Can anyone recommend/provide links for Scratch curriculum beyond the Creative Computing material that Scratch itself provides?

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but there is the “Tips” page, and begginer projects, both which take you step-by-step through the programming.

There are some excellent resources at www.codeclub.org.uk

Scratch itself does not provide any official classes. You have to plan them.

RokCoder wrote:

There are some excellent resources at www.codeclub.org.uk

Perfect. Thank you!

I've been following a couple of tutorials to make simple games, and while I can understand how the “code” is working I am still confused. How do you start your own game? I find that figuring out how to get the coding started, or being able to guess how the coding would start before watching a tutorial on a specific game, is confusing. Is this something you just pick up with time and practice, or is there a trick to it?

I'm also wondering how I will approach teaching Scratch game making to my students. I am thinking I will come up with a series of classic game styles (platformer, maze strategy, racing game, etc.), find good tutorials, make the games myself and then have students follow the tutorials, while I assist them as they go, having become familiar with the process at that point. This “rebuild” they would do would be practice and then for a project I could have them remix the code, change the assets and try to expand the game.

How does that sound?

There are things called scratch extensions. go to this forum.

gameteacher wrote:

I've been following a couple of tutorials to make simple games, and while I can understand how the “code” is working I am still confused. How do you start your own game? I find that figuring out how to get the coding started, or being able to guess how the coding would start before watching a tutorial on a specific game, is confusing. Is this something you just pick up with time and practice, or is there a trick to it?

I'm also wondering how I will approach teaching Scratch game making to my students. I am thinking I will come up with a series of classic game styles (platformer, maze strategy, racing game, etc.), find good tutorials, make the games myself and then have students follow the tutorials, while I assist them as they go, having become familiar with the process at that point. This “rebuild” they would do would be practice and then for a project I could have them remix the code, change the assets and try to expand the game.

How does that sound?

There is a ? mark in the editor on the top right of the screen click it for tutorials.

Programming is like anything else - the more you do it, the better you get My advice is to start with easy projects and gradually increase the difficulty. If you program things you are interested in then you have more enthusiasm for it - and the same certainly applies to children.

I start with the CodeClub resources that I linked to before. Going through the first module teaches most of the basics needed to do more complicated games and projects. They're also paced nicely so the children won't become frustrated. What really seems to generate the interest is, once the projects have been completed, chatting with the children and asking how they think the games/projects could be improved - how they could be more fun. Keep the ideas within the realms of possibility but let them crack on and make the projects their own. Simple things - hi-scores, different graphics, extra sound effects, playing around with the graphics effects. Let their enthusiasm drive them.

Some of the children take more interest in the graphical side of things and like to spend most of the time improving, changing and playing around with the graphics. Others have a more technical approach. I don't view any approach as being wrong but it depends if you have a curriculum you need to follow.

Bear in mind that I only teach at a once-a-week code club, so it's a very different environment, but my only rule is that the children can't play games they haven't written themselves. They can do that in their own time. In early projects I don't encourage remixing either. Remixing is actually a great asset to have, but I prefer the children to know at least the basics before they do that.

Here's an Asteroids Tutorial that I wrote for the more advanced children. It's not easy, but the more experienced children are able to grasp the concepts of it. The less able ones copy the code as they see it which. That's not so great, but I ran this at a school's code club over the last two periods of the term and everyone ended up with a fully featured arcade game.

Here's the basic framework for a Hangman game that I put together with a view to making a lesson around it. The hard work has been done, but the actual game needs to be added to it. Again, probably not so much for the beginners.

And, after all that waffling, I have to say that the key point is to find where their enthusiasm lies and to use that to let the children drive themselves forwards.

I hope somewhere among all that rambling are at least a few ideas that might help

Thanks for the help!

Again though, my main concern is how to get started if you don't have a model to work from. If for instance, I want to create a maze strategy game, where would I begin? Or should I just find one in the Scratch gallery to emulate?

And in teaching, would it be best to just show students a tutorial through the projector and then go around and assist, or actually build the game with them as they follow my steps?

hello dear teacher, i am the evil kumquat, yes you should go around with them, as the students will probs need help first time

gameteacher wrote:

Thanks for the help!

Again though, my main concern is how to get started if you don't have a model to work from. If for instance, I want to create a maze strategy game, where would I begin? Or should I just find one in the Scratch gallery to emulate?

And in teaching, would it be best to just show students a tutorial through the projector and then go around and assist, or actually build the game with them as they follow my steps?

