A six week course, ready to run

In the room

• Hand out the join codes and get everybody in.
• The placement test, all together, on their own screens.
• The first two lessons on the screen at the front, then again on their own.
• Deal a game and let them look at it. No play yet.

Expect half the room to have played before and half never. The test sorts that out without anybody having to say so.

What to use

• Lesson: American Mah Jongg basics
• Lesson: The tiles
• The placement test, twelve questions. Nobody is expected to do well: it is the before half of a before and after.

The handout

• The suits: Bams, Craks, Dots, and how each is drawn.
• Winds, dragons, flowers and the joker.
• One sentence: a hand is fourteen tiles that match a line on the card.

In the room

• Ten minutes on the two lessons.
• The card on the screen at the front, one line read out loud together.
• Name the hand, ten questions, in pairs.
• Deal a game and pick a line for it out loud.

What to use

• Lesson: Pairs, three of a kind, and more
• Lesson: Reading a Mah Jongg card, part 1
• Lesson: Reading a Mah Jongg card, part 2
• Name the hand: which line do these tiles make?

The handout

• How a line is written, with one line read out in words.
• Same colour means same suit; a different colour means a different suit.
• Pairs, pungs, kongs and quints, with a picture of each.

In the room

• The two lessons, then straight to a table.
• Everybody plays one hand against the opponents, at their own pace.
• Stop at the end and ask who won and why.

This is the session where people stop watching and start playing. Leave time for it.

What to use

• Lesson: The Charleston
• Lesson: A turn: draw one, throw one
• What would you pass? The three tiles nobody wants.

The handout

• The Charleston in order: right, across, left, then the courtesy pass.
• A turn: draw one, throw one, say it out loud.
• What to do when somebody throws the tile you want.

In the room

• The two lessons.
• Twenty discard questions on their own; the room compares answers on three of them.
• Play a game; afterwards open the report card and read one decision together.

What to use

• Lesson: Jokers
• Lesson: Reading your own rack
• What would you discard? The engine grades every answer.

The handout

• What a joker may and may not do.
• Swapping for a joker somebody has shown.
• Three questions to ask before throwing a tile.

In the room

• The lesson on winning and paying.
• Build the hand, ten of them, in pairs.
• Play a game at a real table with real tiles if you have them, and use the scorekeeper.

If the room has sets, this is the session to use them. The scorekeeper does the arithmetic.

What to use

• Lesson: Winning and paying
• Build the hand: make the printed line from the thirty-six faces.

The handout

• What each hand on the card is worth.
• Who pays whom, with an example.
• Wall games: what happens when nobody wins.

In the room

• The placement test, same twelve questions.
• Show each person their first score beside this one.
• A tournament for the room, three rounds, on the site's own page.
• Show them today's challenge and the daily drill so they have a reason to come back.

Print the report before this session: it is the thing to show a manager, and the room likes seeing it.

What to use

• Lesson: Using this table
• The placement test again: the after half.

The handout

• Where to play between sessions.
• The club page for this site and when it meets.
• The three drills, and what each one is for.