Kristin Fontichiaro

3.5 Stars

"I like my name"- Arielle
The story was cute and relatable , who hasn't wanted to change their name at one point?
The characters reminded me of my own siblings and friends I had at that age.
If I had children I would tell them Arielle is a good character to model after. She didn't cave to peer pressure, she gave her own opinion.

Chapters were written by students in a class, and the quality varies. Many good chapters with ideas and thoughts that practitioners may have missed or forgotten (students have fresh eyes for the subject). Also gets points for not being a book of case studies like most books on the topic.

Creating a book where Scratch is used in relation to the playground is exciting. However, if the reader is familiar with Scratch, the illustrations of the code are very simple, and the reader will complete the tasks without a challenge. Still, if the program is new, the large amount of text on each spread makes programming challenging. With preprogrammed blocks, there is little room for creativity. The link to get started on the particular game set up for this book is complicated and show more includes a nine-digit code, although the book is intended for students in the lower elementary school grades. A book too easy for the higher grades and too much of a challenge for the lower grades, and not likely to be read just for fun. Coding on the Playground is part of a series that creates games with Scratch in different settings.
The book includes a table of contents, an index, a glossary of keywords, and additional websites and books about the topic in the back.
Written
2nd - 4th grade
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This is a heavy-weight that deserves reading. Not only does it present strategies that allow for full use of the new AASL standards, but it has collected many of the field's best thinkers talking about the need and use of these new standards and 21st century learning. There is a wide assortment of articles, and each chapter is thematically set up for easy use by practitioners and theorists, having both theoretical discussions and practical strategies wedded in one area.

Bottom line: This is a show more good reference for why and how to use standards effectively. Not a cover to cover read, it is a compendium of ideas and thoughts useful to school libraries. show less