PAT Bank

Double Diamond Baseball (Grades 1-12)

Subject:

Any

Objective:

Test Review

Materials and Preparation:

• The teacher or students prepare questions in four degrees of difficulty; single, double, triple, home run.

• Two baseball diamonds will be needed in order to use a Ping-Pong game format. Mark the bases on the floor.

Student Grouping:

2 teams

The Play:

1. The batter is asked by the pitcher to pick the level of difficulty of their question – single, double, triple, or home run.

2. The pitcher selects and asks a question from the single, double, triple or home run stack. If, however, the teacher is “pitcher” and does not have stacks of questions already prepared, he or she can just ask questions “off the top of their head.”

3. If the student answers correctly, the student walks to the appropriate base and other runners advance the same number of bases.

4. If the question is answered incorrectly, a “fly ball” is called, and the question goes to a player of the team that is “in the field.”

   When you say “fly ball,” wait before calling on a student so that everyone in the field must dig for the answer. If the player in the field answers the question correctly, the fly ball has been caught and the batter is out. If the outfielder misses the question, the fly ball has been dropped, and the batter goes to first base on an error. All runners advance one base on an error.

5. When using the Ping-Pong game format, the questions alternate between teams. So, the second question goes to the team that was in the field (i.e., playing defense) during the previous question. The Ping-Pong format guarantees that both teams get to bat an equal number of times, that everybody plays all of the time, and that both teams are continually engaged in scoring runs.

Scoring:

The “Ping-Pong” format does away with innings. In order to make outs meaningful, compute the final score as runs minus outs.

Further Play:

Pick four students of roughly equal scholastic ability to be captains. They do not need to be fast students. In fact this is a nice chance to honor some of your slower students. Give them your class list and say:

“I want you to take this class list to the table in the back of the room and make equal teams for me. Horse-trade until they are equal because you will have to live with them.”

If you wish to add a further guarantee of fair play, say to the students:

“It is your job to choose and trade until the teams are equal. After you give me equal teams, you will draw lots to see which team you will captain.”

Diagrams/Samples/Examples:

Keeping track on the chalk board

Team 1	Team 2
Score   Runs -Outs Total	Score   Runs -Outs Total

Comments or Variations:

• Most 4-Level games follow a Ping-Pong format with the question going to the opposite team if missed. It is best to play such games open book. You will find the players on defense digging for the answer as soon as it is asked. Since kids hate doing nothing, you will usually find the rest of the students on the team that is “at bat” digging for the answer as well.

• Football is similar except that the defense can “sack the quarterback” for a ten-yard loss when the student picks a 10-yard question, or they can intercept a 20, 30 or 40-yard pass play.

• If you have any questions about rules, turn it over to the students. They will make sure the rules are fair. And, speaking of keeping things fair – a perennial preoccupation with teenagers – how do you choose teams fairly?