Making Angry Birds in Hopscotch ... more challenging than expected

Last week I was in Melbourne for a MathsPathway Trainer Retreat and my class was taken by a relief teacher who knows most of the students in the group, having taken other subjects in which they were members of the class. I mention this because of the feedback he gave me regarding one of the boys in the group, which is worth acknowledging here.

This young person, I'll call him 'student x' for the purpose of this entry, has the greatest difficulty focussing on anything in class ... and it appears this is the case across all of his subjects. He doesn't read instructions carefully, nor does he listen attentively to verbal instructions. Further, he has a tendency to rush at everything, a bit like a bull at a gate (as my dad used to say) and consequently  is less than successful in assessments or tasks.

I was very excited when the reliever made special mention of student x, saying that he'd met him several times in several subject areas and never once seen him focus like he did in the coding lesson. I was ecstatic and shared this feedback with student x on Friday. How did he take this news? With a shrug of his shoulders ... as is often the norm for adolescent boys. However, when I asked him to work closely with two other boys who had missed last week's lesson, for the purpose of catching them up to the same place as the rest of the group, he took on the challenge. Did the boys catch up? Yes, they did ... a great outcome for them ... but more importantly, for student x, a clear demonstration of what he can do when you find the hook that engages him.

So ... what about making Angry Birds in Hopscotch ... how far have we progressed so far?

Last week, one of the IT Support team joined the reliever in the classroom and they progressed to the 8min 15sec mark of the instructional video. Not a bad effort.

All bar two students present on the day had successfully created the bird and the Y structure of the slingshot ... and one side of the sling itself. This was our starting point on Friday.

Friends supported their mates to catch up on the last steps of adding the first string.

It's great to see students collaborate, problem-solve and conquer their inclination to take the quick way out and just give up when it gets difficult.

Having tutorials available on You Tube makes differentiating manageable too. It allows students to work at their own pace ... and to go over it again for homework to make sure they're ready for the next lesson.





At 3:15pm ... the end of the lesson and school for the week ... I found myself having to stop them again. I think they might have just kept working and missed their busses home.

We've reached the 15min mark of the video ... half way ... so our Angry Birds journey will continue next week, with the expectation that our three independent workers are at the same point as the rest of the group.

As it turns out, one of them has some previous experience with Hopscotch and managed to easily catch up during the lesson today. Fantastic news on many fronts ... but for me, it's great to have another confident coder in the room. Turns out he'd done some coding in Primary School. Sadly, he's missed a bit of school of late, due to health issues. It's great to have him back!