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Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language

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On 12/11/2013 3:43 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> When you tell a story, it's important to engage the reader from the
> start...explain "This is how to print Hello World to the
> console" and worry about what exactly the console is (and how
> redirection affects it)
Highly agree. I was once given FORTRAN course materials and an 
assignment to teach this course. The first morning was spent on how to 
construct expressions! No context as to what a program was or what it 
might do or how to run it.

As soon as that class was over I rewrote the materials so the first 
morning was how to write and run(batch job submission) a program that 
read a record, did a simple  calculation and wrote the results.

I certainly felt better about teaching this way.

Asides:

One student (PhD in Physics) looked at X = X + 1 and said "no it doesn't".

Another wrote his first program. I took one look at it and saw the 
mistakes. I explained how to walk thru the program step by step. He 
exclaimed "In that much detail?".

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Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language bob gailer <bgailer@gmail.com> - 2013-12-11 11:01 -0500
  Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-12-11 08:27 -0800
    Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-11 16:36 +0000
    Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 03:45 +1100
    Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-12-11 20:42 -0500
      Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2013-12-11 21:07 -0500
        Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-12-11 21:31 -0500
      The increasing disempowerment of the computer user (was: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language) Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2013-12-12 13:21 +1100
      Re: The increasing disempowerment of the computer user Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-12-12 02:35 +0000
      Re: The increasing disempowerment of the computer user Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2013-12-12 13:35 +1100
        Re: The increasing disempowerment of the computer user Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-12 10:59 +0000
          Re: The increasing disempowerment of the computer user David Hutto <dwightdhutto@gmail.com> - 2013-12-14 00:44 -0500
      Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-12-11 19:52 -0800
        Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 15:20 +1100
      Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language bob gailer <bgailer@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 11:51 -0500
      Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 16:18 -0500
        Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language Frank Miles <fpm@u.washington.edu> - 2013-12-13 16:21 +0000

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