauer, M. (2023, March). Describing Elementary Students' Spheres of Influence in Scratch'About Me'Projects. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1 (pp. 333-339).

Saito-Stehberger, D., Houchins, J. K., & Warschauer, M. (2024, March). Elementary Latinx Students Apply Growth Mindset while Creating in Scratch. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 (pp. 1806-1807).