Skip to content
Learning Site
Home

About

  • About Robotical
  • Case Studies
  • Meet the Team
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Our Products

  • Marty the Robot
  • Axiom
  • Cog

Teach

  • Lessons & Resources
  • Marty for Educators
  • Funding & Grants
  • Professional Development
  • Why Teach STEM?
  • Coding Environments
  • Student Led Learning

Let's Code

  • Marty the Robot
  • Code Online
  • Marty Apple App
  • Marty Android App
  • Update your Marty
  • Cog
  • Code Online
  • Cog iOS App
  • Cog Android App
  • Axiom
  • Axiom Science

Support

  • Marty Get Started
  • Cog Quick Start Guide
  • Axiom Science Quick Start Guide
  • Support & FAQs
  • Marty V2 User Guides
  • Marty V1 Resources
  • Request Support
  • Request Top-Up Training

Shop

  • Marty the Robot and Physical Computing
  • Class Packs
  • Add Ons & Extras
  • Account
  • Shipping, Returns & Cancellations
  • Distributors
HomeLessonsUnits of workCurriculum standardsTutorials

Information

  • Lessons & Resources
  • Knowledge Base & User Guides
  • About Us
  • Shipping, Returns & Cancellation
  • Privacy Policy
  • Learning site privacy
  • Terms of Service
  • Partner Hub

Support & Help

  • Support & Help Center
  • Getting Started with Marty V2
  • Getting Started with Marty V1

Learning, Resources & Guides

  • Marty V2 Lessons Site
  • Marty V1 Lessons Site

Contact Us in the UK

Stanhope House,12 Stanhope Place,Edinburgh,United Kingdom,EH12 5HH
(+44) 0131 564 0922
hello@robotical.io
Contact Us

Contact Us in the US

2810N Church St, PMB 61694,Wilmington,Delaware,USA19802-4447
(+1) 833 886 1661
hello@robotical.io
Contact Us

Why not join our mailing list?

For News, New Products and Special Offers

Join mailing list

Copyright 2016-2026 © Robotical Ltd

All lessons
Marty app
CurrentPrevious

Listen to the Instruction - Music & ELA

Listen to the Instruction - Music & ELA
Estimated time
45 minutes
Products
Marty V2

On this page

  1. Lesson overview
  2. Objectives & resources
  3. Key vocabulary
  4. Lesson plan
  5. Extensions and challenges
  6. Curriculum standards

Extensions and challenges

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.

Curriculum standards

18
Choose your curriculum to see the relevant standards.

18 of 18 linked standards shown.

Australian CurriculumAustralia4
Curriculum areaLinked standards
Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies
English: Language - Text structure and organisation
English: Literature - Creating Literature

Select a code to read the full standard.

Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies

  • ACTDIP010Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them
  • ACTDIP013Plan, create and communicate ideas and information independently and with others, applying agreed ethical and social protocols

English: Language - Text structure and organisation

  • ACELA1491Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of linking devices including pronoun reference and text connectives

English: Literature - Creating Literature

  • ACELT1607Create literary texts that explore students’ own experiences and imagining
Common CoreUSA2
Curriculum areaLinked standards
English Language Arts: Writing

Select a code to read the full standard.

English Language Arts: Writing

  • W.4.2Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • W.4.6With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
CSTA Education StandardsUSA2
Curriculum areaLinked standards
General standards

Select a code to read the full standard.

  • 1B-AP-10Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
  • 1B-AP-13Use an iterative process to plan the development of a program by including others' perspectives and considering user preferences.
Curriculum for ExcellenceScotland4
Curriculum areaLinked standards
Literacy & English: Writing
Technologies: Computing Science

Select a code to read the full standard.

Literacy & English: Writing

  • LIT 2-23aTools for writing
  • LIT 2-26aOrganising and using information

Technologies: Computing Science

  • TCH 2-13aUnderstanding the world through computational thinking
  • TCH 2-15aDesigning, building and testing computing solutions
England's National CurriculumEngland2
Curriculum areaLinked standards
Computing, Design and Technology: Computing
English: Writing - Composition

Select a code to read the full standard.

Computing, Design and Technology: Computing

  • ✔️Understand what algorithms are; how they are implemented as programs on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions

English: Writing - Composition

  • ✔️Plan their writing by: noting and developing initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary
TEKSUSA4
Curriculum areaLinked standards
Elementary Grade 4: English Language Arts and Reading
Middle School Technology Applications: Grade 6 to Grade 8

Select a code to read the full standard.

Elementary Grade 4: English Language Arts and Reading

  • ELA.4.11.AThe student is expected to plan a first draft by selecting a genre for a particular topic, purpose, and audience using a range of strategies such as brainstorming, freewriting, and mapping;
  • ELA.4.12.BThe student is expected to compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft;

Middle School Technology Applications: Grade 6 to Grade 8

  • 1.ACreativity and innovation. The student uses creative thinking and innovative processes to construct knowledge, generate new ideas, and create products. The student is expected to: identify, create, and use files in various formats such as text, raster and vector graphics, video, and audio files;
  • 2.ACommunication and collaboration. The student collaborates and communicates both locally and globally to reinforce and promote learning. The student is expected to: participate in personal learning networks to collaborate with peers, experts, or others using digital tools such as blogs, wikis, audio/video communication, or other emerging technologies;

Resources

Learner resources

  • Student WorkbookFile links loading

Educator resources

  • Teachers GuideFile links loading
  • PowerPoint PresentationFile links loading

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.

Prerequisite knowledge

If then statements, color sensing blocks

Cross-curricular links

ELA, Writing, Music

Learning objectives

  • I can order multiple complex instructional steps.
  • I can use technology to produce and publish writing.

Resources and equipment

  • Marty the Robot V2
  • Tablet with the Marty the Robot app installed or a computer with Bluetooth and web access.

Key vocabulary

  • Instructions
  • sensing
  • repeat
  • if then

Lesson plan

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.