Today we used the app ‘Scratch Junior’ on the iPad to explore how we can use it to teach literacy in the classroom. Scratch Jr allows children and teacher to create their own games and stories by coding the characters movements bit also exploring different features and background that are featured in the game.
‘As young people create Scratch projects, they are not just learning how to write computer programs. They are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively – essential skills for success and happiness in today’s world’ (The Lead Project, 2014).
Scratch Jr helps children to develop skills in creative thinking, logical reasoning, problem solving and team working skills in young children. It has the potential to improve and guide children when learning any sort of subject such as; music, art, English, maths and design (The Lead Project, 2014).
I found that the literacy outcome that applies to the Scratch Jr activity I made is: ‘I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts and I use what I learn to invent my own, sharing these with others in imaginative ways’. LIT 0-09b / LIT 0-31. I focused on making the activity more for early level children rather than first or second. Two of the technology outcome are also explored during this; ‘I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning’. TCH 0-04a and
‘I enjoy taking photographs or recording sound and images to represent my experiences and the world around me’. TCH 0-04b
I decided to approach it by telling a story of two girls that walked in a forest, then found an obstacle as they have to cross the river, after, they saw a den and decided to go home. Throughout the slides my intentions were to ask questions for the children to answer that would be based on their literacy and creativity.
Reflecting back on my use of Scratch Jr. I believe that it has a great potential to be useful tool to have in the classroom, when used properly. It can be used as an aid for children with ASN or simply those that need extra help. It can boost the pupils creativity and for them to learn their basic subjects through a more fun and interesting way.
References-
The Lead Project (2014) Super Scratch Programming Adventure: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games!
Education Scotland (2016) Experiences and Outcomes: Literacy. [online] https://education.gov.scot/Documents/literacy-across-learning-eo.pdf [accessed: 10th February 2018]
