Life Skills Through Coding

“My robot keeps going crazy!” was a common refrain when we first started working with BeeBots.  Our students loved to program the BeeBots to drive in long, straight lines, but programming a simple “dance” with a few turns sent them instantly into the frustration zone.

A few weeks later, those same students are confidently programming the BeeBots to run mazes of their own design.  So, what changed?  We learned about chunking.

Chunking is the process of breaking a larger task down into simpler steps, or chunks, to make it more manageable.  This can be really challenging for neurodiverse students, but it is also something that can be explicitly taught and practiced.

We first practiced chunking during our morning meeting.  I pulled out a few markers and crayons, and pretended to be drawing a picture.  I had a student volunteer to be my teacher, and told me to clean up.  I threw my hands in the air -  “It’s too much!  I can’t do it!!” I cried.  My students started offering suggestions.  Did I need a friend to help me?  What could they do?  I told them that I felt overwhelmed by so many things to do that I couldn’t figure out where to start.  “Put the green lid on the green marker!”  Someone suggested.  “Ok, I can do that,” I replied, calming down.  “Now do the orange one,” another friend suggested.  Step by step, each student gave me suggestions, and before long, the mess was clean.  

Now that we had an example, I introduced the term “chunking” and we talked about other ways we could use it.  Reading one word at a time instead of stressing about how long the book is.  Looking at just one math problem instead of the whole page.  Doing one step of a Lego build.  We discovered that we were already using chunking sometimes, but not always thinking about it in situations where it could help us.

That afternoon, I laid out an 8 step maze for my BeeBot.  With the students helping, I tried to code the whole thing in one go multiple times, but I kept pressing the wrong button somewhere in the sequence, and having to start over.  After a couple of failed attempts, I asked for a suggestion.  How could I make this easier for myself?  As I hoped, one of the students asked “Could you do a smaller chunk?”  So, I did.  Instead of trying to program the whole sequence, I programmed two moves, then tested my code.  Then I added two more moves, and tested again.  Suddenly, coding was much easier.  I was working with manageable chunks.

That very afternoon, students began to conquer their mazes.  One student had built a complicated 20 block maze, and I was worried he may have bitten off more than he could chew.  After a few false starts, he figured out that he could program about 4 steps at a time without getting too confused, and before long, he had completed his maze and was adding a new route.  Some students learned they could really only program 1-2 steps at a time, but everyone learned that they can code.

Now, chunking has become a part of our everyday classroom language.  Stuck on a math problem?  Is there a chunk you CAN do?  Does this book feel too challenging? Cover up everything but the first chunk.  Want to build a Lego spaceship with your friend?  Can you work on different chunks and then combine them?  

Incorporating executive function strategies like chunking is beneficial for students across the school day and beyond.