Scratch

I have posted two text-based projects which may be of interest for teachers or parents. Both are Scratch adaptations of programs that I originally wrote in HTML for use with my classes. The Scratch projects are simplified versions but work well and might provide the starting point for anyone who wants to adapt or extend them. They work in similar ways and the coding is ultra-simple and easy to alter.

THE STORYTELLER
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mohlar/15939
A project to help promote discussion and imagination in classes, groups or between pairs. The first part of a story is told and the user has to decide and tell what happens next. Each of the lines in the story has five different alternatives which are selected at random. The original HTML program had the facility to link PARTS of sentences and so the range of randomised elements and possibilities was huge, especially as some sections had between 100 and 200 variations.

ELEMENTS
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mohlar/15938
A project to help promote discussion and story-telling in classes, groups or between pairs. Seven key ‘elements’ of any story are defined [who (2 characters), when, where, what (2 objects), activity, style (genre) and theme].  Also a ‘rule’ is specified which must be used when creating a story. Once again, I have only used five different alternatives per element  which are selected at random. Also, as before, the original HTML version allowed for thousands of variations.

The idea of posting these projects is not to provide completed programs, but to offer a sort of ‘format’ which can be adapted easily if you want to.

The sprites are all text and although the white background bars aren’t needed for the purposes of highlighting anything on screen, they make it easier to know where to put text if you make amendments.