I was recently at a friend’s house whose son Adam (pseudo name) attends Chinese International School as a Grade 6 student. I was curious about their primary ICT curriculum, and asked Adam to show me what he has been doing. I was surprised to learn that he has been using Scratch for 2 years. He is in fact an advanced Scratch user as evidenced in some of the games and animation that he designed. I was eager to find out exactly how his teachers managed to infuse Scratch into the learning environment since I had so much trouble coming up with a way of integrating it into my own lessons. So Adam opened up his Google drive and showed me the Scratch project outline, code of conduct, introductory letter to parents and rubric. These all helped me piece together the Scratch project from start to finish.
From my understanding, a lead teacher, two Year 4-6 homeroom teachers, the ICT co-ordinator, student mentors, and 20 student participants are involved in the Scratch Project. At the start, student mentors &
participants are selected based on a short interview. They are interviewed by the lead teacher who work closely with the ICT coordinator. The ICT coordinator is there to provide training to all that are involved in the project.
Participants are first organised into project groups (with the help of the ICT facilitator). Depending on the comfort level of the classroom teachers, the ICT facilitator either leads the students, or is in the classroom for support. After the initial introduction on the use of Scratch and the mathematical knowledge required to run it, the groups are then given different tasks such as creating a moving geometric shape, designing an interactive game or programming an aquarium consisting of different sea creatures. Each project is then shared with a global community of Scratchers on a private forum. Finally, students put together screencasts of their Scratch projects and showcase that to their parents.
I thought the set up of Scratch at CIS is highly innovative. In terms of intended learning outcomes, students are given authentic and meaningful tasks that is an extension of the taught curriculum. Scratch allows students to move away from textbook / chalkboard learning & demonstrate creativity in new ways. Scratch forces students to think more with regards to planning and design, think several steps ahead. Students must also work collaboratively in groups to share ideas & persevere through challenges. By setting design goals for their own projects & problem-solving to fix issues, the traditional role of students is shifted from passive to active learners. Instead of sitting & listening to the teacher, they are able to experiment & investigate. At the same time, teachers also need to adjust their thinking about what learning looks like. The process is as important as the final product, and the project as a whole isn't always going to have a letter grade attached to it.
As for the teacher's role, it is interesting to note that the ICT coordinator doesn't actually teach the computing technology. She encourages teachers to try new things, to challenge themselves as learners & moves them outside of the comfort zone. The classroom teacher acts as a coach rather than an expert of Scratch. She gives a brief teaching point at the beginning of the lesson & asks effective questions as students investigate and explore.
Finally, I thought the most innovative aspect of the Scratch project is the extent in which other student & parent communities are involved. Parents are given the opportunity to understand the Scratch challenge & to look at the complexity of the scripts the students have developed. They sit down with the students at the final stage of the project with guiding questions to help probe deeper into the understanding that they may / may not have. Parents are also provided with a rubric with which they can use to assess the entire Scratch process. When planning my own Scratch unit, I can take this as a consideration because the project is more meaningful if students are able to communicate their understanding with others.
In addition, by joining a global community of Scratch, students are able to further develop their communication & collaboration skills. Within the school, Gr. 8 students (ex-Scratch users) are asked to assess the projects & post comments onto the forum. They are are reminded to provide constructive criticism & ask questions. Through these virtual conversations, students will hopefully become reflective & collaborative learners.