So I volunteered to teach Scratch to kids at our neighborhood center. I have no teaching experience.

The class will last about 3 hours. The room has wifi, can accommodate about 24 people, and has a large monitor on the wall that everyone can see. Each child will be required to bring a laptop and there will be power for each laptop. I doubt any of the children will have been exposed to Scratch beforehand.

I'd like to guide kids to create a cool first project. It should be fun and not too difficult. I also want them to start coding early in the class instead of me lecturing on and on about scratch. Currently I'm thinking of showing them how to create a simple maze game where you move your sprite to a goal and avoid touching walls. I'm totally open any other ideas.

Has anyone had experience teaching Scratch to a class? Any suggestions? How do I teach the Scratch interface without making it boring (should I let the kids discover blocks for themselves or go through each one)? What works, what should I avoid? Basically any insights would be greatly appreciated.

I also have specific questions:
- should I require an adult to accompany each child (this will drop to class to 12 kids)?
- should I ask them to download the off-line editor before the class?
- what is a good minimum age cutoff to attend the class?

Thanks!

Hi! Congratulations on running a Scratch class. I'll answer your questions below in order:

• That really depends on how well you think you can come round to help them. In my mind, I find it annoying when I have to wait for help, but then it may also make the attendance count dwindle.
  
• I would recommend this as you don't want to waste the first hour creating accounts for every child, however I would check with the parents if it's ok to download for their child.
  
• Hmmmm. I would say 5, though if they can use a computer they would be fine.
  

I think your maze idea is excellent! It was the first Scratch project I made, and was a nice thing to start with, you could also explain the concepts of the bocks.

cheeseeater

Thanks for the great suggestions Cheeseeater!

I think 5 years is way too young. No 5 year old would concentrate for 3 hours. To preserve your sanity try and get them all at the same sort of age/ability I'd say minimum 10 year old.

If you haven't found it ScrathEd has some nice resources.

One word of advice is to try and get them to bring headphones! Once they discover the sound blocks…..

Don't forget to enjoy it!

That's great, good luck! And yes, it can be a little intense if you're the lone adult. Just try to have a good personality and have fun. Girls and boys may be drawn to different things (eg. girls may want to make stories and boys games). All the kids seem to spend a lot of their earliest time carefully drawing in the costume editor. I remember wanting to show the kids something with blocks but having to do it individually because everyone took the art of their first sprite so seriously; they wouldn't turn their attention away from the art until they felt they were done, so they all finished at different times.

To the specific questions, take cheeseeater's advice for (2) and (3). For (1): The adults are probably not necessary for supervision, but a couple adults you could show scratch to beforehand who could aide with all the questions would help a lot i think. All the kids will have questions for you. Hand-out guides can help, but they will still want you to explain things to them (reading may not be a strong suit). The biggest problem is each of them having enough of your time. So… I'll just finish this with some things that I do; you do what you want/feel comfortable with.

First, I show what scratch is (i had a projector) and what other people do with it to entice them. Then, I usually start by getting them thinking about “flip books”. Where you can take a pad of post-its and draw a stick man jumping across the paper, landing, getting up and then flexing his arms in accomplishment. I show them this and talk about how movies work in a frame-by-frame fashion too with only the illusion of motion. I explain scratch (and games and computer software in general) works frame by frame the same way - then into what a stack is. You can add wait blocks into some demo stacks to slow them down and convey the flow-of-control. At some point you will probably have to explain what the different regions of the scratch screen are; they don't have to know everything, just basically what they're looking at. Also, they should be aware that the different sprites have their own scripts as well a their own costumes. Their first day is usually centered around exploring what individual blocks do and making very short stacks. I show them how to make things fast and slow and usually stick to working with these blocks (individually, don't think of what follows as a stack):

stuff like that. And of couse the hat blocks too. I've never gone for 3 hours (I'm used to 1h meetings), so maybe they will actually want to make something a little more complete. But at the beginning I usually stick to these few blocks and let the kids find their ways into the others. A lot of what will go on will be showing off to their friends and trying to make them laugh (expect that too) so I wouldn't take the surprise out of all the blocks - just enough to give them confidence to explore. I might eventually show them size effect blocks but usually let them “surprise” me with color, sound and things like that.

Hope all this helps. I know that was long. And if you want an actual, complete project so they can say they made something, maybe prepare three guides: one on the basics, then let them choose to finish the day with one about making a short story or one about making a very simple game (like the maze). Actually a lot of the stuff i described may not be necessary for a maze game without animations (just a forever block that checks for keypressing and another which checks if it's touching your sprite). This is how I start. Again, good luck!

Thanks cauzality. Here's what I was thinking the kids could do for the first project:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/17650653/

I like the idea of an animation project that appeals to different kids. If I keep the maze game simple (not include moving obstacles) I may have time to do a simple animation project. Do you have a suggestion for an animation project? Maybe ask the kids to animate something that grows (flower, butterfly, etc.).

