Lesson 4.6: Guess My Word Project¶

Learning Objectives¶

Students will be able to…

Apply lists to implement a complete version of Guess My Word.
Exercise good programming practices to produce code that is not only functional but also elegant and well-written.

Do Now 4.6: Spaceman
- Download Spaceman Template
- Spaceman Instructions
- Watch Spaceman Template Tutorial
- Prepare two or three rounds of Spaceman to play with the class as the Do now.
Project 4 - Guess My Word (docx) (pdf)
Guess My Word planning worksheet: (docx) (pdf)
Word Lists to use for Spaceman and Guess My Word Game.
- Randomly Generated Word List
- Countries and States
A word list from which words can be selected for the game, such as Word List
Unit 4 Tips

Duration	Description
5 minutes	Welcome, attendance, bell work, announcements
15 minutes	Review and introduce project
As needed	Lab time for Guess My Word project

Review the various skills and concepts have been learned so far in the unit. Consider using some of the tools you learned about in Summer Training. (Kahoot, Quizziz, Socrative, Plickers).
- Put particular emphasis on the maintenance of lists and traversals.
- Remind students that their solutions to previous assignments are an excellent resource when trying to accomplish similar tasks.
Walk students through the project specification, pointing out important details, potential pitfalls, and requirements.
- Focus students’ attention on the checkpoints to help them avoid becoming overwhelmed.
Help students import the word list into a Snap! list, either by right-clicking on the list view and selecting “import” or by parsing the online list directly using the http:// block. This is not one of the objectives of the project, so feel free to provide starter code if you prefer.
- Emphasize that generating the “word pattern” or “blanks” and keeping that sequence up-to-date with each guess is the hardest part of the assignment, and should not be overlooked.
- Remind students that it will be important to keep straight what each variable and list in the program is used for. Each variable or list should have a single purpose, and those purposes should never be conflated.

This is a summative assessment project. Students should be given at least a few days in class to work on the project. The exact schedule should be determined by your teaching team based on overall class capability and other factors.
If most students have the ability to work at home, you can consider reducing the amount of in-class time provided and requiring students to spend time working at home.
Provide a means for students to ask questions throughout the project and provide assistance as needed.

If any students do not have the ability to work at home, ensure enough in-class time is provided to complete the assignment, offering extensions if necessary.
Advanced students can be encouraged to add extensions such as:
- Enabling guessing of the entire word.
- Allowing the user to specify the length of the word to be guessed.
- Keeping statistics (win-loss record, fewest guesses, etc.) across games.
- Struggling students can be given starter code or exempted from certain features
- Though it is the most difficult part of the assignment, tracking the “blanks” is the best practice working with lists and should be preserved.
- The requirements to display a graphical figure, track repeated guesses, and specifically recognize a win can be removed for students in need of significant simplification.

Lesson 4.6: Guess My Word Project (TEALS Discourse account required).