Day 1
01 Workshop Opener 02 Previously, on Unit 3 03 Break 04 Model Lesson U3L7 05 Reflection 06 Debugging 07 Lunch 08 Curriculum Investigation 09 Assessment 10 Break 11 Conclusions and Connections 12 Scenarios 13 Wrap Up 14 Debrief

Session 4: Model Lesson Unit 3 Lesson 7

40 minutes

Purpose

This model lesson is intended to model pedagogy. The facilitator will model best practices within a model lesson while demonstrating the collaborative classroom culture CS Discoveries is trying to create.

Objectives

  • Identify when and how to implement various teaching strategies
  • Develop empathy for the student experience in a new programming lesson
  • Create a sprite in Game LAB

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

  • Participants are seated in pairs for pair programming
  • “Sprites…” Poster - On a piece of chart paper, create a poster that has the word “Sprites” written in large letters.

Facilitator Supplies:

Teacher Materials:

  • Laptops
  • Journals
  • Pens

Agenda

Warm Up (10 minutes)

Activity (30 minutes)

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Warm Up (10 minutes)

(10 minutes) Warm Up

Remarks

“Put your hats on and Let’s get ready to go!”

How Much Information?

Review: So far we've only written programs that put simple shapes on the screen. List all of the different pieces of information that you have used to control How these shapes are drawn.

Prompt: If you wanted to create programs with more detailed images, maybe even characters that you could interact with, what other pieces of information might you need in your code?

Discussion Goal

The goal here is to get learners thinking about all of the different values that go into drawing a single shape on the screen, and how many more values they may need to control a more detailed character in a program. If learners are struggling to come up with ideas, you might use some of the following prompts: How do you tell a shape where to go on the screen? How do you tell a shape what size it needs to be? How do you tell a shape what color it should be? What about its outline? What if you wanted to change any of those values during your program, or control other things like rotation?

Share: Allow learners to share out their lists.

Remarks

Today we'll learn how to create characters in our animations called sprites. These sprites will help us keep track of all the information that we need in our programs.

Question of the Day: How can we use sprites to help us keep track of lots of information in our programs?

Activity (30 minutes)

(2 minutes) Exploration

Teaching Tip

Make sure to model the role of the teacher within this plugged lesson:

  • Ongoing formative assessment
  • Direct students to reference resources
  • Gather and share class feedback
  • Guide students through the debugging process
    • Celebrate bugs!
    • Don’t debug for the learner
  • Time keeper for pair programming

Give learners the opportunity to explore in Level 1.

(5 minutes) Video and Discussion

Video: Watch the video introducing sprites as a whole group. (2:37)

Discussion Goal

Sprites are a very complex concept, and students may have difficulty understanding exactly what they are. The most important aspect for students to understand is that sprites allow them to organize a lot of information about something that they want to draw to the screen.

Discussion:

  • Create a poster with “Sprite” written in large letters
  • Ask the group, “What do we know about sprites so far?”

Teaching Tip

This exercise serves as a quick formative assessment. The teacher is able to get a quick pulse on the general understanding within the room and clarify misconceptions in real time. (Role of the Teacher: ongoing assessment of student understanding)

Add to the poster as learners share out

(5 minutes) Levels 3 - 5

Transition: Move learners onto the level progression using pair programming starting with Level 3. Allow time for learners to work through the bubbles independently, stopping when they get to Level 5.

Remind learners that they should use the Help & Tips tab as a reference if they run into difficulty.

Five minutes is budgeted for learners to work through Levels 3 - 5. However, you should transition to the video as soon as learners begin reaching Level 6. Learners can return to bubbles they have not yet completed after the video is shown to the whole group.

(5 minutes) Video and Discussion

Video: Watch the video introducing the animation tab as a whole group. (3:07)

Discussion Goal

Make sure learners understand that they will need to both create the image (or animation) in the Animation Tab and then add the animation to the sprite using the setAnimation block. Learnbers may be confused by the use of the word "animation" for single images, but in Game Lab, still images are considered "animations" with only one frame.

Discussion:

  • Ask the group, “What new things have we learned about sprites that we should add to our poster?”
  • Add to the poster as learners share out

(13 minutes) Continue the Level Progression

Transition: Allow learners to continue within the level progression. It is likely that learners will not finish the level progression within the time allotted. At a minimum, all learners should complete Level 7.

During the activity, the facilitator should keep time and remind the learners to switch pair programming roles.

Teaching Tip

Don’t forget to celebrate bugs! (Role of the Teacher: create a culture of debugging)

While learners are working through the level progression, facilitators should be circulating the room to check for understanding and gather class trends for misconceptions, strengths, or areas of improvement (focus on what students are doing well). Ask learners to talk through their code with you. Check to ensure that learners know why they sequenced their code the way they did.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Key Vocabulary:

  • Sprite - A character on the screen with properties that describe its location, movement, and look.
  • Property - A label for a characteristic of a sprite, such as its location and appearance.
  • Dot Notation - the way that sprites' properties are used in Game Lab, by connecting the sprite and property with a dot.

Journal

Question of the Day: How can we use sprites to help us keep track of lots of information in our programs?

Prompt: So far we've been able to change a sprite's location and image. What else might you want to change about your sprites?

Discussion Goal

This discussion prompts students to think about the different properties that a sprite might have, and prepares them for the next lesson, which explicitly covers sprite properties.

Share: Allow learners to share out their ideas.