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Gameification

2/21/2018

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I like listening to a variety of podcasts and I recently came across a new--to me--educational buzz word:  Gameification.  What is it you ask? I've since done some more reading and found this definition:  Gameification is  "the implementation of game design elements in real-world contexts for non-gaming purposes."  Sailer et al. from Science Direct.  Basically, if you're teaching with mini games or activities that might be game-like, you're game-ifying.
Why Game-ify?  Scholars have an answer for that too.  "Gamification has gained traction in recent years as an effective way of engaging users to perform actions in contexts that would otherwise be considered tedious and undesirable."  Gianetto et al. from Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.   So motivation and engagement are a big part of why you might want to implement learning games and activities into your music lessons.  According to Dr. Gwen Dewar, play can actually stimulate the growth of the cerebral cortex and promote creative problem-solving.  You can read more about that in her article here.  I've been a fan of game-based learning for a while, but it's nice to know there's research supporting what I'm doing.  :)

Two of the most tedious and frustrating tasks I encountered in my music education were dictation and sight reading--and all of the solfege, intervals, rhythms, and Kodaly hand signs that went along with it.  Sometimes it would seem easy and intuitive and then I'd encounter something that my brian just didn't want to compute.  I seemed to be constantly practicing.  In fact, one of my college roommates has told me that she saw/heard me solfeging and doing the Kodaly hand signs in my sleep.  Talk about tedium, haha!

Kids especially respond well to being "tricked" into learning (although I play games with older students too!).  In my last post I created a Chutes and Ladders game to teach three really basic intervals:  unison, major second, and major third.  It's quite impressive to me how easily children pick up on the intervals and then seem to even forget they're practicing them as they focus on the game.  My four year-old kept begging to play the game.  Well, I wanted to add to students' interval repertoire, so I've created Whoops!  It's basically a modified Sorry! that uses intervals to tell players how many spaces they can move.  I've kept unisons, major seconds and major thirds, and added perfect fourths and fifths.   It can be played with 2-4 players/teams, and you can use the intervals either visually or auditorily.   You can control the length of play by choosing how many player pieces to use.  I also think that this makes excellent practice/homework, especially if the student has a parent or sibling that can help him/her by playing or singing the intervals.  You can download the full game below, and let me know how it goes!
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Valentine's Day Freebie

2/3/2018

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This will be a quick post.  I just wanted to share the Valentine's Day music game that I put together. I love using games with my young students to help reinforce musical concepts. I've designed it so that I could use it with young voice, violin or piano students. 

My Valentine's Day Musical Chutes and Ladders reinforces some basic musical intervals--unison, seconds and thirds--and can used to help students recognize these intervals either visually or auditorily.  For the visual version students flip over their own cards and for the auditory version parents/teachers draw the card and sing or play the interval.  

​The free download is below.  Enjoy!
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    Singer, writer, mother, yogi, wife and chocolate enthusiast.

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