Graded Programming Activity
PA2 - Tell Me a Story

For this assignment you should use Scratch to animate a short story that has some movement in the story line.

One of the quickest things that comes to mind is using a nursery rhyme such as Jack and Jill. To animate Jack and Jill I would find some sprites to use for Jack, Jill, and a Narrator. I would find a nice scene that includes a hill. I would sequence the story so that the narrator told the story - most likely one line at a time. Coordinated with that I would make the Jack and Jill sprites move around the stage to act out the action of the story. I could use the sound feature to make a crash sound when Jack fell down. I might even attempt to change the appearance of the Jack sprite so he was carrying a bucket or sporting a "broken crown" by using Looks options or a second costume.

However, you are NOT restricted to Jack and Jill. You can pick any nursery rhyme such as Hickory, Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle or The Eensie, Weensie Spider. In fact, you aren't restricted to a nursery rhyme. If you have an idea for a scene from your favorite book, play, song, etc you may use that instead. We would just ask that you make it clear what you are animating

To earn a 3

In order to "meet expectations" your program should:

  • Be named "PA2".
  • Sequence several "actions" to "tell" a story/nursery rhyme when the green flag is pressed (If you don't know what to do, feel free to do Jack and Jill).
  • Use at least three different sprites.
  • Use at least one of sprite that comes from "outside" of Scratch (a personal image or something you found on the Internet).
  • Have at least one sprite use the broadcast feature to send a "message."  At least one other sprite needs to respond to this broadcast.
  • Include at least five lines of "dialog"
  • Pass the "places everyone" test. This means that no matter when the green flag is pressed - even in the middle of telling running/telling it - the story will run properly.

That's it. Those are the simple minimum set of requirements. The rest is all up to you.

 

To earn a 4

In order to "exceed expectations" your program should do everything from before PLUS at least two of the following:

  • Play sounds that you have recorded
  • Use multiple costumes with one or more sprites
  • Use multiple backgrounds with the stage
  • Incorporate something particularly unique to you or to UNI (having your face or TC be the narrator)
  • Do something else that just shows me that you are exploring what is possible with Scratch.  Heck, even just a good CREATIVE solution to the problem rather than the "simple cut and dry" solution can count for this.

 

Suggestions

For some of you this simplistic set of requirements with a "creativity" component may be bothersome - you would like me to tell you step-by-step what to do. However, that is rarely what we do when we program. Instead we have this general idea about what we want to do and we have freedom to do many things to accomplish the goal. The challenge is selecting which set of things "best" accomplish the goal.

Getting Credit

To submit your program so that your classmates and I can see it:

  • Make sure you have met all of the requirements listed above in the grading rubric.
  • "Share" your program publicly on the Scratch website by clicking on the share button in the upper right hand corner of the create screen.
  • Navigate to the studio for this project - https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/33677474
  • Select the "Browse Projects" button at the right edge of the studio page.
  • A list of all of your "shared" programs will appear at the bottom of the screen. Select the assignment that you just completed.