Scratch is a wonderful creation. It allows children (and adults!) to learn the basics of coding on a computer or iPad. This helps children to understand the basics of computer science and achieve digital literacy, which is a key part of the national curriculum for computing. The interface involves: a screen that hosts backgrounds ('stages') for your project; 'scripts', a collection of jigsaw pieces that can be put together to make a program; and a work area where these pieces can be placed. The pieces are broken down into coloured types, these are: Motion, Looks, Sound, Events, Control, Sensing, Pen, Data and Operator. With these pieces you can make anything - games, stories, quizzes... anything you can think of. For example, in just twenty minutes, using the program's intuitive interface, I was able to create a simple game in which my 'sprite', a cat shaped creature, has to outrun a ghost. When teaching children how to use Scratch, there are a number of approaches. The first is the prescribed route, where children follow teacher's instructions (perhaps on a worksheet) to make their product. The second is the part-whole method, where the teacher explains what is required, but allows the children to explore, create, evaluate and 'debug' their work. I think there is something to be said for both methods. The first raises confidence in the program, and may be more suitable for lower key stage 2, whereas the latter requires a certain degree of proficiency, which upper key stage 2 may be ready for.
I love Scratch because of its potential. I intend, next time I work in Key Stage 2, to use it and help inspire a new generation of coders.
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This pick and mix module is separated into several parts. I shall cover them all in order.
1. Learning through games Learning through interactive games is considered by many teachers to be a positive activity that can engage children in fun, competitive and exciting ways. Websites such as Espresso, which I had experience using during my time as a teaching assistant on iPads, allow children to play various games across the whole curriculum. It’s also quite handy for any special days throughout the year, such as remembrance day, mother’s day, Eid, Diwali etc… as it often updates with relevant activities to those times of year. Espresso and Education City both work in similar ways. They are packed with units of work for children to complete which include games. Children can work through these individually on iPads, or collaboratively during carpet time. 2. Handheld devices In some schools the ratio of equipment (often laptops or iPads) is 1:1. Sometimes however this isn’t the case. On iPads I can recommend the following apps: Garageband, Audacity and one of several stop motion animation applications. Fancy apps aren’t always necessary, though. Simple recording of video and audio can also be of great value to a class and can help teachers provide evidence when it comes to formative assessment. On laptops, I would thoroughly recommend Scratch and Scratch Jr. I will be blogging about this in the next few days. 3. Behaviour reward systems When I worked in the infants of a school in South Manchester, we used Class Dojos. This is a system whereby children can be rewarded with points (recorded on an animated avatar) for good behaviours. The programme has the capacity to also take away points for negative behaviour, but we opted not to use that function, so children consider the technology to be a positive force. In many ways this is a technological version of Skinner’s operant conditioning. 4. Harnessing YouTube Safely As many schools ban Youtube from being used in the classroom, it is worth planning ahead, downloading videos using a Youtube converter, and playing them without the adverts (which could show potentially inappropriate and uncontrolled material). 5. Classroom Voting SystemsI do not have any experience with classroom voting systems. That said, I have researched them and I am very excited at the prospect of using them in my classroom. They appear to be fantastic in terms of generating discussion, eliciting information that children do or do not know, and engaging children using technology. The advantages are numerous: they gather information very quickly and efficiently, pinging them to an associated app (program); they retain anonymity of children (great in terms of eliciting without causing potential embarrassment); they are a great formative assessment tool, which can direct teachers to what the next stage in teaching should be. One disadvantage though, of course, is the cost associated with a) the purchase and b) the upkeep of the technology. The most commonly used Classroom voting systems are called Socrative and Activote. |
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