During today’s session we were focusing on coding and how useful it can be within the classroom to enhance literacy skills.
Literacy is a form of communication which many people believe coding portrays this really well. Having the ability to code is incredibly important of literacy in modern society because it allows people to develop different sets of skills including problem solving strategies, helping them with designing projects and allowing them to use their communication skills to present their ideas.
The specific program we were working with today was ScratchJr. It is a basic programming app that enables children to create their own coding language. According to The Lead Project (2014), by creating Scratch projects children are not only learning how to code, but also how to be more creative with their thoughts and work alongside other children. Each of these skills are critical skills for success and happiness in today’s society. It can also support individual learning styles as Scratch was designed to to help with exploring and experimenting. The programme can aid different subjects across the curriculum as well including art, English and maths (The Lead Project, 2014).
Our task today was to create our own Scratch adventure story using iPads that would be part of a lesson plan. I first looked at the Curriculum For Excellence outcomes and decided which outcomes would fit the criteria. As coding crosses into multiple curriculum areas, I chose a literacy outcome :
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 0-31a
and also a technology outcome:
I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.
TCH 1-04b / TCH 2-04b
I created a series of slides on ScratchJr illustrating the fairytale, Beauty and the Beast with a fairy narrating the story. The slides demonstrate the basics of the story and at the end the fairy asks if the pupil’s enjoyed the story and if they didn’t, what they didn’t like about it. The fairy then asks them to use their imaginations and create an alternate ending.
By using apps like ScratchJr in my classroom, I would be helping children to develop their communication skills and using their creative side. These apps also allow children to become independent and also helping them work alongside other children towards the same outcome. The only downside I found to the app was that you could only produce four slides, which may pose a problem if children are just getting used to coding. Due to the size of the video I wasn’t able to upload the first part of the video but I was able to post the last bit of my story.
References:
The Lead Project (2014) Super Scratch Programming Adventure: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games! No Starch Press.
https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf
