Using Snap! with Parsons Problems in a School Environment (ages 11 to 16)

For Teachers
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1

I am a trainee Secondary School Teacher in the UK.
My current assignment is ‘An investigation of pupil progress and assessment in computing’, composed of a series of CS lessons and a master’s level essay. I intend to focus this on the use and efficacy of Parsons Problems.

However, thus far, I have not encountered any software that is classroom-ready, flexible and has monitoring and feedback features built in. Therefore, I wonder if Snap! can rise to meet that challenging use case?

I’m envisaging lessons that start with a game or art project presentation to demonstrate the underlying algorithm and goal, followed by pupils working from ‘Parsonised’ code copies using pair programming.
Unfortunately, I know very little regarding how Snap! could be deployed in this way; therefore, I ask if anyone has written any how-to docs that can solve all the above.

Any help or advice in this regard is welcome.

2

We definitely support Parsons problems; you can present students with a reduced palette, and add your own custom blocks to it. (Students have the possibility of escaping to the full palette; we believe in Parsons problems as a game they agree to play, just as they agree to follow the rules of chess or basketball, but not as something they experience as a disempowerment.)

The part about monitoring and feedback is a little harder. We can do it; we can even embed a Snap! window in a web page that records student progress. But it takes some effort on your part (as a curriculum developer; it's not hard for a teacher to use the curriculum). I'll see if I can hook you up with developers who've done it.

3

Thank you, that is most considerate.