Computational Thinking Karin, a middle school student, is asked by her language arts teacher to ...

1. DECOMPOSITION PROCESS Karin's teacher sees her struggling and suggests Karin breaks down the assignment into more manageable chunks, She could bullet list the events that led the character to the original ending and change the steps one at a time to see where it would lead. She could also use the simple story elements to change the who, what, why, where, when, or how to take the story in another direction. Decomposition entails simplifying a complex problem by breaking it down into smaller units. Decomposition is a way of learning and thinking about a situation that allows the individual parts to be understood, analyzed, manipulated, and developed separately before reassembling as a whole (Developing Computational Thinking in the classroom: a framework, June 2014).

2. ABSTRACTION PROCESS Karin is aware that movies will sometimes offer alternative endings. She also reflects on decisions she has made in her own life that she wishes she had done differently in order to have a different result. She also needs to focus on details that will bring about a desired outcome versus those details that may be superfluous. In order to be information literate, Karin needs to be able to make educated, broader decisions based on knowledge she can abstract from specific content. (Gretter, S., & Yadav, A. (2016).

3. PATTERN RECOGNITION Karin confers with other students to share what sorts of events have resulted in various story endings; i.e. a tragic flaw, an unforseen event, a natural disaster, etc. In science, this is known as "If...then." Karin must look for patterns in similar stories. How have characters and what types of events in similar stories influenced the ending? (Bitesize BBC, 2019)

4. ALGORITHM In order to stay on track for the assignment, Karin uses a graphic organizer to write down the steps she will use to write the alternate ending. She writes down the proposed changed ending, She then lists each event that will turn cause the next event, She assigns letters so that she will write the events in the order desired, i.e. Event A, Event B, etc. Karin can then use this algorithm whenever she is faced with this problem, whether it be in a school assignment or in her personal and professional life. These computational thinking skills help students transition to problems and situations in their lives beyond the classroom walls. Students become adults who can participate in the events and decisions that will affect their futures (Developing Computational thinking in the classroom: a framework, June 2014)

5. BBC. (2019). Introduction to computational thinking. Retrieved from BBC - Home: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zp92mp3/revision/1 Curzon, P. &. (2014). Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework. Gretter, S., & Yadav, A. (2016). Computational thinking and media & information literacy: An integrated approach to teaching twenty-first century skills. New York: Springer US. Gretter & Yadav Article

6. I have to write an alternate ending? How am I supposed to do that? I'm not a good writer. I have no idea how to do this? What do I do?