If you're interested in this class, please see "Discover JavaScript! Games and Art" instead. This class is phasing out. Thank you!

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WHAT WE'LL CREATE
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In this ongoing 1-on-1 class with a flexible schedule (click "Request Another Time" to choose your day and time), individual learners combine coding and art to create wondrous designs called "generative art" – art that changes itself each time it's viewed. Learners can create many different projects depending on their interests. For example, some learners create scenes from nature – fading sunsets, raindrops dripping down windows, or brush strokes curving across canvas. Other learners make quizzes or storybooks with images and pages that turn. Some learners create mesmerizing, ever-changing abstract designs, and still other learners invent and code their own games.

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APPROACH
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Learners have many different ways of planning, thinking, and processing their work, and this class respects all of them. Some learners are comfortable expressing their thoughts in words while others communicate through their work. Some learners like step-by-step instruction while others prefer challenges they can investigate on their own. Some learners move rapidly among many different ideas, creating cross-connections; some investigate a particular idea in impressive detail. Some learners prefer a systematic approach to a topic, building a ladder of related skills; others prefer to dip into learning anywhere they're interested. Some learn best visually, using diagrams, charts, and graphic organizers; others focus best when guided by spoken questions or instructions; some get up and walk around to think. And so on through infinite variations among learner styles. 

I welcome all the gifts each learner brings. I adapt lessons for each learner's style and respectfully listen for information in all their communications (whatever form they take). I aim to work with learners in ways that make them comfortable while still providing challenges and opportunities for new ways of thinking. 

Whatever their styles, all learners in this class work in a collaborative coding environment where we can write commands together. I model how the commands should look, and learners can practice them.  I can see and respond to their coding ideas immediately. We learn with plenty of time reserved for both exploration and practice. As learners become comfortable , they'll begin to work independently on their own projects.

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CURRICULUM
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The curriculum is adapted for each learner. However, all curricula share the following features.

EVERY LESSON CREATES A PROJECT
I collaborate with learners to choose projects that they find fun and interesting, and I try to make sure that each project has a little magic in it – something surprising that learners can investigate and that broadens their understanding. Please note that a lesson can include one or more class periods. 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVENTION AND INDEPENDENCE
While it's fun and confidence-building to complete projects, the ultimate goal of these lessons is to nurture self-reliant and independent code artists – learners who not only create projects but also imagine their own project ideas and create them independently. To foster this journey from lessons to self-reliance, I include opportunities for play, exploration, and invention in every step of learning. 

Most importantly, learning is carefully structured to provide challenges with low thresholds (all learners can reach them successfully) and high ceilings (plenty of room to explore one's own ideas) throughout the class.

SMALL STEPS IN A SPIRAL
Our learning proceeds in small steps. We begin with easy commands in projects that are mostly complete. Learners tinker with these projects, making small changes and investigating what happens. We particularly explore the syntax of p5.js JavaScript commands slowly and playfully. (Syntax means the patterns of letters, numbers, and punctuation in the commands.) As learners gain confidence, they proceed to write commands from scratch and eventually to create more and more of each project by themselves. At this point, I present challenges like "What commands would we need, and in what order, to make this shape move across the screen by itself ?" Or "to change its color randomly?" Or "to make it slowly disappear and reappear?" Or "to make it get smaller and smaller as it moves down the screen?" Ultimately, learners can envision whole projects and the code to create them.

Learning also proceeds in a spiral fashion. That means each lesson revisits the skills of previous lessons and builds on them thoughtfully. We proceed at a learner's pace, sticking with each skill and moving on when it's comfortable. 

JAVASCRIPT COMMAND SEQUENCE
Generally, we learn p5.js JavaScript commands in the following order. Additional commands can be added, and some can be omitted, according to learners' interests. We learn how to:
- draw simple shapes and colors
- undo and "debug" (strategies for fixing problems in the code)
- use p5.js JavaScript built-in commands to change shapes randomly
- understand the coordinate grid
- use built-in variables to move shapes with the on-screen pointer
- use variables you create to make shapes move gradually (not randomly) across the screen, change color, shrink and grow
- use the "if" command to make choices in code – for example, make a moving shape jump to the top if it has reached the bottom
- capture screen clicks and use them to keep score, turn book pages, and manage other sequential tasks
- spin the drawing area by using the rotate() command
- use variables to spin shapes at different speeds
- add and subtract variables and use these operations to make shapes oscillate – move back and forth, get larger and then smaller, or bounce off edges of the screen – or to move with acceleration (like a ball falling down the screen)
- add images and music
- use commands that repeat actions ("loops") like for() and while()

ART SEQUENCE
We consider some or all of the following design principles, which often inspire learners to try new strategies in their projects.
- randomness: make repeated but unpredictable changes to color, size, or position of shapes
- interactivity: allow players to change the screen by clicking or dragging the pointer or by pressing keys
- oscillation: make shapes that change and then change back – for example, circles that grow and shrink
- reflection: create two or more shapes that move or change in opposite but symmetrical ways
- repetition: draw shapes that repeat in pleasing ways – for example, tiling patterns
- displacement: alter the position or dimensions of repeated shapes over time

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NO PREREQUISITES
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This class is intended both for learners with no experience in text-based coding (writing commands instead of dragging blocks) and also for learners who've written short scripts in Roblox or Minecraft or who have completed tutorials and video lessons online. 

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ACCOUNTABILITY
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After each lesson, I post a summary of the learning activities along in Outschool classroom.

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GETTING READY
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(1) Learners should join our coding group at Open Processing, where they'll write code and see their animations. See additional information in "Parental Guidance," below.
(2) Learners should log into Open Processing *before each class* so they're ready to work when class begins. 
(3) Learners should know how to cut and paste and how to move among different tabs in their web browsers.

Thanks! Please let me know if you need help with these requests. I am always happy to help!
#builder