[MWForum]Introducing MW @.0

[Gary McCallister]

I am not a full time elementary school teacher.  I teach biology in =
college.  But I have been volunteering off and on for a few years in thrid =
grade at a local elementary school.  What has seemed to work well is to =
meet the class about thirty minutes before lunch.  I introduce a topic and =
we talk about it.  For example, the first session I often play a game =
where they blindfold me and then give me verbal instructions about how to =
get about the room.  I persoanlly mess up their imprecise instructions =
(like if the say turn left I turn all the way around to my left).  W =
sometime let others try and play with this awhile.  It introduces the idea =
of telling other people (or turtles) how to operate in space with commands =
like right, left, forward and back, bit also the necessity to include a =
number: turn left 1/4 turn, forward three steps, etc.  Now they are ready =
for fd, bk, rt, lt.
     We usually meet just before lunch and keep it to about 30 min.  After =
lunch they come back and we go to the computer room where I tell them 2 or =
3 commands and they try things with them for an hour.  We usually can only =
meet once a week so we don't try to do projects and save anything for many =
weeks.  (Aside: I find the whole saveing thing far more difficult to =
explain and get them to use correctly than any of the Logo.)
     Under our time frame of many weeks, they have commands for fd, bk, =
pu, pd, rt, lt, cg, home, repeat, sqaure brackets, procedures page, =
shapes, animation, buttons, etc.  Then we do the save stuff and finally =
they do some one day projects.  It is clear until the second semester that =
we ask them to choose and work on a larger project.  As I said, story =
books about their Christmnas vacation are popular.

>>> lrpacini@yahoo.com 08/30/02 03:49PM >>>
Gary, I am dealing with 4th, 5th and 6th graders.

Lauren

--- Gary McCallister <mccallis@mesastate.edu> wrote:
> 1.  How old are your students?  That makes a big
> difference.  (If they don't know the alphabet they
> can't use the keyboard very well, etc.)  All
> students need to have a few primitives available to
> get started.  Things like fd, bk, pu, pd, rt, lt
> etc. are pretty necessary.  I personaly teach quite
> a few more primitives and give them instructor
> designed projects for awhile before asking them to
> create their own projects. =20
> 2.   There is a book from terrapin called 101 Ideas
> for Logo that presents a bunch of graded projects
> that are good to select from.
> 3.  Public school children in about the thrid grade
> do well in MW doing animated story books.
>=20
> >>> lrpacini@yahoo.com 08/30/02 12:50PM >>>
> How good it is to see that there is life in turtle
> land! Perhaps now would be a good opportunity to
> repost my prior question... but to open the
> parameters
> a bit.
>=20
> I am new to MW and am looking for some basic starter
> project suggestions for grades 4-6. Something that
> will light the imaginative fires of the students as
> well as their teachers.
>=20
> What is the best way to present MW as a brand new
> tool. I mentioned that I am in a Montessori school,
> and I suspect that may have been responsible for the
> lack of suggestions, but it is important that MW get
> a
> good launch in order to getpast the skeptics!!
>=20
> Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
>=20
> Lauren
>=20
>=20
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
> http://finance.yahoo.com=20
> _______________________________________________
> MWForum mailing list
> MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20
> http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20
>=20
> _______________________________________________
> MWForum mailing list
> MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20
> http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com=20
_______________________________________________
MWForum mailing list
MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20
http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum