Scratching Beyond the Surface of Literacy: Programming for Early Adolescent Gifted Students

Abstract

Digital technology offers new possibilities for children to play, express themselves, learn, and communicate. A recent development in online practice is a shift toward youth engaged in computer programming online communities. Programming is argued to be the new literacy of the millennium. In this article, I examine the use of Scratch, an online programming community, as a means to support digital literacy for early adolescent gifted, talented, and creative students. In addition, I share the experiences of an early adolescent gifted student with Scratch and consider the use of Scratch to promote interdisciplinary curricular concepts.

Digital literacy - a qualitative systematic review

“…In the findings section above we have identified a broad variety in how digital literacy is defined and used in the research literature in the context of elementary and primary education. This finding is not new or surprising, as the term is often explicitly referred to as ambiguous and broad (Stepic, 2013;Aesaert, Vanderlinde, Tondeur & van Braak, 2013;Hagge, 2017;Underwood, Parker & Stone, 2013;Merchant, 2009). Unlike the dominant perspective in the literature about digital literacy, we do not, however, think the broadness and multiple meanings of digital literacy is a problem that needs to be overcome.…”

Preservice Teacher Perceptions of Using Coding in Literacy Instruction

“…Gee (2013) offered a framework in understanding how game environments, such as those found in online coding apps Code.org and Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), assist in learning noting that video gaming itself is a form of literacy. He referred to a "good" game environment as one that enables and reinforces learning, active exploration, and player autonomy, which a coding app such as Scratch allows due to the open-ended nature and full user control (Hagge, 2017;Kafai & Burke, 2014;Thompson, et al, 2018). Table 1 provides a brief summary of this framework, featuring those principles most pertinent to the current study.…”

“…Computer science learning activities are often structured like games allowing students to think logically through steps within highly motivational, problem-based environments that integrate a variety of skills including media and text literacies, in order to come up with viable solutions and meet the goals set forth within the game (Hagge, 2017;Hutchison et al, 2015).…”

“…The app Scratch Jr. and the website Scratch teach coding literacy through games and interactive stories. It is meant to introduce coding to users that lack experience as they snap together visual programming blocks with a mouse, similar to building with LEGOs (Hagge, 2017). Scratch Jr. is a free app for young children (ages 5-7) to program interactive stories and games (MIT Media Lab, n.d.-a).…”

“…Sight words (recognized at a glance) and high-frequency words (appear most often in text), are categorized as phonetically decodable or include irregular spellings and are generally memorized (Farrell, Hunter, & Osenga, 2019). Kindergarten and first grade students spend much time learning sight words to improve reading fluency, which in turn supports comprehension and understanding of text, and allows students to begin to shift toward the integration of written, oral, and visual communication (Hagge, 2017). In the same way, students of programming must learn basic commands and the structure of the coding language in order to improve fluency and build more advanced programs (Codeacademy, n.d.).…”