Students are always trying to pull out their portable game systems and get a few last minutes of gaming in. With their portability it’s easy to just slip it out of their pocket and get right to it. For a lot of us it’s becoming a problem in our classes. Their eyes are glued to these machines. So why not use it to our advantage.

A teacher and friend of mine has been using popular games in her class for a couple of years now-I’ll cover it in a later article. She used several Sony Playstation 2 consoles that connect to exercise bikes instead of controllers. The games that run on these are racing types and the students are able to control speed and direction using the bikes. Another machine has Dance Dance Revolution running on it. This game in itself is a workout comparable to any aerobic exercise I have done. Both of these provide education in a form that students are very used to. Again I will write more about this in detail later.

So they are good for exercise, something American students need badly, but how do they adapt to other classes. Being an Arts & Humanities teacher I was intrigued by the use of Dance Dance Revolution. Not for the dancing. It hardly seems like what you do on that games is dancing anyhow. What I was interested in was the rhythm. The game uses visual symbols that tell you when to step. The game has strong beats and it allowed me to discuss the basics of rhythm, pulse and beat. A game that does this even better is Guitar Hero. You probably hear your kids talking about it frequently. It uses a wide variety of popular rock songs and similar to DDR it uses visuals to tell the students when to play their guitar shaped controller. What makes this better for rhythm is that it uses lines similar to bar lines to mark the beats.

So where could you go with this. Here is a basic outline for what could be done in a general music or Art & Humanities class. It would need to be adapted for other higher skilled music classes.

Pre-Lesson

Have a student or various students bring in their system. Most will be likely to have Guitar Hero. (Warning! Some versions of the game have “edgy lyrics”). All I can suggest is to do your research. I believe most movie stores have these to rent.

Have students play the game. There are skill levels to choose from. Let your students help each other out, it’s great for working on leadership.

As they play you can actively discuss game play with the students. Ask them to put in their own words the things that are difficult. Response to things such as sycopation and tempo will likely occur. Point out the bar lines that the game uses and relationship of the beat to the lines it uses.

Lesson

There are many techniques for teaching notation and reading rhythm. I prefer to go over rhythms on the board and have them clap them out. I start basic with quarter notes and rests. I work up to sixteenth notes and eventually triplets. There are several activities you can have them do to better their grasp. This could take a week or so, depending on how much class time you have with them.

Project

Have students listen to some of their favorite, class appropriate songs, and write rhythms that compliment them on paper using only the note durations that you have covered. Have them write a version for three different skill levels. They can change the amount of notes they use, the types of notes, the syncopation, etc…

Assessment

Have students perform their creations. Copies will need to be distributed to the class to allow students to discuss what they have done and their performance.

Grading

Grading should be based on how well the rhythms compliment the music and accurately it is performed. They could also attempt other students works.