The Mercado Project overview

When the 7th grade Spanish teacher told me that she wanted to do a video-Spanish project with the kids, we created an Alice project instead.   Their animations show each character speaking (mouth moving) and gesturing, while speaking the lines in Spanish.  It's awesome!

Step 1: Write the Script

In the IDEA Lab, we use GoogleDrive so that students have access to their work no matter where they are. They can share with teachers and teammates for comments and assessment.

This project had very precise requirements so a checklist system seemed like the best way to ensure every student had all of the requirements included in the script.

Step 2: Practice and Record

Students had to practice their scripts out loud in the Lab. This meant that students were speaking and hearing the words of the mercado over and over. They helped each other with the words they didn't know. (I specifically remember them working through very large numbers.) . Then they used Audacity (free download) to record and edit their script sentences one-by-one.

Step 3: Create your Animation

Using Alice, students created an outdoor shopping area, vendedores, clientes, and productos en venda.  Because this was a first experience with Alice and we were on a deadline, most students kept their objects to a minimum and did not try to write code for complex procedures such as walking.  You can see that students used their imaginations!