U4 Day 2-3: PD Discussion Topic

U4 Day 2-3: PD Discussion Topic

  1. We can start with how to find a sprite letter from the Scratch Library or how to find and upload a .jpg or gif file.
  2. Next we can experiment with scripts that add ‘behaviors’ to the Cat or letter Sprite that was picked from the library or uploaded.
  3. Next the instructor can model the finding and selection of the ‘green flag’ block. Next we can attach a behavior and test the behavior.
  4. Lastly, we can find, select and insert a ‘forever’ block into the sequence that has already been constructed.

All of these can be done using a projector an instructor computer while the student follow on their computers as programming partners.

Great ideas…I am excited to learn Scratch and utilize these great ideas in my teaching!

It would be good to start the name project by having a discussion with the students over the scripts in the existing example. Ask them how they think each letter will behave. Then solicit some ideas for other actions and behaviors to add.

I hope my students will ask about how to make each letter cascade their actions by adding in wait blocks. I also expect students to want to have the letters do more interesting actions.

After I model a few of these actions, together the class and I will try changing some letters by drawing or importing. Once that is done, the students should have the skills and knowledge to complete the rest of the assignment.

By having students think/pair/share the activities covered in the previous lesson to allow students to activate prior knowledge.

Then have students use study guide to review the jobs of the various blocks.

Providing students additional online support and peer support as they play with the system.

After students share out what they remember on their own I will open up a sample project and the rubric. As students grade and justify their grading of the project hopefully the other significant Scratch features will be addressed.

Have students work in pairs to review to active prior knowledge
Then guide me through what each block does
Hopefully having the students to guide me through as well will allow them to become more familiar with scratch.

Scratch name & extensions

Kathy Krohnert, Renee Smith, and Leah Dee Kilgore will be working on the Programming Unit for day 2 & 3 Animated Name Project.

UNIT
4

Lesson #4: Scratch Animate Name & Extended Game projects.

Overview

Scratch Programming Introduction and project based learning activities.

Objectives:

The students will be able to:

• Name the basic terms used in Scratch.

• Create the beginning of a simple program in Scratch. Outline of the

Lesson:

• Journal Entry (5 minutes)

• KWL chart about programming/Scratch (15 minutes)

• Scratch introductory video (10 minutes) • Model of how to start name assignment (25 minutes) Student Activities:

• Complete journal entry.

• Complete KWL chart about programming/Scratch.

• Groups take turns sharing out their K’s and W’s orally.

• Watch Scratch introductory video.

• Follow along with Scratch open as teacher models how to start name assignment

Scratch Name Activity ECS

The following links are activities that my students enjoy as additional projects. Used with permission.

Scratch - Additional Projects

*Animate eyes on a face

*Driving Game

*Flying Challenge

Scratch - Shark Attack Game

*Game where shark chases fish

CS Content

Scratch Programming

Loops

Variables

Counters

Objectives

Students will be able to:

•Animate their names in Scratch

•Create a game in Scratch

Materials and Prep

•Scratch account

Resources

Student Documents

•Links to Scratch Tutorials

Code Studio

•Unit 4

Notes

Kathy Krohnert, Renee Smith, and Leah Dee Kilgore will be working on the Programming Unit for day 2 & 3 Animated Name Project.

After the class discussion, I plan to review the concepts needed to complete the name program.

We also looked at existing scripts to predict the behaviors of letters.

This semester I will be sure to reinforce how students should save their work, how to place the projects in studios, and how to retrieve earlier work. Some students who were computer novices struggled a bit with that last semester.

The name program was fun. The students were very creative with using the sprites and programming their names.

Students created a simple program on an 8 1/2 x 14 piece of white paper. They divided the paper into 3 panels similar to the Scratch program.

  1. They used crayons and markers to draw their background and cutout tress, sun, etc from construction paper and glued it (the sprite was not glued because it needed to move)
  2. Next they cutout blocks (I used similar paper colors used in Scratch): when the flag is clicked, move x steps, forever, say----------for —sec, if on edge bounce etc. These were placed in the center panel but not glued.
  3. Next phase…students stood in front of their paper and acted out what they wanted the sprite to do.
  4. Students actually move the cutout sprite to the last panel of the paper and snapped them in as best as they could using glue.
  5. Final step was to create the program using Scratch.

I like your idea of “program partners”.

Showing the students the “big picture” is a good strategy. Sometimes they needs to see what the final output is before they begin to do the individual parts of the project. Very similar to the “whole-part-whole” theory.

@gina_vaneyssen I love the story boarding you’ve used in this activity. I’m sure the students loved it and were much better prepared to make their actual project online after going through this process.