|
| |
School: Vartan Gregorian Fox Point Elementary
School
Teacher: Ellen Lynch
Audience: ESL Kindergarten
Initial Project Description: We've worked with Mrs. Lynch and her students for several
years, and the collaboration has produced both
Buzz! (2000)
and The Frax!
(2001). This year she would like a program that serves as a "function
machine", primarily but perhaps not exclusively for Kindergarten math
concepts. In kindergarten the basic math concepts are 1,2 and more; 1,2 and
less; double numbers, and patterning. The students also do basic addition
and subtraction problems to 10. Mrs. Lynch would like some kind of
interactive game for the children to have for their computer time late in
the school year. Possible tools include Hyperstudio, Director and Authorware.
Initial Comments: Ms. Lynch's students have limited skills in English and
perhaps the greatest challenge of this program is to create something that
does not rely on English text to convey the concepts and offer exciting
exercises for the students on the computer.
Revised Proposal:
We will be working within the bounds of the kindergarten math curriculum to
devise a way to let kids practice manipulating function machines. The
concepts that they have learned are the number line to 30, "one more", "two
more", "one less" and "two less". They also have done simple addition to
ten and doubling numbers to ten. A "function machine" is something that
takes an input, applies a rule, then produces an output. Learning how to
use these is a favourite class activity. Mrs. Lynch gives one example of
an input/output pair then the children have to figure out the rule (i.e. the
function of the machine), and correctly determine the corresponding outputs to a
series of inputs.
For example, if she wrote "aaa | aaaaaa",
the kids will figure out that this is a "doubling machine", and if the next
input is "bb" they decide that the output should be
"bbbb". In class, if someone writes a wrong
answer, she circles it and lets someone else try. Generally they do about
6 examples of a rule before moving on to a new one.
Our machine is going to have a list of rules, each of which will have lists
of examples. The program will select from these at random. We
envision an environment in which kids click buttons or drag objects to produce a
response to the input. When they signal that they are done constructing an
answer, one of three scenarios will be acted on: 1. It is correct,
on to the next problem or next rule; 2. It is incorrect and they have a chance
to try again; 3. It is incorrect, and they can ask for a hint. We
want the sample and all previous answers (including incorrect ones) to be
visible on the screen. The average child's session will last 15-20 min.
Considerations:
- There is apparently a fairly large variation in ability levels, both
developmentally and in terms of aptitude. Therefore, we would like to
build in levels that the kids can graduate though. These will probably
be implicit (the kids won't know that they're on level 3, for example) and
they will be placed in a level as a result of their success with the first
machine.
- Language: This is a multilingual classroom, and also at a very basic
reading level. Our goal is to create a game without ANY written words if
possible. Animations, sounds, colors, and layout are going to have to
convey goals, encourage actions, display approval or disapproval, and engage
the user.
- Motivation: Having met Mrs. Lynch, we think a lot of the reason that
this is a favourite game is that the kids enjoy interacting with HER. A
major challenge that we face is how to instill the same intellectual curiosity
and pride in correct answers that the children currently enjoy in a group
setting.
- Lovable character: Whether this will be an animated machine or some
sort of animal, we want some sort of personality for the user to interact
with.
Team Goals:
- Interact with and observe the kids playing and actually working on
function machines. We don't want to directly copy the real life
experience, but we need to see what works about it. (They are on
vacation the week of Feb 17, but after that, mornings before 11:30 are best,
according to Mrs. Lynch.)
- Testing: Especially for this age group, what we expect to work may
not. We want to be able to bounce ideas off of the kids all the way
along the development cycle, not just at the end.
- Finish early. This is mostly a consideration due to several
entreaties from Mrs. Lynch. She's seen the last minute rush, and doesn't
want it to happen again.
- Even division of work.
|
