“Do In Order” or “Do Together”?
Given the age of my students (9-10) and technology limits at my school, I need
Alice lessons and/or activities that are flexible but focused (more along the lines of
a mini-lesson). It is purposely brief and with a singular on helping students learn
how when to make one specific programming decision students would need to
make during the activity.
Some weeks, my students will have access to the computer lab, where Alice can be
taught whole-group. In the lab, I could combine mini-lessons, allow more time for
student exploration, or assign independent practice following instruction.
Alternatively, my students be working on classroom PCs and will need Alice activities that they can complete with
limited direct teaching time. I would introduce the mini-lesson, but students would do the activity independently
(hence the instructions inside the student Alice world I provide). There will be student “Tech Assistants” who will
can assist their classmates or the students will sometimes work in pairs. However, I would be working with small
guided reading/writing/math groups and won’t be available to help Alice students during this time. To have all
students complete a lesson in one week, I would rotate 25-30 students through 3 computers during a 60-minute
block/4 days per week.
Target Audience: Grade 4
Materials: Alice 2.3, computer/laptop
Time: approximately 30-45 minutes
Related Alice files: doInOrderOrDoTogether.a2w, student_doIOOT.a2w
NCITES (North Caroline Information & Technology Essential Standards)
4.TT.1.3—Use technology tools to present data and information (multimedia, audio and visual recording, online
collaboration tools, etc.).
Essential Questions: What is the difference between “Do in order” and “Do together” actions in Alice? (sequential
vs. simultaneous) How do you decide which action to use?
Helpful Hints
 The “Undo” button is your friend.
 Make your life easier… never move or delete the ground.
 Every 15 minutes or so, Alice will remind you to save any changes to the world you are programming. Take her
advice and SAVE your work.
Before Exercise
 Discuss situations wherein you want to a rule to apply to some but not all.
 “Do in order” and “Do together” actions apply a rule to 2 or more lines of code in Alice, but in different ways.
 Tell students that the purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate how those
Open and Rename Files
 Open Alice 2.3
 Open Alice world student_doIOOT.a2w


o
Remind students about the importance of renaming and saving files as an initial step of each computer
lab session so that all their work (including back up files) is saved in the individual STUDENT’s
folder. [Only final products are copied to teacher folder for viewing/grading].
o
Give explicit directions for renaming files according to Alice (and CS) convention—first word all
lowercase, other words begin with capital, no space.
Rename file “[your first name last initial]_doIOOT.a2w”
Point out to students where to locate “Do in order” and “Do together” actions at the bottom of the screen.
(Instructions are included in the comment lines).

Remind students that they can drag and drop the “Do” actions anywhere within lines of code below No Variables
in world.my first method, not just at the top or bottom.
EXERCISE
Student Alice world code
POST-EXERCISE
 Open Alice world doInOrderOrDoTogether.a2w and play animation. (Let students see what their animations
should look like, but don’t display teacher code if you plan to grade the students’ worlds for correctness).
 Teacher demo animation includes text bubbles to make the objects’ discrete movements as obvious as possible for
students.
 Discuss student observations and difference between “Do in order” and “Do together”.
 See if any students could answer #9b-c (see final comment in teacher code); discuss explanation of Anubis not moving.
 Optional: change the number of revolutions Anubis turns in one direction (but NOT the other) and see what happens.
Teacher Demo Alice world code
D. M. Delk