one day crash course method for 8th graders.
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John Kovacs
Member
April 07, 2015
Hello everyone! I am a teacher in training and volunteer to help at a middle school montessori math class. The math teacher who I help gave me a day (one fifty minute class) to introduce scratch to his students. I really want them to make some small program that they think is neat and is show-offable to the class near the end of the period. The goal is to get them interested in programming.
None of them have any programming experience nor have they ever heard of scratch before. However I don't want to spend fifty minutes walking them through all of the cool things they can do with scratch because I want them to use the majority of the time discovering/creating their own thing.
Ideally I'd like to give the class a 5 to 10 minute introduction to the interface of scratch and then let them have at it. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should go over in that 5 to 10 minute intro in order to maximize both what they can do and the time they have to work with?
Please help me!
None of them have any programming experience nor have they ever heard of scratch before. However I don't want to spend fifty minutes walking them through all of the cool things they can do with scratch because I want them to use the majority of the time discovering/creating their own thing.
Ideally I'd like to give the class a 5 to 10 minute introduction to the interface of scratch and then let them have at it. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should go over in that 5 to 10 minute intro in order to maximize both what they can do and the time they have to work with?
Please help me!
When introducing Scratch for the first time, I intentionally avoid the traditional overview approach, which can drain precious minutes. Instead, I lead students through creating their accounts (or opening the offline version, which does not require logging in), then introduce the objective(s) for the starter project, showing a finished version, then perhaps doing the first step or two on the projector/smart board, before setting them loose.
I am teaching 9th graders for 3 40 minute periods starting Monday + Wednesday is the last day of their marking period
I am going to start with the instructional videos and pause so they all follow along.
On the second day, I copied and lamanated the 12 "cards" and then they will do it themselves.
For the last day I'd live a cumulative project that they can start at home and show in class since it is their last day.
Good luck.
Any advice on a short project like how many actions etc.
Deb