I find it very hard to convince my students to pull out a pencil and a notebook before they start coding.
"Draw some pictures. Make some notes. Write a function that you suspect will be tricky. Make a flowchart. List the methods that will have to be in that class. Write out how the user will interact with it. Try to list all the pain points for the user. You can write it any way that helps you think. Make up a notation if you want."
Yes, the assignment is due and they need to get code on the screen. But one of these days I'm going to give them a programming assignment and tell them that I only want to see their notes.
"Draw some pictures. Make some notes. Write a function that you suspect will be tricky. Make a flowchart. List the methods that will have to be in that class. Write out how the user will interact with it. Try to list all the pain points for the user. You can write it any way that helps you think. Make up a notation if you want."
Yes, the assignment is due and they need to get code on the screen. But one of these days I'm going to give them a programming assignment and tell them that I only want to see their notes.