“Secret Coders” by Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes (pg 7,30,31)
One thing that helped me when reading “Secret Coders” was the repetition of the birds. The birds are used as a tool by the authors to teach kids about binary. When I first saw the explanation for this on pg 24 with the columns and pennies I was still confused. The thing that helped me understand was the repeated use of the birds throughout the book. For example, the chapter headings having one of the birds helped me understand a lot more. I knew that the next chapter would be chapter 2 but seeing the bird there helped me to connect it back to the binary columns. The same thing happened with the padlock combination. The birds on the building were giving the kids the combination which helped me connect it back to the binary learned on pg 24. I think the authors reusing this imagery of the birds would help kids make the connection in their minds and help them get more familiar with thinking in binary.














