After students watch the video and before practicing, come together for a whole-class discussion. Use student answers to the questions provided as the basis for discussion.

As you facilitate the discussion, be mindful of how students are participating in the conversation even when they are not speaking. Remind students of active listening strategies to help them have a more collaborative and fruitful discussion. Encourage students to: 

• Make eye contact while speaking and listening.
• Rephrase ideas in their own words.
• Revisit their own ideas as the discussion progresses, to add onto them or change them.

Note students' contributions on the board so students can see and build upon each other's ideas. Encourage students to reference their journals if they need help articulating their thoughts. The journal is a tool to support students' metacognition.

Foreground the group work expectations at the start. Ask questions like:

• How is your group going to get started?
• How can you take turns while coding your robot with Button Coding?
• What is something you can do to be helpful if it is not your turn to code the robot?

Distribute task cards to each student. Remember, the provided task card (Google / .docx / .pdf) is the basis for this guided practice, and can be adapted to best meet the needs of your students. Here are some additional key points about using task cards:

• Encourage students to check off the items in the Practice Checklist to help them monitor their progress during the activity. 
• Remind students to try the “Feeling Stuck?” strategy if they need help or additional support.
• Students should use the Success Criteria to help them communicate when they are ready for a teacher check-in to share their practice.

To learn more about the task card, view this article.

Circulate the room as students engage in the practice activity in their groups to discuss their progress and understanding. Ask questions like:

• What happens when you run your project? What do you see happen on the screen of the robot? 
• What is your plan for your project? What is the robot going to do first/second/next?
• When you tested your project, did the robot do what you intended? Why or why not?

To read other educators' thoughts about Button Coding, see this conversation in the VEX PD+ Community. 

Guide students to share their learning in a whole-class discussion. Help students converge their thinking around shared understandings or learning targets through this discussion.

The questions students answered in their journal are the starting point for discussion. Ask follow up questions to guide students to shared understandings. Follow-up with questions like: 

• For sequence observations and evidence: 
  • Do you agree or disagree? Why? How does your documentation support your claim? 
• For new learning from practice:
  • Does that align with what other groups learned from practice? Why or why not? 
  • What are some common ideas that you hear? How would this new learning have impacted how your group completed the activity?

Create a shared map of the buttons, labeling each with its function, and note “tips” that students share to help create artifacts that reflect students' shared understanding of Button Coding so far.