I would not have adults, because, no offense, kids work better sometimes without their parents hovering over them.

And 5 years old is pretty young, I agree. I would recommend Scratch for ages 7-8+

drmcw wrote:

I think 5 years is way too young. No 5 year old would concentrate for 3 hours. To preserve your sanity try and get them all at the same sort of age/ability I'd say minimum 10 year old.

I think you're right. I have a 7 year old and he would have a hard time with a 3 hr class. I will plan for a break every hour and snacks.

That looks perfect! The follow the mouse thing I would bet would be a very good first project. I couldn't get through yours though lol. I really don't know with the animations. Animate a joke maybe. I had some kids do a harlem shake video and a slender man video without any prompting from me. I also remember showing some girls the pen blocks and coming back to them later just generating pretty patterns. They will probably have some memes they will come ready with. I would have something and stick to it but if they start doing their own thing, try to work with it. Just make sure you have something for them to do, but don't fret if you feel you aren't going to have time for something, just enjoy the time - it will make a better atmosphere for them which will put them in a more exploratory mood. But every time I do this, I leaving thinking I could have done it better. You sound like you're coming at it in a very good way, I'm sure you'll be great

turkey3 wrote:

I would not have adults, because, no offense, kids work better sometimes without their parents hovering over them.

I hadn't thought of it like that. I think that's true. The kids are probably not going to feel as free to express themselves with their parents looking over their shoulder. Thanks!

I started scratch a couple of weeks ago and I'm around that age I had no experience before hand and no help this was my game: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/16928874/
If I can do that as my first game around that age then surely the maze would be fine anyway I agree with everything that's been said apart from the 5 yr old thing.
Btw this took me about 2 hours on this game.

I have a project here that might give ideas on how to start out,

drmcw wrote:

I think 5 years is way too young. No 5 year old would concentrate for 3 hours. To preserve your sanity try and get them all at the same sort of age/ability I'd say minimum 10 year old.

Oh. I was thinking of if they could use a computer!

cheeseeater wrote:

drmcw wrote:

I think 5 years is way too young. No 5 year old would concentrate for 3 hours. To preserve your sanity try and get them all at the same sort of age/ability I'd say minimum 10 year old.

Oh. I was thinking of if they could use a computer!

Kind of true. I go into a restaurant nowadays and all I see are a bunch of 5-8 year olds literally absorbed in iPads or iPhones (which they are too young to have). I'd rather chow down buffalo wings personally than play App Store games at a restaurant.

I'm just tutoring two kids for an hour a week and sometimes feel pressured. 24 for 3 hours? By yourself? Good luck; you'll need it!

My students started with a simple maze game after a couple weeks learning programming basics. The first couple weeks they made little projects, but because of your increased time, you could probably start them pretty quickly with real programming.
Right now we seem to have moved into a pong mood.

I would not ask an adult to accompany each child, but i would recommend getting a couple adult (or teenage) assistants.

If you have good wifi, why bother with the offline editor? If you feel you might really need it, so maybe pre-download it before the first class.

My students happen to be 9-11, but you should go with whatever you think you can deal with. I would recommend 8-12, with the bottom limit more important.

cauzality wrote:

All the kids seem to spend a lot of their earliest time carefully drawing in the costume editor. I remember wanting to show the kids something with blocks but having to do it individually because everyone took the art of their first sprite so seriously; they wouldn't turn their attention away from the art until they felt they were done, so they all finished at different times.

What a true statement.

turkey3 wrote:

cheeseeater wrote:

drmcw wrote:

I think 5 years is way too young. No 5 year old would concentrate for 3 hours. To preserve your sanity try and get them all at the same sort of age/ability I'd say minimum 10 year old.

Oh. I was thinking of if they could use a computer!

Kind of true. I go into a restaurant nowadays and all I see are a bunch of 5-8 year olds literally absorbed in iPads or iPhones (which they are too young to have). I'd rather chow down buffalo wings personally than play App Store games at a restaurant.

(Off topic) I bet one day Google and Apple will join forces and invest in putting iPads in the tables for you to order, browse and play on. Apple provide the iPads, and Google generate the income with annoying ads.

Thank you all for the great feedback and ideas. I'm currently looking for assistants in my neighborhood to help with the workshop. Found one, but 2 more would be ideal. drmcw's comment about scratch ed led me to scratch meetup close by. I may find people to help out there.

I also have specific questions:
- should I require an adult to accompany each child (this will drop to class to 12 kids)?
~You should ask for 3 volunteers to babysit the kids or make it optional for the parents to be with them.
- should I ask them to download the off-line editor before the class?
~You could do it and teach them how to download it as a class… you do have wifi
- what is a good minimum age cutoff to attend the class?
~10+

You should start simple like x and y and x is side to side and y up and down and then the motion blocks and then the looks and so on like this.

imani21 wrote:

You should start simple like x and y and x is side to side and y up and down and then the motion blocks and then the looks and so on like this.

Please don't necropost, the previous post was 18 months ago.