Now, believe me when I say that I had searched high and low for a good resources for someone with near no programming background (such as myself). Mark takes a completely different approach though to get ANYONE going with JavaScript. Mark reduces the aspects of JavaScript to 84 small chapters of his book. His methodology is what cinches this as THE BOOK to use if you are learning though. He teaches JavaScript as a TEACHER would; breaking everything down into smaller parts, chunking information, checking for understanding, and leaving room for exploration and practice of new skills, FREQUENTLY! Mark's goal is that each of his chapters takes no more than 20-30 minutes total to complete (for some it will take less). Each chapter is only about 2 - 3 pages of reading excellent easy to understand examples and explanations. Once you have read the chapter, then you log in to his FREE site that has FREE exercises for each chapter. The best part, is that you get to repeat these chapters as often as you would like, in order to reteach yourself if you forget.
The exercises themselves, are also terrifically laid out. Each exercise starts with some basic vocabulary, then progresses to the user typing code, with the computer auto filling as you get it correct. the next few exercises has an auto-correct, so if you type incorrectly it will delete what you type. Further progression moves you through small lines of code, then timed, small lines of code, and then two exercises that are full application of the new skill. In all, there are 20 very fast and small skill checks at the end of each chapter. If you get any wrong, you can see the correct answer, and will be asked to come back to it before you can complete the chapter.
I will admit that I am not done with the book yet myself to know where I will be in experience when finished, but I have shown this to a couple of my juniors from last school year who were in the coding club, and they LOVED IT! They each bought there own kindle versions, and started immediately. I have already bought 30 copies of the book for next year's club (@$17 a piece) and can't wait to get the students going with it. It is a really easy way to run the club, with the time broken down. Come in, work through two chapters at a computer with a book, and collaborate with your peers if you need help. Should take about 40 minutes per student and we will do that twice per week. For those that cannot come twice per week, they will be encouraged to complete 4 exercises total per week. that should get us completely done in March (assuming it will get a little more complicated and may slow down a bit). That will leave the students with two more months to explore resources on their own...before we move on to Mark's soon to come out book A SMARTER WAY TO LEARN ANGULAR JS.
Btw: Mark Myers also has A Smarter Way To Learn HTML and CSS, which I have not read, but assume that it is the same great format! I am not paid by Mark nor do I receive any kickback of any sort! This is all about the kids, and encouraging them through action, that they can learn some powerful skills, and apply them to their interests moving forward!
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