ELT-Tutor is happy to invite your son/daughter to an innovative online English course: Coding in English, alias Cod-English.

Age: 9-11 years
Mode of delivery: online (via Skype – account set up and monitored by parents)
Starting date: 2nd week of October 2023
Intensity: once a week, 90 minutes
Aim of the course:
– teaching A1-A2 level English to kids (project-based);
– teaching basic coding to kids in English.
Materials: no books required, projects are online/digital
Parents are strictly and closely involved into every phase of the course.

DETAILS ABOUT COD-ENGLISH:

Knowledge required:

The students need very little knowledge about computers:
– using a mouse,
– writing a message in the chatbox on Skype,
– sharing screen on Skype,
– opening up a browser,
– closing and inactivating open windows,
– saving files into a pre-set folder for projects, etc.
These will be discussed in Italian in the first lesson.

The students need little knowledge in English:
– following simple instructions (open the file, click on the link, do what I’m doing, etc.)
– basic vocabulary: animals, colours, fruit, numbers, simple verbs (open, close, copy, click, etc.)
– simple answers and requests: Yes, No, I don’t understand, Repeat it please, It’s clear, etc.
Also these will be given to them in the first lesson.

Content of the Cod-English course:

During the course, students will learn about the basic notions in coding: algorithm, sequencing, repetition, variables, etc.

Using visual puzzle blocks (= instruction codes), they will be able to build up a game/exercise/animation. First only following the teacher’s instructions, later creating their own projects:

The course includes:
– art projects;
– music projects;
– simple games like simple clicking and hand coordination games;
– quizzes;
– mazes (we can even recreate ‘Pac-Man’);
– ball games;
– story telling;
– moving backgrounds and walking sprites etc.
(See some samples below.)

Online Safety:

The students work in a completely safe environment:
– from their home, being connected to the teacher online,
– using only certified, educational websites and applications,
– never sharing anything themselves and/or under their names,
– parents can/are required to follow students’ progress (not only for safety reasons, but as one of the biggest motivation: ‘Mum/Dad, look what I can do!‘).

Language used in the lessons:

The lessons are held in English from lesson 2. Students this way will:
– first improve their listening skills (and concentration skills),
– answer simple questions,
– later ask their own questions.
Over the course, the teacher’s talking time will decrease, while the students’ talking time will increase.

Aim of the course:

The course is aimed at many types of students: brain work and creativity are combined, students are to take control of the final outcome of the course.

Cod-English enables students:
– to answer simple questions in English,
– to ask simple questions in English,
– to learn a wide range of vocabulary through working on coding projects,
– to improve their listening skills,
– to improve their speaking skills,
– to prepare students for a speaking exam (Cambridge Starters, Movers or Flyers, depending on the students’ entry level).

Furthermore, the course is designed:
– to prepare kids safely for a digital environment,
– to discover and put to work children’s curiosity and desire for experimentation,
– to help each other and work as a team,
– to wait patiently for the others,
– to be self-confident in presenting their own project,
– to give and accept constructive criticism (and understand what comments are really about),
– to build a sense of competence, control and community.

Some samples from previous courses:

Simple past quiz (demo version, students recreated and finished it): Click onto the green flag and read the question. Type in your answer in the white box below. Did you get it right?

Music project: Guitar solo (student’s masterpiece): Click onto the green flag and just listen to the music.

Halloween: Ghost game (student’s masterpiece): Click onto the green flag and start collecting points. If you click onto the blueish-green ghost, you earn a point, but if you click onto the red one, you lose all your points. Good Ghost-Hunt!

Simple ball game (demo version, students repeated and reinterpreted it later): Click onto the green flag and move the green bar left-right. If you hit the ball, you earn one point. If the ball hits the red bar, GAME OVER.

Grammar and Exam preparation:

Implicit preparation for Cambridge Starters, Movers and Flyers exams are included in projects:

Odd-one-out speaking game (part of Cambridge Movers A1 speaking exam): Click onto the green flag and wait for some seconds. If you click onto the red button, you will see four pictures. Try to find some way to group them: three that are similar and one that is different. There are a lot of correct answers!

Furthermore, grammar teaching happens with short animations and grammar-based conversation through comics the students create:

Pac-Man rocks (student’s masterpiece):

Pac-Man rocks!

Story:
Picture 1: Two children are playing on the beach. They are building a sand castle. They see three green bumps in the water. They don’t know what it is.
Picture 2: One ball becomes Green Pac-Man and eats the other two balls (now yellow). So he becomes yellow, too.
Picture 3: Pac-Man is the king of the sandcastle, and in his own world of a real castle with lots of small pac-men…

Do you have still questions? No problem, contact me:

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW?

Share this Page