Week 6¶

Assignments¶

[ ] Task 1: [Build an interactive story using Scratch]

Process¶

Steps followed During this task, I worked with my older students, which are from grade 5. They started learning about coding last year so it wasn’t very strange for them. The students were on the process of creating things for their valentine’s day activities which are usually candy grams with a small chocolate. I decided to show them how to create virtual cards using Scratch so they could add it to their activities and send a special message to their teachers. For the creation of the card we used the tutorial that was created by the Scratch team. Part of the things that I teach my students is how to follow and learn things from tutorials so it was a great integration to my usual objectives. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11806234
Photos / screenshots of key stages
Challenges and solutions

Reflection¶

Key learnings: The following questions are part of this week’s reflection tasks.
When you design a DF learning activity, how do you take into account diversity? Could you describe one learning situation in which you did not take into account diversity in planning? How did you solve the situation?
In the school where I work, an important part of our mission is having our classes differenciated for our students. I tend to take into account the level of each student has, and the kind of likes that they have. When planning I try to keep in mind that it’s not an activity for me, but for which age, for how many students, for boys or girls and what topics have they talked about recently. But of course, I am a human, and I there are times in which I think an activity will apply to all but it doesn’t. In those cases, I tend to spend more time with the kids that were not included as part of the diferenciation and also use it as an opportunity for the rest of the students to see how we are all different but together we can learn from eachother.

What aspects would you need to take into consideration if you have kids with a) learning disabilities: I believe that in order to include a student with learning disabilities, the most important part is to know the opposite, which are his abilities. Once we focus on the things they are able to do, we can find more ways in which we can teach them. For example, if the student has a hard time reading for dyslexia, then a video in which they explain the instructions might be useful. This video also benefits the rest of the students who prefer learning through audio experiences. b) physical disabilities: A student with physical disabilities is a litte more difficult since the student might need more support from the teacher or even other students. The kids in particular tend to enjoy helping each other so having a partner who can do the things that the other student is not able to do would be helpful for both. c) emotional disabilities: At our school there are professionals who are always there to help students with their emotional learning. The disabilities are always an oportunity to learn so I would take them into consideration also during the lesson. He will be ready to learn when he feels safe, loved and valued. If at the moment, the student is not feeling one of those, it doesn’t matter how much you put into your lesson plan, he will not learn.

Do you think your school is ready to a change in mindset? Why? How can you get support from other stakeholders? I believe that the school is ready for a change of mindset mostly related to the diferenciation of the learning tasks. It has always been a topic to include in our lesson plans. Now, about having programming as part of our tasks, it tends to be a little more difficult since, they do see the importance, but the amount of time that we have the kids is limited, and subjects like math and langage arts are top priority. What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating programming in your classes? One of the main challenges that I face when integrating programming in my classes is having all students be excited about it. Some students tend to see it as “a fun topic to watch other people do” For example I had kids telling me they are interested in hacking but not programming, and having them understand that those are related was a big part of the lesson.

Next steps or improvements The next step for my lessons would be having oportunities in which students are able to see the importance of programming. Once they are on board, is easier for admin to see the importance and have more focus on it.

Tools¶

Tools or software used
https://scratch.mit.edu/
References or tutorials followed
https://youtu.be/MhglZQK1exo?si=xhuw5ccFmnfEu3Rn
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11806234