Scratch Logo, courtesy of MIT Media LabLiteracy from Scratch

A walk through our town

See the section on Pedagogy for an insight into the differences in approach undertaken by British and Czech teachers.

This is the Scheme of Work for a Year 3-7 class which we developed for ZS Korunovacni in Prague. Each pupil designs his or her own story independently.

This is the outline of the scheme:

Objective:

Create a story in Scratch for children from other countries, especially for pupils of Bishop Ramsey C of E School, Ruislip in London, for example: a walk through the town where pupils live, accompanied by their pets; a sightseeing tour with a friend who comes from abroad; or a free story with an element of fantasy.

Develop language and literacy skills to tell stories in Czech (or English) in four different ways: in an oral form, in a written form as an essay, in a graphic form as a set of pictures hand made on a paper using pencils, and in a digital form as a computer program using Scratch.

Prior learning

Phase 1: User skills development to use a computer in a compulsory subject of ICT education

Pupils learn to operate and work with a PC, to run standard computer programs, to save files into folders.

Learning outcomes:

Phase 2: Oral narrative of a story in Art Education and Czech/English Education

Pupils are introduced into Scratch not only in ICT Education, but also in Art Education. The Art Education teacher explains the idea of the project and starts to discuss with pupils themes for their stories. The teacher explains to pupils they will design their own sprites which will appear in their stories. Pupils try to tell stories in an oral form. The theme of a walk through the town where pupils live, accompanied by their pets seems to be very popular and suitable for pupils of Year 2 while the older pupils prefer stories in which they can apply and develop their creative fantasy.

Learning outcomes:

Phase 3: Handmade drawing of stories on a paper in Art Education

Pupils draw their stories on paper work-sheets by hand, using pencils and crayons. Each story is divided into four stages (sequences) in which sprites are used, and which can move and discuss with each other. A dialogue is presented by speech “bubbles”.

Pupils draw not only four sequences of their stories, but also shapes of sprites which act in these stories with the aim of preparing all details of sprite shapes for their animation, and for setting them in motion.

Learning outcomes:

Fig. 1 A story designed on a paper worksheet into four frames (Year 5)

Phase 4: Written verbal story description (essay)

Pupils interpret their stories which they produced by hand on the paper worksheet.

On the other side of the paper worksheet they write in a written verbal form (essay) a storyline of their narrative. In this activity, pupils prove their ability to transfer a graphical record of their story into verbal form with the aim of explaining and interpreting what they designed on the paper worksheet (see Fig. 2). The essay plays an important role in the preparation of stories for programming in Scratch.

Learning outcomes:

The Year 5 pupil's essay outline, written in Czech

Fig. 2 Example of an essay (Year 5)

Phase 5: Introduction into three fundamental activities in Scratch

An ICT student teacher introduces pupils to examples of stories programmed in Scratch by children from London, at Bishop Ramsey C of E School, Ruislip with the aim of demonstrating fundamental elements and components which pupils have to learn in Scratch, to be able to transform their stories into a digital animated form programmed in Scratch.

In Scratch, the pupils learn:

  1. how to set in motion sprites with the aim, for example, to create the illusion of smooth walking, or flapping wings, or another mode of sprite movement,
  2. how present a talk between sprites using “bubbles”, and
  3. how to shift a storyline from one sequence to the next one.

Learning outcomes:

Phase 6: Story programming in Scratch

Pupils transfer their scenarios of stories into Scratch programs using commands and another skills, knowledge and experience which they learnt in Phase 5.

Scratch interface for a story about exta-terrestrials on the planet Mars

Fig. 3 A story about extra-terrestrials on the planet Mars

Learning outcomes:

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