Listen to the Instruction - Music & ELA
Lesson Overview
Learners will write instructions for a new Marty dance move that learners will have to follow. To trigger the steps, Marty will need if statements and color cards.
Each dance move should have five steps, one for each of the five colors that comes with Marty the Robot.
- Instructions, sensing, repeat, if then,
Content Sections
Listen to the Instruction - Music & ELA
Lesson Overview
Learners will write instructions for a new Marty dance move that learners will have to follow. To trigger the steps, Marty will need if statements and color cards.
Each dance move should have five steps, one for each of the five colors that comes with Marty the Robot.
- Instructions, sensing, repeat, if then,
- If then statements, color sensing blocks
- ELA, Writing, Music
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- Marty the Robot V2
- Tablet with the Marty the Robot app installed or a computer with Bluetooth and web access.
Learning Objectives
- I can order multiple complex instructional steps.
- I can use technology to produce and publish writing.
Pre-lesson preparation
Prepare some space for learners to practice dance moves for their Martys. They will need to think about how Marty can move and what steps they need to write for a person to copy Marty’s moves.
Warm-up
Share with learners the learning objectives and success criteria for the lesson (slide two from the presentation). On slide three of the presentation is a short video describing and showing steps for a dance. Have all learners up to take part with the warm-up. Once the dance has been completed, have learners record a rough idea of the steps they heard and saw, from the video to use as an example of how dance instructions can look.
Get learning
Have learners watch slides four – six, displaying the key points for instructions and some of Marty’s code that would create movements like the Cupid Shuffle; it is not perfectly timed to the music, but the movements are comparable. This is to give learners an idea of how Marty’s movements can be like a person’s ones.
Give learners time to work in their groups to think about their own moves for a dance that Marty would be able to complete. Learners should record this in their workbook, with emphasis on the words they should use in the instructions: the key order words and connective words that make a step more complex.
Time for Practice
Slide seven takes this further by allowing learners to record the instructions so Marty can play them back as often as they want. Slide eight shows learners how they can add the sound block with slide nine showing Marty and a recorded voice before the movements occur.
Allow time for learners to piece together their instructions and record their voices to add to the overall program. Some quiet will need to be encouraged for the recordings as device microphone sensitivity can be quite high.
Cooldown
Display the dances, allowing different groups to present Marty instructing others. Time permitting, encourage learners to try and learn from Marty’s moves.
Bring learners back together to discuss the learning. Ask them if they faced any challenges creating a dance that Marty could perform.
Suggested questions you might ask:
- How did you decide if Marty could perform a dance move that you could do?
- How did you break up the steps to help others learn your dance?
- Do you think the recordings will help others to learn the dance more easily? Why or why not?
Carry out any end of lesson routines.
Extensions & Support
Extension
For those looking to take their work further, show slide eleven, to remind learners of the ability for Marty to trigger a move when they sense something. In this case, we highlight the color sensor to trigger a move if Marty sees purple. This will allow Marty to display a certain move over and over so that the learners can repeatedly practice it. The video shows Marty only doing one action, when they start on purple, what additional code do they need to have Marty continually react to new colors? The repeat forever block.
Support
Encourage the use of drawings to complement the instruction text – stick figures are enough to get the job done. Additionally, encourage regular physical movement prior to recording the instructions so learners can get a good feel for what they are creating.
- Middle School Technology Applications: Grade 6 to Grade 8
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- Technologies: Computing Science
- Literacy & English: Writing
- English Language Arts: Writing
- CSTA Education Standards
- England's National Curriculum - English: Writing - Composition
- Australian Curriculum - English: Language - Text structure and organisation
- Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies
- Australian Curriculum - English: Literature - Creating Literature
- Computing, Design and Technology: Computing