Knowledge Exchange

Course Description

“If you want students to hear it, you speak. If you want them to learn it, they speak.” Effective computer science teaching goes beyond delivering content—it creates spaces where students actively construct meaning and take ownership of both academic language and content standards. Beyond Code: CS for Real Classrooms is a professional development series designed to help educators amplify student voices and foster equitable participation in every CS classroom. Through intentional prompts, scaffolds, and structured collaboration, teachers learn to facilitate student-centered discussions that build understanding and confidence, engage students who are reluctant to share, and design lessons integrating reflection, coding commentary, and meaningful collaboration. 

The series includes micro-challenges, sentence frames, and interactive activities to ensure all students participate. Organized into five stacks—Small Structures for Meaningful Collaboration, Supporting Students Who are Reluctant to Share, The Byte Cycle and AI Ideal Responses, Coded Commentary, and Byte Write Unite—it equips teachers with strategies for equitable participation, lesson planning, comprehension of complex code, and effective integration of video and text-based content. Participants explore research, teacher and student testimonials, and practical strategies, including team-building activities, collaborative structures, and reflective exercises, ultimately preparing them to create CS classrooms where every student has a voice, engagement is high, and learning is meaningful and visible.

About the Program

Computer science is one of the fastest-growing subjects in the U.S., yet English learners remain underrepresented. The CSforEL project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is tackling this challenge by engaging English learners in AP Computer Science Principles across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Southern California. Research shows that exposure to rigorous content like CS strengthens both language and academic performance, and CSforEL has empowered students and teachers to make that possible.

Building on this foundation, the team has expanded their reach through Beyond Code: CS for Real Classrooms, a professional development course that equips educators to amplify student voices and foster equitable participation. With strategies like structured collaboration, reflective coding commentary, and interactive micro-challenges, teachers learn to create classrooms where every student—especially those reluctant to share—can engage meaningfully, build confidence, and take ownership of their learning.

Learning Outcomes

• Implement collaborative strategies that promote student participation, engagement, and equitable classroom dynamics in Computer Science.
• Critically examine research on structured and unstructured collaboration and apply findings to improve classroom practice.
• Foster equity and belonging by using strategies that amplify student voice, reduce affective filters, and support historically marginalized groups in CS.
• Apply community-building practices, including team builders and low-stakes prompts, to build trust, reduce anxiety, and prepare students for meaningful academic discussion.
• Use language supports strategically, including sentence frames, to enhance student expression, idea generation, and academic communication in CS classrooms.
• Design and implement lessons using the Byte Cycle framework, incorporating intentional pauses, prompts, feedback, and supports to deepen student thinking.
• Integrate structured planning strategies, such as Coded Commentary and Byte Write Unite, to scaffold student learning, reduce cognitive load, and expand access to rigorous programming tasks.
• Analyze classroom examples of collaborative and language-support strategies to identify effective teacher moves and their impact on student learning.
• Implement and reflect on new strategies in their own classrooms, evaluating student responses, engagement, and equity outcomes.
• Revise and refine instructional approaches based on evidence from practice, with attention to supporting multilingual learners and students with less programming experience.