Hi I volunteered with 8-10yr olds but only twice as a project. Being only 16 I found it hard to teach basic Cartesian coordinates.

Can a serious person please help?

gameteacher wrote:

-snip-
And in teaching, would it be best to just show students a tutorial through the projector and then go around and assist, or actually build the game with them as they follow my steps?

I think building it along with them would probably be more engaging and helpful to the students, however they could find it a bit restricting.You might want to start by doing a few simple tutorials that get them used to the blocks and how they work then let them experiment with the blocks on their own with your assistance.

gameteacher wrote:

Can a serious person please help?

Look the average of people here is 8-16 so I think you being somewhat rude. http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu a teacher's run site should be better for you to ask your questions

PintOfMilk wrote:

gameteacher wrote:

Can a serious person please help?

Look the average of people here is 8-16 so I think you being somewhat rude. http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu a teacher's run site should be better for you to ask your questions

@gameteacher has already in a different topic said that they have tried ScratchED and did not recieve help. The Scratch forums are also more serious than the rest of the site.

gameteacher wrote:

Can a serious person please help?

Ignore them, @TheEvilKumqaut are either a troll account or are trying to be serious but are “being” their account. It's an old forum joke, meant for the non-serious parts of the forums.

dude341 wrote:

PintOfMilk wrote:

gameteacher wrote:

Can a serious person please help?

Look the average of people here is 8-16 so I think you being somewhat rude. http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu a teacher's run site should be better for you to ask your questions

@gameteacher has already in a different topic said that they have tried ScratchED and did not recieve help. The Scratch forums are also more serious than the rest of the site.

gameteacher wrote:

Can a serious person please help?

Ignore them, @TheEvilKumqaut are either a troll account or are trying to be serious but are “being” their account. It's an old forum joke, meant for the non-serious parts of the forums.

Thanks for the clarification.

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

gameteacher wrote:

-snip-
And in teaching, would it be best to just show students a tutorial through the projector and then go around and assist, or actually build the game with them as they follow my steps?

I think building it along with them would probably be more engaging and helpful to the students, however they could find it a bit restricting.You might want to start by doing a few simple tutorials that get them used to the blocks and how they work then let them experiment with the blocks on their own with your assistance.

Building it with them is difficult for the teacher and also restricting in that students work at different paces. In the past when I have wanted to teach a technique in another course, I have played video tutorials found on youtube and paused at different points to clarify things and give students time to do the task. Using a tutorial to take students through the steps of making something frees the teacher up to move around the room and supplement the video with one-on-one support.

I want them making games from the first project, because after doing a few simple games I want them to have the skill to create a fairly complex original game of their own. Plus that's how I am structuring each unit. So they will go from simple games to more complex.

TheEvilKumqaut wrote:

hello dear teacher, i am the evil kumquat, yes you should go around with them, as the students will probs need help first time

What are you saying?

Building it with them is difficult for the teacher and also restricting in that students work at different paces. In the past when I have wanted to teach a technique in another course, I have played video tutorials found on youtube and paused at different points to clarify things and give students time to do the task. Using a tutorial to take students through the steps of making something frees the teacher up to move around the room and supplement the video with one-on-one support.
I want them making games from the first project, because after doing a few simple games I want them to have the skill to create a fairly complex original game of their own. Plus that's how I am structuring each unit. So they will go from simple games to more complex.

You never mentioned how old your students are. I teach 10 to 12 year old kids. I can give you the following tips from my work with them:
- First, the kids should learn the basics of Scratch. This works very well with the scratch cards (https://scratch.mit.edu/tips).
- The kids work with the cards at their own pace.
- I am their coach and help if there are individual questions and problems.
- As soon as the kids have finished the first scratch cards, I encourage them to apply their acquired knowledge by writing their own projects (parallel to work with the scratch cards). They decide on the topic of the project.
- It is important that the kids can present their own works and receive feedback from their colleagues.
- I also encourage the students to investigate foreign projects as soon as possible and to collect instructive examples in studios (for example the projects recommended by RokCoder at www.codeclub.org.uk: https://scratch.mit.edu/users/CodeClubRik/
- Reading one or two books can also do no harm. I can recommend: Scratch Books by Breen, Derek, by McManus, Sean, and by Woodcock, Jon. My favorite book is “Learn to Programm with Scratch” by Majed Marji. But it is (despite the childish cover) rather written for adults.
- Only then you can expect the students to be able and motivated to write complex projects.