Day 4: Programming Concept Lab

Daily Learning Contract

• Topic: Programming Concepts
• Objective: Students will identify how a sequence, loop, or conditional controls program behavior and connect the concept to a programming career task.
• TEKS: d(1)(C)
• Demonstration of Learning: One working or correctly traced programming example plus a concept-and-career explanation.

Lesson Overview

Before Students Arrive

• If using Code.org, test one no-login tutorial from a student-filtered Chromebook and post that exact route. Do not ask students to browse a tutorial picker during the lesson.
• Open the supplied delivery-robot trace in the Canvas Student Guide. This is the complete no-site route; do not create block cards, a backup program, student accounts, or section codes.
• Plan for 1 Chromebook per student and 1 monitoring roster per class period. Print 1 exit ticket per student plus 2 spares. Students may ask one adjacent coding buddy for help, but each student produces an individual explanation.
• Set the evidence route before class: students show the teacher a working example or save one screenshot. No separate platform upload, badge, or certificate is required.

Warm-Up (6 min)

WARM-UP: Have you ever written code before, on Scratch, Code.org, Tynker, Roblox Studio, or anywhere else? If yes, what did you make? If no, what do you THINK coding is going to feel like?

Quick poll. Some students have used Code.org or Scratch before and some have not. Bridge: "Today you will test a programming concept and connect it to software-development work. Finishing a vendor tutorial is optional; explaining the code is the evidence."

Activity 1: Trace the Supplied Model and Start the Route (5 min)

Project the delivery-robot trace already in the Canvas Student Guide:

1. When start: move forward 1 space.
2. Repeat 3 times: turn right, then move forward 1 space.
3. If the package is at the door, show DELIVERED. Else, show CHECK ROUTE.

Students identify the sequence, loop, and conditional using 1, 2, and 3 fingers. Then they open the one verified tutorial or remain on the supplied trace. If the live route takes more than three minutes to load, move the class to the trace. The learning evidence is the explanation, not access to a vendor activity.

Activity 2: Build or Trace and Explain (28 min)

Students work through the one verified tutorial or trace the fixed delivery-robot program. The target is not a completion percentage. By minute 25, each student should be able to point to one sequence, loop, or conditional and explain what it controls.

Time, Voice, Body: Post Voice 0 for independent work and Voice 1 for one quick question to the adjacent coding buddy. Keep a visible countdown. Headphones stay at the student's own seat and return at the three-minute close; if no class set exists, run muted.

Active Monitoring: Walk a fixed route with one target per lap, marking a clipboard printed from the Active Monitoring Clipboard Roster, with these three checkpoints written into the headers, as you go:

1. Progress Check: By minute 11, record the student's live or trace route. By minute 25, record the concept the student can identify.
2. Concept Check: When you see a student using a loop, pause them and ask: "What does this loop do? Why is it faster than copying the same block 5 times?"
3. Frustration Check: Watch for students who are stuck on the same level for more than 5 minutes. Ask: "What did you just try? What do you think is wrong?" Never give the answer; ask leading questions. Name the Day 3 bounce back move here: pause, find what went wrong, then change one thing.

Pivot condition: if more than five students stall on the same level, project that level once or move the class to the supplied trace instead of solving it seat by seat. End the tutorial build at minute 39 so the career explanation and close remain protected.

The 3 programming concepts to listen for:

• Sequence: Code runs in order, top to bottom.
• Loop: A block that repeats other blocks a set number of times (saves typing).
• Conditional: "If this happens, then do that," used in advanced tutorials.

Students show the teacher one working example or save one screenshot. Students on the trace route explain the expected output to the teacher. Tutorial percentage, badge, and certificate do not affect the evidence.

Keep this complete frame beside the explanation: "This code uses a _ because . The output will be __ when _____."

DOK 2: How would you describe what a "loop" does in your code? Why is using a loop better than copying the same block 10 times?

Career Connection DOL (8 min)

EXIT TICKET (Short Constructed Response) · Printable PDF:

1. Which programming concept did you use MOST in today's tutorial? Circle ONE: sequence / loop / conditional

2. Pick ONE programming career from Day 2's three-career packet. Name it here: _____

3. Write ONE real task that career does on the job that uses the concept you circled in #1. Be specific (example: "a Game Developer uses a LOOP to spawn 50 enemy monsters without writing the code 50 times"). (d(1)(C))

Keep this complete frame beside the response: "A _ uses a when the program needs to __."

Save and Close (3 min)

Students show or save the programming example, close the site, and submit the exit ticket. Return headphones when used.

Differentiation

• Support: Use the supplied trace, three plain-language concept definitions, and complete explanation frames. A coding buddy may explain one step, but each student identifies and explains the concept.
• Extension: Students annotate where a second programming concept appears in the trace or test a second tutorial after the required evidence is complete.
• ELL: Use the tutorial's language selector when available. Keep the same visual trace and the words sequence, loop, conditional, repeat, if, else, output visible at the point of use. Accept oral rehearsal or speech-to-text before writing.