I think what Erik is referring to is the Boston Python Workshop (
http://bostonpythonworkshop.com/)  -- Jessica McKellar developed that
curriculum many years ago.  We adopted it in Philadelphia (
https://openhatch.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Python_Workshop)  and I've taught
it many times. Here's the specific section on cheating at Scrabble &
regexes:
https://openhatch.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Python_Workshop/Projects#Wordplay

It's still teaching regexes through Python though,  so it doesn't really
address Greg's original point #1.

-maneesha



On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 12:05 PM, Erik Bray <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 11:55 AM, C. Titus Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > On Nov 14, 2014, at 11:51 AM, Erik Bray <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 7:13 AM, Greg Wilson
> >> <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> I have copied the lesson on regular expressions (and its history) out
> of the
> >>> 'bc' repo and put it into a new repo, in the new format, at
> >>> https://github.com/gvwilson/regex.  I've fixed a couple of small
> glitches in
> >>> the lesson template along the way, but more importantly, I've realized
> that
> >>> the regex lesson needs a complete overhaul:
> >>>
> >>> 1. When we teach regular expressions, we introduce people to patterns
> using
> >>> regexpal.com's interactive browser-based tool.  The current regex
> lesson
> >>> doesn't --- it dives right into Python, which (a) adds cognitive
> complexity,
> >>> and (b) makes it inaccessible to non-Python workshops.
> >>>
> >>> 2. The existing lesson uses too much jargon.
> >>>
> >>> 3. And there aren't challenges for most parts.
> >>>
> >>> As the original author of this lesson, I feel I ought to clean all
> this up.
> >>> On the other hand, this would be a great opportunity for someone who's
> keen
> >>> to contribute to take on a medium-sized job for us...  If you're
> interested,
> >>> please give me a shout.
> >>
> >> Not volunteering ;), but just as a thought--I remember at one workshop
> >> Jessica McKellar gave a great introduction to regexps under the theme
> >> of "How to Cheat at Scrabble".  I've never actually taught regular
> >> expressions myself (at least not under SWC), but if I were going to
> >> I'd probably want a lesson plan somewhat akin to that.
> >>
> >> It still got into plenty of the nitty-gritty of what one can do with
> >> regexps, but having Scrabble as a driving example made it really fun
> >> and relevant, and people seemed to have no trouble relating what they
> >> learned to other problems of pattern matching, etc.
> >
> > This?
> >
> >
> http://www.skillshare.com/classes/technology/Intro-to-programming-teach-yourself-Python-while-cheating-at-Scrabble/98731973
>
> What I saw was just a reduced version focused only the regular
> expressions part (somebody else taught basic intro to Python at that
> workshop).  But yes, I thought it was a great way to introduce regexps
> and still managed to cover a lot of the important features of the
> language (though I think it's still good to include other examples of
> course, and Scrabble might not be relevant to every learner either).
>
> Erik
>
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