Grade 2 Foundations of Computer Science (#5002032) 

Clarification 1: Instruction includes identifying digital tools such as Internet applications, online catalogs and databases.

Clarification 2: Instruction includes recognizing the Internet as a means of communication.

Clarification 2: Instruction includes the connection to using a dictionary, glossary or encyclopedia.

Clarification 1: Instruction includes using input/output devices such as a mouse, speakers, printer, monitor, keyboard or touch screen to find, navigate and launch a program.

Clarification 2: Students should understand that hardware is the physical component of a computer system.

Clarification 1: Instruction includes teaching students to keep food and drinks away from computers and other hardware such as keyboards, screens, mice, printers and tablets.

Clarification 2: Instruction includes teaching students proper ways to carry and store computers or devices.

Clarification 3: Instruction includes teaching students to keep magnets away from computers and screens.

Clarification 2: Instruction includes comparing the characteristics of hardware and software.

Clarification 1: Students should be able to determine from the symbol whether or not they have a network connection.

Clarification 2: Instruction includes recognizing a network system symbol on a computing device.

Clarification 1: Instruction includes discussing how to respect others’ privacy, as well as one’s own privacy.

Clarification 2: Digital content includes videos, pictures and audio (sound bites).

Example: Record the number of minutes you spend on an electronic device every day for two weeks. Categorize the number of minutes by how you spent time on the electronic device. Create a bar graph to represent your screen time.

Clarification 1: Patterns can be created using manipulatives, building bricks, visuals, numbers, music or technology.

Clarification 2: Students discussing and creating repeated patterns will build the foundation for loops and algorithms in later courses.

Clarification 1: Instruction emphasizes creating a story in a step-by-step manner.

Clarification 2: Instruction makes the connection to developing an algorithm.

Clarification 3: When developing a plan, students can use graphic organizers, storyboards or flowcharts.

Clarification 1: Simulations include growth, human health, weather patterns, soil development and the butterfly life cycle.

Clarification 2: When solving questions, students may need to create a visual representation.

• Cultivate a community of learners.
• Foster perseverance in students by choosing challenging tasks.
• Recognize students’ effort when solving challenging problems.
• Emphasize project-based learning.
• Establish a culture in which students ask questions of the teacher and their peers, and errors as a learning opportunity.
• Develop students’ ability to justify methods and compare their responses to the responses of their peers.

Teachers who encourage students to demonstrate understanding by decomposing a problem:

• Develop students’ ability to analyze and problem-solve.

• Help students break complex tasks into subtasks.

• Show students that the solution to individual parts allows them to solve complex problems more effectively.

Teachers who encourage students to complete tasks with digital fluency:

• Provide students with opportunities to increase critical thinking skills.
• Provide students with opportunities to use various technology hardware and software, so that technology is an integral part of the learning experience. Develop students’ ability to construct relationships between their current understanding and more sophisticated ways of thinking.

Teachers who encourage students to express solutions as computational steps:

• Provide opportunities for students to develop sequentially based understandings of problems. 
• Guide students to align tasks to a step-by-step solution.
• Select sequence and present student work to advance and deepen understanding of correct and increasingly efficient methods.
• Prompt students to continually ask, “Does this solution make sense? How do you know?”
• Reinforce that students check their work as they progress within and after a task.
• Strengthen students’ ability to verify solutions through justification.

Teachers who encourage students to create an algorithm to achieve a given goal:

• Support students to develop generalizations based on the similarities found among problems.
• Have students estimate or predict solutions before solving.
• Help students recognize the patterns in the world around them and connect these patterns to other concepts.

Teachers who encourage students to differentiate between useable data and miscellaneous information:

• Support students as they validate conclusions by comparing them to the given situation.
• Create opportunities for students to discuss their thinking with peers.

Teachers who encourage students to solve real-life problems in science and engineering using computational thinking:

• Create learning opportunities that require logical reasoning and problem-solving skills.
• Provide opportunities for students to create plans and procedures to solve problems.
• Provide opportunities for students to create programs or models, both concrete and abstract, and perform investigations.
• Challenge students to question the accuracy of their programs, models and methods.

• Cultivate a community of growth mindset learners. 
• Foster perseverance in students by choosing tasks that are challenging. 
• Develop students’ ability to analyze and problem solve. 
• Recognize students’ effort when solving challenging problems.

• Help students make connections between concepts and representations.
• Provide opportunities for students to use manipulatives when investigating concepts.
• Guide students from concrete to pictorial to abstract representations as understanding progresses.
• Show students that various representations can have different purposes and can be useful in different situations. 

• Provide students with the flexibility to solve problems by selecting a procedure that allows them to solve efficiently and accurately.
• Offer multiple opportunities for students to practice efficient and generalizable methods.
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on the method they used and determine if a more efficient method could have been used. 

• Establish a culture in which students ask questions of the teacher and their peers, and error is an opportunity for learning.
• Create opportunities for students to discuss their thinking with peers.
• Select, sequence and present student work to advance and deepen understanding of correct and increasingly efficient methods.
• Develop students’ ability to justify methods and compare their responses to the responses of their peers. 

• Help students recognize the patterns in the world around them and connect these patterns to mathematical concepts.
• Support students to develop generalizations based on the similarities found among problems.
• Provide opportunities for students to create plans and procedures to solve problems.
• Develop students’ ability to construct relationships between their current understanding and more sophisticated ways of thinking.

• Have students estimate or predict solutions prior to solving.
• Prompt students to continually ask, “Does this solution make sense? How do you know?”
• Reinforce that students check their work as they progress within and after a task.
• Strengthen students’ ability to verify solutions through justifications. 

• Provide opportunities for students to create models, both concrete and abstract, and perform investigations.
• Challenge students to question the accuracy of their models and methods.
• Support students as they validate conclusions by comparing them to the given situation.
• Indicate how various concepts can be applied to other disciplines.

2-3 Students include relevant textual evidence in their written and oral communication. Students should name the text when they refer to it. In 3rd grade, students should use a combination of direct and indirect citations.

4-5 Students continue with previous skills and reference comments made by speakers and peers. Students cite texts that they’ve directly quoted, paraphrased, or used for information. When writing, students will use the form of citation dictated by the instructor or the style guide referenced by the instructor. 

6-8 Students continue with previous skills and use a style guide to create a proper citation.

9-12 Students continue with previous skills and should be aware of existing style guides and the ways in which they differ.

In grades 1-2, students build upon these skills by justifying what they are thinking. For example: “I think ________ because _______.” The collaborative conversations are becoming academic conversations.

In grades 3-12, students engage in academic conversations discussing claims and justifying their reasoning, refining and applying skills. Students build on ideas, propel the conversation, and support claims and counterclaims with evidence.