Objective: 

Students will remix a printed story by adding their own conclusion and dialogue, using decomposition to break down the story into scenes and narrative techniques to extend the plot.

Materials Needed: 

• Printed stories with missing conclusions

• Pencils

• Index cards

• scene planning templates

Steps:

• Introduction: 

  • The teacher explains the concept of remixing by showing how computer scientists and authors both build on existing work. 

  • She introduces the idea of decomposition, explaining that just as programmers break down complex problems, writers can break stories into smaller scenes. 

  • Students will remix the ending of a provided story by decomposing it into parts and adding their own events, dialogue, and conclusion.

• Activity: 

  • Students read a story that stops before its conclusion. 

  • They use decomposition to break the narrative into key scenes, identifying the main characters, events, and dialogue from the original text. 

  • Next, they create a new conclusion by adding scenes on index cards, each representing a part of their remix. 

  • Students focus on integrating dialogue and descriptive details to develop the new events, organizing them into a logical sequence just like programmers would when planning the steps of a program. 

  • Temporal words are added to manage the flow of events, and a final conclusion is crafted to wrap up the narrative.

• Discussion: 

  • After completing their remix, students reflect on how breaking the story into smaller tasks made it easier to manage the complexity of writing a new ending, similar to how programmers decompose large coding problems into steps.

• Presentation: 

  • Each student presents their remixed story, explaining how they used decomposition to structure their new scenes and ensure a smooth conclusion that follows from the original events.

Equity and Access: 

Provide scene templates for students needing additional support, and encourage peer collaboration by pairing students with diverse skill levels.

Real-World Connection: 

Connect the process to how game developers remix and build upon existing game designs by adding new levels or storylines.

CS Practice(s): 

• Creating Computational Artifacts – students create new story elements by remixing existing parts of the narrative.

Standard(s): 

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy W.5.3

• CA CS 3-5.AP.14

Objective: 

Students will remix a pre-existing animation in Scratch or another coding platform by adding their own dialogue and conclusion, using events, loops, and conditionals to extend the original program.

Materials Needed: 

• Computers

• Pre-made coding templates

Steps:

• Introduction: 

  • Students explore the concept of remixing as a creative process in both storytelling and programming. 

  • The teacher shows a pre-made animation from a coding platform like Scratch, missing its final scene and asks students to add their own ending by incorporating dialogue, events, and actions.

• Activity: 

  • Students begin by examining the existing code in the animation, identifying how events and loops are used to sequence actions. 

  • They then add new scenes, extending the story with their own dialogue and character interactions. 

  • Using coding blocks, students implement conditionals to change the outcome of the story based on user input and add loops to control repetitive actions like character movements or animations. 

  • They test their remix, ensuring the new scenes integrate smoothly with the original story.

• Presentation: 

  • Students present their remixed animations, explaining how they extended the narrative using events, loops, and conditionals. 

  • They reflect on how they incorporated smaller code segments from the original animation to add new features.

Equity and Access: 

Provide templates with pre-coded scenes for students who need additional support, and pair students with varying levels of coding experience for peer collaboration.

Real-World Connection: 

Connect the lesson to the remix culture in video game design, where developers build on existing games by adding new features or levels.

CS Practice(s): 

• Creating Computational Artifacts: Students remix an existing program by adding new dialogue, actions, and scenes. 

Standard(s): 

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy W.5.3

• CA CS 3-5.AP.12

• CA CS 3-5.AP.14