Microteaching 10 Minute Lesson Plan

Materials needed:

-Deck of cards

Students will be seated around a small table while I stand. I will explain the game and its concepts while they demo it at the table. If a student is absent, I will join in the game as the 4th player.

By the end of the 10 minutes, students should be able to play a game of Whist amongst themselves without the help of an instructor.

Introduction (1-2 minutes)

[EDIT: I will start dealing the cards while explaining the background so that students can reference their hands while I go over the rules.] I will start by giving some background and explaining the broad concepts of the game. I would explain that Whist is a 2v2 "trick-taking" card game that I've played with my family for many years. [EDIT: I will check in for students' level of familiarity with whist. I will check if anyone has played the game before, of if they've played a similar trick-taking game like Bridge, as well as what their overall level of familiarity is with playing card games with the standard 52-card deck.] I will explain that players will each have 13 cards in their hand, that they will play one card each mini-round, that winning a mini-round is called winning a "trick", and that the goal is to work with your partner to win more tricks than the other team.

Rules of Play (1-2 minutes)

I will explain a few more specific rules about how the game is played and how tricks are won. I will mention that players play their cards in clockwise order, that players must play the same suit as the first player if able, and that the winner of the trick is the player who played the highest rank card in that suit. I will mention that there are trump cards, but I withhold discussion of them until later.

Demo (4-5 minutes)

[EDIT: I will deal the cards much closer to the start of the lesson so that they can reference their hands while I explain the rules.] I will pre-shuffle the cards before the lesson and ask a student who is confident to deal 13 cards to each player (If no one is confident, I will deal the cards myself.) I will ask students to hold their cards face-up for everyone to see, but explain that normally cards would be private. I would walk through a few tricks with the students, reiterating rules of play and making some small strategy explanations (lead with a low rank card if you don't have something high; aces are usually a guaranteed win.) During this demo, I would also explain the rules of transitionary play (Left of the dealer plays first for the first trick, winner of the previous trick leads after that.)

Once a student finds that they have no card to play for a specific suit, I would introduce the concept of a trump card and how it has priority over all other cards (but can only be played under specific circumstances.) Here, I would also explain how the game usually has 5 fulls rounds of 13 tricks, with the trump suit differing each round. After giving them an opportunity to see a trump card get played, I would finish the demo and collect the cards.

Free Play (Until time is up)

I then would get students to reshuffle and re-deal cards (or do this myself if they do not feel confident); this time keeping them hidden. [EDIT: While this is happening, I will ask them questions about some of the fundamental game rules to assess their learning (e.g. how do you win a trick, when can you play a trump, etc.)] I would allow them to try playing the start of a real game with whatever time was remaining. I would make myself available for questions during this time, as well as offering some strategy suggestions and explaining some niche rules that don't come up often. [EDIT: I will also be watching their play and checking for moments of strategy/interest that I can comment on, as well as making sure they are following the rules correctly.]