Your Scratch Play

You are now the writer, the director, and the stage crew. Over the next week you'll put on a short play in Scratch: your characters, your scenery, your script, and broadcasts running the whole show from behind the curtain. On the last day, we watch them all.

Overview

This is the first project of the unit. You'll plan a short play in your notebook, build it in Scratch with at least two sprites and a backdrop, and use broadcasts for every line and scene change, exactly the way the knock-knock joke worked. Then you'll share it and we'll hold a showing for the class.

Builds on: Knock Knock — every line in your play is cued the same way: receive a message, say the line, broadcast the next one.

You've got it when…

Your play has a script in your notebook with every line and cue written down before you built it.
Clicking the green flag plays the whole show from the beginning, with sprites in their starting places, and it runs the same way every time.
At least two sprites talk, at least one backdrop sets the scene, and every line after the first is cued by a broadcast.
The project is shared and the link is turned in.

Collaboration & AI

Work: On your own. You may ask a neighbor to watch your play and tell you what's confusing; that's what audiences are for.

AI — AIAS Level 1, No AI: The story, the lines, and the blocks are yours. What the levels mean.

Your Mission

Write and build a play in Scratch that meets all of these requirements:

Requirement	What it means
Two or more sprites with speaking parts	Each one says at least three lines.
At least one backdrop	Pick one from the library or draw your own.
At least eight lines of dialog total	A knock-knock joke is five. Yours is longer.
Broadcasts cue every line after the first	No guessing with wait blocks.
Starting positions set by the green flag	Every sprite has a go to x: y: when the flag is clicked.
At least one sprite moves during the show	A glide, a turn, a costume change — something happens besides talking.
Runs start to finish on one green flag click	The audience shouldn't have to do anything but watch.

Keep it short. A play that runs 30 to 60 seconds and works is better than a five-minute epic that breaks in scene two.

Plan It First

Programmers who start clicking before they know what they're building end up rebuilding. Spend the first day on paper (well, in your notebook).

Start a notebook entry titled Scratch Play.
Write two or three sentences about your play: who the characters are, where it happens, and what happens.

Copy the table below into your entry and fill in every line of your play. The cue column is the name of the broadcast that starts that line; the first line is started by the green flag.

Line	Cue that starts it	Broadcasts when done
1	green flag	line 2
2	line 2	line 3
3	line 3	line 4
4	line 4	line 5
5	line 5	line 6
6	line 6	line 7
7	line 7	line 8
8	line 8

Tip

You can name your messages anything. line 2 is fine; so is dragon enters or scene 2. Descriptive names are easier to debug when a cue goes missing.

Show me your table before you open Scratch. That's your ticket to start building.

Build It

Work through your table in order, one line at a time, and click the green flag after every line you add. A play built one line at a time is a play you can fix; a play built all at once is a mystery.

Warning

Check which sprite is highlighted in the sprite list before you drag out a block. Lines that land in the wrong sprite are the number one bug in this project.

Stuck? Open for the debugging checklist.

Does the when I receive dropdown exactly match the message the previous sprite broadcasts?
Is the script in the right sprite?
Did the previous line's script end with a broadcast block at all?
Are two scripts listening for the same message and talking over each other?

Useful blocks you haven't used yet:

Block	Category	What it does
switch backdrop to	Looks	Changes the scenery mid-show.
next costume	Looks	Flips a sprite to its next drawing; click the Costumes tab to see them.
show / hide	Looks	Bring a character on stage or send them off.
point in direction / turn	Motion	Face a different way.
wait 1 seconds	Control	A short pause. Fine for a dramatic beat; not a substitute for a broadcast.
start sound	Sound	Every sprite comes with a sound; the Sounds tab has more.

Your play needs an audience, and I need a link.

Click the orange Share button at the top of the editor. Scratch opens your project page.
In the Instructions box on the project page, type Click the green flag and watch. and click Save.
Copy the web address of the project page from the top of your browser. It looks like https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/123456789/.
Paste the link into the assignment in Google Classroom and turn it in.

Showtime

On the last day of the project, we'll watch every play on the projector. Two rules for the audience: laugh at the jokes, and clap at the end. Two rules for the playwright: you don't touch the keyboard after you click the flag, and you don't explain what it was supposed to do. The show speaks for itself, which is why we test it first.

Turn It In

The link to your shared Scratch play, submitted in Google Classroom.
Your Scratch Play notebook entry with the description and the completed script table.

How It's Graded

This lab is worth up to 4 points. One score covers everything you turn in.

Score	What it looks like
4 — Excellent	One green flag click runs the whole play from marked starting positions to the end, every time; two or more sprites carry at least eight lines, all cued by broadcasts, on a real backdrop, with at least one movement; the notebook script table was filled in first and matches what the play actually does; and the shared link opens for the class.
3 — Above Average	The play runs start to finish with a slip or two — a sprite that doesn't reset its position, one line timed with a wait block instead of a broadcast, or a notebook table that drifted from the final version.
2 — Average	The play runs but is short of the requirements (fewer than eight lines, one speaking sprite, no backdrop) or stalls partway because a cue doesn't match.
1 — Below Average	A few blocks and a notebook plan, but nothing that plays as a show.
0 — Failing	No shared link turned in.