Scratch

From first prinicipals, what do you want your program to do?

And by "first principals" I mean don't tell me what scripting you are trying to use, but the actual purpose of your program and ho you imagine it fulfilling that purpose (what it will look like, nothing about how it will be programmed).

Last edited by Mayhem (2008-02-25 15:20:31)

Hi there Mayhem,

Let me begin by thanking you very much for your reply and for actually taking the time to fix my project – it looks really good and it’s almost perfect man!

1. What's "the actual purpose of your program and ho (sic) [do] you imagine it fulfilling that purpose"?
It's first and foremost a consciousness raising (CR) task aimed at making ESL (English as a Second Language) young and adult students 'notice'  and understand 5-10 of the most common language errors ('by foot' and 'on foot' being 1 of them)  that foreign learners of English make. How can they 'notice' and develop an understanding of the targeted language feature? By visualizing the error. Having said this, I also want to use the activity to introduce some problematic/basic phonetic symbols. Do you know what phonetic symbols are at all? For example, in this particular activity I’d like to introduce only the /aI/ phonetic symbols and in the following words b/aI/k (bike) and b/aI/ (by).   

2.  "Is this the sort of thing you are looking for?"
It's almost perfect man. Here are some of the things that I'd like to add:
a. car engine sound
b. Replace current bus with a London double decker red bus (since I'm based in London at the moment) and bus engine sound
c. a bike in motion and the sound of a classic bike bell sound
d. a 'moving' foot and a male/female student 'riding' on top of it. I know it's funny and it's totally 'ungrammatical'  but as I pointed out above, students have to be able to visualize the error!
e. a few cool image effects like whirl, pixelate, and change of color.
f. At the bottom or top of the screen/stage the student can read the following : "This exercise contains one mistake. Can you spot it? Simply click on the word/ phrase that you think is ungrammatical." Only when the student has actually clicked on any part of the "by foot" phrase will the right answer be supplied.
g. Once the student has been provided with the correct answer, he/she clicks on an arrow icon to go to the next 'page'. On this new page, the student reads a short explanation of the incorrect and correct usage, written in simple and concise English. In the case of the ‘foot’ example, the notes read as follows: “You can travel b/aI/ car, b/aI/ bus or b/aI/ bike. You can’t use b/aI/ with foot. You need a different preposition."
h. /aI/ phonetic symbols in 'by' and 'bike'.

Last edited by kpmichelsen (2008-02-26 17:20:24)

The most direct way to communicate with someone in Scratch is to leave them a comment on one of their projects or galleries.  That way, they will be notified directly when they log on to Scratch (unless they have disabled the notification system).

I'd like to help too, if possible. I speak french if that's any help to you if you need to translate the projects.

Hey thanks very much for your reply and your interest Llamalover!

Check out 1 of my projects and as already fixed by Mayhem at
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Mayhem/106894

Once you'e seen it, I'd like to tell you about some of the things I'd like to add/change. You can drop me a line at [e-mail deleted by the Scratch Team]

Thank you

Last edited by kpmichelsen (2008-03-01 13:04:26)

Thanks Rukqo! Will let you know when the project is finished so you help can help me make it look more funky/interesting!

Last edited by kpmichelsen (2008-03-02 09:27:47)

ooo see i was right with rukqo.

on the email

Mayhem, I think the project is almost finished now. Could you check it out just in case anything needs to be changed/ammended?

BTW, it's now called "By foot or on foot?"

Thank you