Strings Peer Teaching Pedagogical Mini-Games Design

Sarah Damers

I. I chose to use the game Play or Dare for this teaching experience because I think that it
invokes a certain preparedness in a student. If they choose to play, they are showing that
they are able to play what they should be prepared to play, even if its a harder section. If they
choose to dare, they are showing that they are confident enough to be willing to try to
succeed at something unknown. That sort of confidence takes a certain amount of both
scholarship for the preparing part and musicianship for the confidence/ability part. I think this is
a good game for any sort of beginner student, no matter the age, because of its flexibility. Even
a student who is a little more advanced could play as long as one of the dares were adjusted to
be slightly more difficult. I also like the idea of the students getting a little bit of say in what
they work on, in a more fun way.

II. I think this game is a very useful teaching tool because it gives the teacher an idea of what
students are good at and are comfortable with, and also what they are not. If a student chooses
to play, they are acknowledging that they are comfortable with their repertoire and are
confident enough to play it for the class. If students choose dare, a teacher can tell that they
are more willing to take the risk of the dare because they are less comfortable or prepared with
the repertoire piece. It helps students show you, the teacher, what they know and what they
need to work on in a very fun way. It will also give students a way to gauge where they feel they
are at with what they are doing and give themselves a better idea of what they really need to
practice.

III. By the end of this game, students should be able to reasonably agree with the following:
1. I can successfully demonstrate a melodic skill on my instrument on command.
2. I can successfully demonstrate a rhythmic skill on my instrument on command.
3. I can demonstrate proper playing position while performing/demonstrating a skill.
4. I can understand what my strengths on my instrument are.
5. I can understand what my weaknesses on my instrument are.

IV. There are not many materials needed for this game. Each student will need their own
instrument. Other than that, the only other materials are a chosen section of a piece that the
students have been working on, as well as Dare cards with dares written on the back for
students to blindly choose from.

V. At the start of the game, the Dare cards will be projected/taped up on the board at the
front. The teacher will reveal what the play option iswhich part of which piece each group
must play if they choose play. The students will get split into two even groups by a different
method of the teachers choosing (birth month, side of the room, count-off, etc.). This way the
students are working with different peers of different strengths each time. Then, each group
will pick a spokesperson for the round. That person will decide if they want to play or dare.
Group 1 will then go. If they choose play, then they play the section the teacher chose. They will
get 15 seconds to look it over/think about what they have to do. If they choose dare, the
spokesperson will come up and pick a dare card and flip it over and read what the group must
do. Then they will have 30 seconds to look over/think about what they must do. If the group
completes the task successfully, then they will get 1 point. If they do not, they will lose a point.
There is a possibility to have negative points. This way the students will be more motivated to
do it right. After Group 1, Group 2 will go, and the game will proceed in this fashion. Every
round, the group will pick a different spokesperson. The group that has the most points after a
few rounds, wins. The winners will get some sort of small, pre-determined prize.

VI. Each time the students take part in the game, they will be demonstrating their abilities to
play rhythmic and melodic patterns. If not done successfully the first time we play, every time
that the students play, if they improve, then the game will be successful and that success will
show itself. As for playing posture, the more the students play, the better their posture will get.
By their concert/performance, they should be able to sit properly. If they all can, then the game
will have helped. As for how they perceive their status on their abilities, a way to go about
measuring that would be to have the students give feedback after each time they play, to say
one thing they feel like they did well, and one thing they know they need to work on. If 1-3 kids
give feedback, all the other students who agree can raise their hands when they believe that
their peers statement apply to them as well.

VII. For children with different needs, this game would definitely have to be adjusted. For
limited motion students, the dare cards could be made much simplermore note naming and
fact focused. For students who have mixed disabilities, the dares could be more focused
towards what they can achievelike associating colors with strings or parts of the instrument
based on location, etc. Another way to make the game more plastic for each group of students,
the pace at which the cards become harder could be slowed quite a bit. This game could
become the majority of the focus of one class if necessary as well.

VIII. One way to extend this experience would be to split the groups up into even smaller
groups. The game starts with the class in two groups, however you could lengthen the
assignment by having the students split into pairs and come up with their own dare cards for
one another. This would allow the students to still work on their musicianship skills, but would
also give them some room for creativity to work with other students and make the game their
own. Another addition to this game would be to make the dares harder as the students
advance more. By making them harder, the students would feel more challenged and the game
would keep up with their growing skills and keep the students working towards advancement.
Lastly, you could also create a variation of the game where rather than having the students
choose play or dare, they must roll a dice or flip a coin to decide for them. This will make
the game a little harder by having a few more variables for the students to have to work with.