1. Review and demonstration (2+ minutes):
Begin by asking coders to talk with a neighbor for 30 seconds about something they learned last time; assess for general understanding of the practices and concepts from the previous project.

Explain that today we are going to add to our previously created project about a dance party. We are going to add to it by creating a story about going to a dance party. Display and demonstrate the sample project (or your own remixed version).

A note on say blocks: If you are displaying a sample project with say blocks, it might help to read the text out loud using various voices for each sprite as it is displayed. This strategy might help early/pre-readers, as well as young coders who are new to learning English. In addition, when young coders begin working on their own project, you can encourage them to use speech-to-text or emojis in their own say blocks instead of typing out words (or use recorded sound blocks).

Note: If coders did not complete either the “Dance Party” or “Dance Fever” projects, you can start with either of those projects or create a brand new project with a story about going to a dance party.

Video: Project Preview (1:29)
Video: Lesson pacing (1:48)

This can include a full class demonstration or guided exploration in small groups or individually. For small group and individual explorations, it might help to set a time limit for exploration before discussing the project.

Example review discussion questions:

• What’s something new you learned last time you coded?
  • Is there a new block or word you learned?
• What’s something you want to know more about?
• What’s something you could add or change to your previous project?
• What’s something that was easy/difficult about your previous project?

3. Create a storyboard (15+ minutes):
Either hand out paper with at least four different quadrants (one for each page in ScratchJr), use handheld whiteboards, or use a painting app on a device to encourage coders to storyboard what they are going to create. It may help to model this process with a separate set of random ideas.

Encourage coders to draw or write out not only the kinds of sprites and backgrounds they’re going to use, but the kind of code that will accompany them.

When coders are ready, have them show you their storyboard and ask questions for clarification of their intent (which may change once they start coding and get more ideas). If approved, they may continue on to the next step (creating); otherwise they can continue to think through and work on their storyboard.

Note: Coders may change their mind midway through a project and wish to rethink through their original storyboard. This is part of the design process and it is encouraged they revise their storyboard to reflect their new ideas.

Resource: Example storyboard templates

Suggested storyboard questions:

• What will happen in your story?
  • What sprites are going to go to the dance party?
    • How will they get to the dance party?
  • What will happen on the way to the dance party?
• How many pages will you have?
  • What backdrop will you use for each page?
  • What sprites will we see on each page?
  • When will you go to the next page?
• What will the sprites do on each page?
  • What kind of code might we use to do that?
• What will you keep from your original project?
  • What will you change?
• What are all of the ways we can interact with the story?
  • Which pages will have user interaction?
  • In each of these ways we can interact with the story, how might we use code to create that interaction?

Suggestion: If coders need additional help, perhaps pair them with someone who might help them with the storyboarding process. Or, you could have coders meet with a peer to discuss their storyboard before asking to share it with yourself. This can be a great way to get academic feedback and ideas from a peer.

Note: This process may take significantly longer than 15 minutes if storyboarding many different sprites in each page. In general, it is best to keep things simple when first creating a project, then adding more complexity if time permits.