The suggested time for this lesson is 90 minutes. This will allow split the planning time and time to create a rubric for the dance, along with the actual dance off, across to 45 minutes blocks. If you feel that you could accomplish this in a shorter time, do not feel obliged to carry this across two lessons.

Warm up

Share with learners the success criteria for the lesson. Read the story up until the pause when Anna shows learners a series of Marty moves.

Have learners copy the moves from the presentation to think about what other moves they think Marty could perform.

Continue the story up until the point where the children need to create the criteria for the dances.

Get Learning

Criteria for success have been used for each lesson learners have experienced with Marty. Now it is their turn to think about what they want to compare their work against. Have learners suggest different criteria they could evaluate and have them choose the way to rank them, it could be a tick for success for each or an x, or blank space, for not achieving in a category; alternatively, there could be a numerical scale that could be applied; you will know your learners best, and what would be the best system for them. The workbook has a table with several cells for categories to judge the dances. Inform learners they only need to fill in the cells they feel would be useful for their job: blank cells are OK.

Share with learners the range of moves that Anna shows from the presentation, highlight that they are all in the movement section but then remind learners of the control and operators sections, where they will find the repeat blocks, the if / then block, the wait block, the equality block and logic blocks (Images are below for these blocks). Also, if you feel your learners are up for it, remind them where to find the blocks for ground and color detection but leave it for them to explore, rather than revisiting learning for these blocks.

Again, have learners model the movements as they are performed so that they can get a feel for how they go together and how long the action takes for them to complete so that can consider times for Marty.

Time for Practice

Have learners start to plan their routine, in their workbook. They should use the symbols they know for the start, the if/then block, the repeat block, and all the different processes. For something like this dance routine, it is unlikely they will make use of logic to have more specific conditions but it is still OK to use it. Remind learners that the wait block is a process and should make use of the rectangular shape. Examples of each of the symbols are in the presentation document.

Link to disco music you could have playing in the background.

Learners should allow themselves sufficient collaboration time to work on the routine and bring the movements together, if they choose to separately plan different parts of the dance. Suggest that they also aim to create some sort of transition move as the different members of the group may have employed significantly different movements as part of the complete dance.

Showcase each dance, there are example videos in the attached PowerPoint presentation but this does not need to be shown. Celebrate each and do comparisons using the rubrics. Perhaps you could have two, or more, Martys performing at the same time to give learners a chance to give more meaning to their comparisons. Alternatively, the presentations could be introduced as a tournament where Martys dance against each other, like a proper dance-off.

Cool Down

Bring learners back together to discuss the challenges they faced and overcame. Have groups identify the commands that they were proud of or the commands that caused them difficulties. Encourage questions or comments: how did you decide to... for successful code; did you think to try... for challenges.

Suggested questions you might ask:

• How did you decide to sequence the movements?
• How did you keep the movements in time with the music?
• Are there any features you wanted to include in your dance but weren't able to? Why not?

Carry out any end of lesson routines.

Log off devices and clear everything away.