Mount Scale-ji Music Education Game

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           I remember in 4th grade band we had a year-long competition called Recorder Karate. We had a book with recorder songs in it, and every time we proved we could play the song on the recorder, we would get a "karate belt" to tie to our recorder. This is a very popular method to teaching recorder in grade school, and it was one of my favorite parts of elementary music.

            In EdTech Lab, I was put into a group of three and tasked with making a game concept that could be used in music education. I drew inspiration from my cooperating teacher at McKinley Middle School, Mrs. Phelan. She has an activity called "Mount Scalemore" where students work through their lesson books and have the option to put their character on a drawing of a mountain to track their progress.

            Our group designed a very similar activity called "Mount Scale-ji". The learning objective behind Mount Scale-ji is that students can identify a key signature and fully play the scale associated with the key signature. This game would likely be a year-long activity, depending on how advanced the students could get. 

            Unlike in my cooperating teacher's class, students would be required to participate. They would first be tasked with creating a character to be their icon on the mountain. This is how they track their progress, and it also adds a competitive piece that might motivate students to participate more.

            Every time a student reaches a new altitude on the mountain (or masters a scale), they receive a small prize. Our group thought that instrument accessories would be nice, like cork grease, valve oil, cleaning cloths, stick tape, etc. Another idea could be giving them ribbons to put on their cases every time they reach a new altitude. It is very similar to Recorder Karate which might seem childish to certain groups, but it is definitely more cost sensitive. At the end of their journey they could receive a certificate of completion and possibly a larger prize. 

            I created a few mock-ups for reference:










Comments

  1. LisaMarch 6, 2024 at 9:40 AM

    LOVE this! And I love the karate-inspired recorder game of your youth. Just think how engaging that was that it's still very vivid for you after all this time!

    ReplyDelete

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