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How to teach the Python programming language​

What’s the goal?​

Before you start teaching the Python programming language, you have to think about what the purpose of the Python programming language is. In other words, you have to ask yourself “why would anyone want to learn the Python programming language?”

The Python programming language exists to make it easier to create pieces of software. There are many reasons why someone might want to learn the Python programming language, but their primary reason should always be “I want to create pieces of software.”

As a teacher, your primary goal should be to give students the knowledge that they need in order to create pieces of software on their own.

How do you achieve that goal?​

There are many ways you could possibly achieve that goal. Here’s how I try to achieve that goal.

Step 1: Choose a project​

How do you decide what you’re going to teach to a student? I use projects to help me decide what I’m going to teach to students. A project is just a piece of software that the student will eventually create. I always base what I teach off of student projects in order to make sure that I’m giving students skills that are practical and relevant. I never want to teach a student a skill that they aren’t going to use.

A good project has the following qualities:

  • The student actually wants to make the project.
  • The student can create some parts of the project on their own but is going to need to learn something new in order create other parts of the project. (This might not apply to a student’s first few projects).
  • The project isn’t too difficult for the student to create.

Most of the time, I have students come up with their own project ideas. When you allow students to come up with their own project ideas, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to help students with their ideas. Some students might struggle to come up with any ideas at all. Other students might have ideas that are way too difficult for them to create.

If a student has never used the Python programming language before, then I choose the first few projects for them. Specifically, I have them do these projects first:

  1. Hello, world!
  2. Personalized Greeting
  3. Quiz Game
  4. Turtle Mess

Once they’ve done those projects, I then have them come up with their own project ideas.

Step 2: Create a dependency tree of skills​

Once you or the student has come up with a project idea, you need to figure out what you need to teach the student so that they can create their project. Each individual thing that you teach to the student is called a skill. In order to figure out what I have to teach and what order I have to teach it in, I create a dependency tree of skills.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that the student’s project is a Celsius to Fahrenheit converter. The first thing that I do is figure out approximately what their final code is going to look like. The code for a Celsius to Fahrenheit converter looks like this:

degrees_celsius = input("Enter a temperature in Celsius: ")
degrees_celsius = float(degrees_celsius)
degrees_fahrenheit = (degrees_celsius * 9/5) + 32
print(degrees_fahrenheit)

I then think about what skills my student needs to have in order to create that program:

I can then check off anything that my student already knows how to do. Let’s say that my student already knows how to do this much:

Now, I need to go one level deeper in my dependency tree. I need to teach my student the “Turning a str Into a float” skill and the “Using Parentheses to Change the Order of Operations” skill. What skills do those two skills depend on? In other words, what skills does a student have to have before they can learn the “Turning a str Into a float” skill and the “Using Parentheses to Change the Order of Operations” skill?

Notice how “The Four Main Arithmetic Operators” skill now appears multiple times on my dependency tree. This is a common thing that happens when creating dependency trees. Luckily, I was able to check off that skill because my hypothetical student already has it. Unfortunately, my hypothetical student doesn’t know about the float data type yet, so we have to add another level to our dependency tree:

Step 3: Teach the skills​

Now that our dependency tree is done, we have to decide what order we’re going to teach those skills in. You can choose whatever order you want. Just make sure that you fulfill a skill’s dependencies before you teach that skill. Going back to my previous example, I’m going to teach the student my skills in this order:

  1. The float Data Type
  2. Turning a str Into a float
  3. Using Parentheses to Change the Order of Operations

Once you’ve come up with an order, it’s time to start teaching. The docs page for each of the skills has example activities that you can use. You can also create your own activities if you want. If you have any ideas for activities that aren’t already in the docs, then I encourage you to contribute to the docs site.

Verification​

It’s important to verify that you’ve successfully taught what you were trying to teach. I’ve been in situations where I thought that I taught something successfully, and I’ve even asked my students and they thought that they learned the concept, but they didn’t actually understand it. The students believed that they understood what I was trying to teach, but they didn’t actually understand what I was trying to teach.

Here’s an example: if you’re teaching students what a float is, then you could write down a list of literals and ask students if each item on the list is or is not a float.

Here’s another example: if you’re teaching students how to print things, then you could ask them to write three lines of code. Each of the lines of code has to print something different.

Step 4: Help students work on their projects​

Once students have the skills that they need, it’s time for them to work on their projects. Every so often check in on students to see how much progress they’ve made. Be sure to help any students who have questions.

Step 5: Celebrate completed projects​

Once a student finishes their project, ask the student if you can try out their project. When trying out a student’s project, be happy and supportive. For larger projects, you may want to encourage students to show their project to other students.

For larger projects, you should celebrate the progress that students have made along the way even if the project isn’t finished yet.

Step 6: Rinse and repeat​

Once a student finishes a project, it’s time for them to choose a new project. Go back to step 1.

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