2015-2016 Teaching Reflection- Teaching Music Literacy Through Active-Learning Games

I co-teach a youth music program at the Salvation Army church in Lancaster, PA. This

program involves about 20 students 6-14 years old. Many of the students joined the program at

the beginning of the school year, and had never played an instrument. In addition to offering

beginning instrumental lessons and chorus, this program includes a music theory class. Rather

than relying on a music theory workbook and worksheets, I decided to create fun and engaging

learning games (Froebel). The overall goal of all of these games was to teach music literacy, so

that our students could read music and be able to transfer their knowledge to playing their

instruments and singing. After several weeks of introducing each game, we offered them in

different stations so the students could rotate between all of the games, and were therefore

able to practice reading notes. Towards the end of this activity, we introduced a rhythm-reading

game.

The theory games included note-naming games such as a timed flashcard station,

hangman, a life-size staff for bean bag toss, and music theory twister. The timed flashcard

station involved students saying note-names as quickly and accurately as possible within a 60-

second time frame. I recorded the number of correct notes that they identified, so that they

could practice at home and then try to beat their own record the next time they played. This

game was very helpful because students wanted to challenge themselves and beat their own

high score. I noticed remarkable improvement in their note-reading speed and accuracy. In

addition to this game, students also enjoyed playing a musical version of hangman. This

involved words that could be spelled using the musical alphabet. Each time a student guessed a

correct letter, they would write the letter in its space and draw the note in the staff above it. This

helped familiarize them with the musical alphabet, and helped them learn how to draw notes on

a staff. The last two games involved a life-size staff taped on the floor (Carabo-Cone). For the

beanbag toss, the students would gently throw a beanbag onto the staff, and then they would

say the note name for whatever line or space it landed in. When students played music theory
twister, I would call out various directions such as right hand on line D, left foot on space

Fetc. This allowed them to become familiar with where the notes were on the staff, while they

were moving around and having fun. Kinesthetic learners greatly improved from these activities.

Finally, I created a life-sized music board game to act as a music review game to reinforce

reading musical notation and other aspects of basic music literacy (Gardner). My students had

a lot of fun with this game, and were able to enjoy a comprehensive and interactive review of

beginning music theory.

One of the other stations offered a rhythm basketball game. Students in this station

would stand behind a line and toss three balls into a game board with 3 holes in it. Each hole

had a different color around it, and each color stood for a type of note (quarter, half, or whole).

They would get the equivalent number of points as beats for whichever hole they tossed the ball

into. For example, if a student tossed the ball into the red hole, and red was the quarter-note

color, they needed to say a quarter note equals one beat in order to earn one point. If they

tossed it into the green hole, and green was the whole note color, they would say a whole note

equals 4 beats in order to earn 4 points. This game helped reinforce basic rhythmic values

since each student was required to identify the type of note for each colored hole and state how

many beats it equaled.

Throughout the several weeks when we offered these music theory games, I noticed a

significant change in the student's attitude about music theory. Instead of being frustrated that

they had to learn how to read music, most of them were excited to play the games. This helped

create a positive and fun learning environment for all of the students, and gave them an

excellent foundation for reading music (Da Feltre).