Theresa Bowers

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Home > Design Tools

Design Tools

Scratch Software from MIT
Online Education (Lg.)

Scratch software was designed by a small team of researchers at the MIT Media Lab.  It is a free software created to enable students as well as adults to create web based multi-media games, animation, projects, lessons or simulations easily without knowing a complex programming language.  Instead, students use a lego styled graphical blocks for designing their game, story or project.  Its user friendly, fun and easy to use after a bit of playing and twiddling with.  It is a great way to grab students into designing the content they need to learn and enabling them to learn in meaningfully, thoughtfully and thoroughly as well as gaining confidence in their technological skills and abilities. 

  The application to a wide array of topics and subjects is what the MIT researchers intended in its development and have achieved it remarkably.  Scratch can be used in Science, Math, Gaming, Language Arts and any other subject area necessary.   I have used it here for an 8th Grade Language Arts class.  Students will create a scenerio to be used as a writing prompt.  This lesson plan is crosses curriculum and meets the following NJ standards in LA and Technology:
NJ- New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards
Subject: Language Arts Literacy (Prior to the adoption of Common Core standards)
Standard 3.2: WRITING - ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE IN CLEAR, CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES.
Range/Grade Level: By the end of Grade 8
Strand A: Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting)
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1. Write stories or scripts with well-developed characters, setting, dialogue, clear conflict and resolution, and sufficient descriptive detail.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 2. Write multi-paragraph compositions that have clear topic development, logical organization, effective use of detail, and variety in sentence structure.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 3. Generate and narrow topics by considering purpose, audience, and form with a variety of strategies (e.g., graphic organizers, brainstorming, technology-assisted processes).
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4. Revise and edit drafts by rereading for content and organization, usage, sentence construction, mechanics, and word choice.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 5. Utilize the New Jersey Registered Holistic scoring rubric to improve and evaluate their writing and the writing of peers.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 6. Compose, revise, edit, and publish writing using appropriate word processing software.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 7. Reflect on own writing, noting strengths and setting goals for improvement.
Strand B: Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication)
Cumulative Progress Indicator 1: Extend knowledge of specific characteristics, structures, and appropriate voice and tone of selected genres and use this knowledge in creating written work, considering the purpose, audience, and context of the writing.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 2: Write pieces that contain narrative elements, such as short stories, biography, autobiography, or memoir.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 4: Write a range of essays, including persuasive, descriptive, personal, or issue-based.
Strand C: Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting
Cumulative Progress Indicator 1: Use Standard English conventions in all writing (sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling).
Cumulative Progress Indicator 2: Use a variety of sentence types correctly, including combinations of independent and dependent clauses, prepositional and adverbial phrases, and varied sentence openings to develop a lively and effective personal style.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 3: Understand and use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, to present items in a series or to organize ideas for emphasis.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 4: Experiment in using subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to indicate relationships between ideas.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 5: Use transition words to reinforce a logical progression of ideas.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 6: Edit writing for correct grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 7: Use a variety of reference materials, such as a dictionary, grammar reference, and/or internet/software resources to edit written work.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 8: Write legibly in manuscript or cursive to meet district standards.
Strand D: Writing Forms, Audiences, and Purposes (exploring a variety of forms)
Cumulative Progress Indicator 1: Gather, select, and organize the most effective information appropriate to a topic, task, and audience.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 2: Apply knowledge and strategies for composing pieces in a variety of genres (narrative, expository, persuasive, poetic, and everyday/ workplace or technical writing, etc.).
Cumulative Progress Indicator 4: Write personal narratives, short stories, memoirs, poetry, and persuasive and expository text that relate clear, coherent events or situations through the use of specific details.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 5: Use narrative and descriptive writing techniques (e.g., dialogue, sensory words and phrases, background information, thoughts and feelings of characters, and comparison and contrast of characters.)
Cumulative Progress Indicator 6: Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to understand the value of each when writing a research report.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 7: Write reports based on research and include citations, quotations, and a works cited page.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 8: Explore the central idea or theme of an informational reading and support analysis with details from the article and personal experiences.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 9: Demonstrate writing clarity and supportive evidence when answering open-ended and essay questions across the curriculum.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 12: Choose an appropriate organizing strategy such as cause/effect, pro and con, parody, etc. to effectively present a topic, point of view, or argument.
Cumulative Progress Indicator 13: Use personal style and voice effectively to support the purpose and engage the audience of a piece of writing.
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 14. Maintain a collection of writing (e.g., a literacy folder, or a literacy portfolio).
Subject: Technological Literacy (2004)
Standard 8.1 : (COMPUTER AND INFORMATION LITERACY ) ALL STUDENTS WILL USE COMPUTER APPLICATIONS TO GATHER AND ORGANIZE INFORMATION AND TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.
Range/Grade Level: Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:
Strand A : Basic Computer Skills and Tools
Cumulative Progress Indicator 8: Design and produce a basic multimedia project.

8th Grade - Language Arts - Lesson Plan

Within 2 weeks, 8th grade students will create a fictional story based upon their own Scratch designed aquarium writing prompt.  Students will be graded based upon the 8th Grade Writing Rubric given at the beginning of the year.

   Week 1 - Students will be given blank aquarium and sample aquarium with text and will learn how to use Scratch software.  They will learn how to add objects, sounds, scenes and text.  They will create a unique scenerio and story for their Scratch animation and fill out the plot diagram, determine time, setting, and characters.  For example, the fish are on the Jersey Shore and are going to stage a protest against pollution, bad surfers, noisy speed boats, or boozing cruisers throwing cans and vomit overboard.  Another example, as used in the sample, the fish are in an aquarium in a dentist office.

Week 2 - Students use their Scratch designed writing prompt, create the rough draft, and final draft of their story. 

(Optional Week 3) - Sharing online &/or class website &/or class presentations.

File Attachments:
  1. Blank Aquarium Blank Aquarium
  2. Mrs. Bowers' Sample Aquarium - Click on the fish for dialogue... Mrs. Bowers' Sample Aquarium - Click on the fish for dialogue...
Author: Theresa M Bowers
Last modified: 7/2/2021 7:17 AM (EST)