Thread by @dale_rickardo

1/ Recently a new game called #Wordle from @powerlanguish went viral.

Wordle challenges you to find a random word in 6 tries.

Its fun, simple and addictive. More importantly, it is a good chance for us to teach students about #ComputationalThinking (CT).

🕰 for a 🧵:

2/ CT s a problem solving framework; a systematic way of approaching a problem that can be used in any classroom and with any age of learners.

CT is broken into 4 distinct parts:

- Decomposition 🧩
- Pattern Recognition ⠻
- Abstraction 🧊 > ⬜️
- Algorithm 📍

3/ To learn more about the 4 parts of CT, check out this video from Google:


Or, if you're ready for a dive deep, check out this video from @UCCSEd leader Tim Bell:
bit.ly/3FfzjiE

4/ #DECOMPOSITION

The 1st part of CT is breaking problems into individual components. We can do this by introducing Wordle and asking:

What might the Squares represent?
Why are they in a grid? What might a row represent?
How many guesses do you get?

5/ #PATTERNRECOGNITION

The 2nd part of CT is to spot the similarities/differences within a problem, aka Pattern Recognition.

Wordle gives colour-coded feedback on each guess. Your *must* guess a valid 5-letter word.

Applying this feedback is🔑 to recognizing the patterns.

6/ Students will naturally discover the pattern/colour-codings on their own, so be sure to give them the time and space to figure it out.

🟩 = right letter in the right place
🟨 = right letter in the wrong place
⬛️ = wrong letter

7/ Another way to practice Pattern Recognition is within the word guesses themselves. In many languages there are very common patterns of letters which students can use to refine their guess.

Prefixes like:
de-, st-, re-, in-

Suffixes like:
-ed, -ing, -ion, -ist, -ast

etc.

8/ #ABSTRACTION

This is where things get fun. Abstraction is the part in CT where we ask ourselves what we need to pay attention to and what we can ignore.

Or put differently, what might be some tactics that usually work in word games?

9/ According to @thiagi Cryptograms, the most common letters in english words are:
e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, and r

Words are most likely to begin w/:
t, a, o, d, and w

Words are least likely to begin w/:
j,q,x, and z

Your laptop keys probably show wear on these same letters!

10/ Knowing that, students can formulate words that might be good 1st guesses.

Perhaps something like 'train', 'waste' or 'dates'.

Have fun asking kids to come up with the *worst* possible words to guess.

Perhaps 'jazzy', 'llama' or 'woozy'. Why would these be bad guesses?

11/ #ALGORITHM

The last part of CT is the algorithm; the exact instructions to solve the problem

In the case of Wordle, it would be the completed word at the end of the game

Ask kids to come up with their own word and to practice giving correct feedback to a guessing partner

12/ Or try starting with the answer and work backwards to find a list of words that might 'fit' that particular key to arrive at the first guess

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 = TIGER (Answer)
🟩🟩⬛️🟩🟩 = TILER
⬛️🟩🟨🟩🟩 = MITER
🟩🟨🟨⬛️⬛️ = ?????
🟨🟨⬛️⬛️🟨 = ?????
⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️🟨 = ASCOT (1st)

13/ Finally, you could just give kids an answer key of squares and have them analyze the game without even thinking about the words:

⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟨🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Was it a strong or weak performance?
Did the person get lucky? If so, where?
How do you know?

14/ So go checkout Wordle with your students next week and unlock some important thinking skills!

powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

#ISBLearning #CSforALL #problemsolving #EdChat #EdTech #ComputationalThinking