4th Gr – Creative Computing – Creating a Card

By this point, my fourth graders have theoretically seen a lot of what Scratch can do in terms of playing drums, spinning, changing colors. They know how to add sprites. What they don’t really have yet is the idea that is the whole point of fourth grade CS at my school – the fact that programs make projects, and those projects are for people.

So! I presented them with a project that started with “Who is this for?” Then, “What is this for?”

This wound up being one of the best “lessons” I’ve taught all year.

First, it blew my students’ mind that Scratch was a website that you could access from anywhere with internet connection. They wanted to know if I would print out their cards, or bring their parents in to view their cards. This led to a whole conversation about how anyone can view Scratch.

Second, once the project was “for” someone, the students cared about it a lot more. They wanted to know how to make characters kick soccer balls. This means they wanted to reset things. They wanted their card to start by saying “Soccer Mom” then have the letters move around, but ALWAYS start with Soccer Mom. They wanted the letters to spin, but always start upright. Making a card for someone instead of just in the abstract for school gave them so much more motivation to create and learn.

I also emailed cards that were meant for former teachers to those teaches, which meant those teachers in-person would thank the kids, and it was in general great.

I think next year I will start with “This is Scratch, and how you can share projects with people” and then do exactly 1 step-by-step tutorial, then show people where Scratch 3.0 tutorials for things like “spinning” and “changing color” are, because I think that is easier to deal with in 3.0? and give them some days to work on the card.

This is probably the best class I have ever taught in terms of authentic excitement and motivation.

Still, students did not quite have the context for how to look up what they wanted to do, and got a lot of help from me and the Director of CS in my district. They didn’t keep up their interest for the two classes I gave them; it was mostly the first with the idea that captured their imagination. I need to work on the setup for this lesson.