[CALIBK12] Some thoughts on chess and reading

Wed Oct 1 15:56:25 PDT 2008

Thanks, Joanne.

Anyone who's ever taken reading classes knows you are right. We must hear them to know if they are decoding the words correctly, substituting sounds and letters, etc. I still LOVE to hear people read aloud to me and I always will. I don't have enough fingers and toes :) to count the number of times students of all ability levels have said to me, "Oh THAT'S how the word is pronounced!" after hearing it read to them in some form.

What are we teaching if not a love of the language when we encourage reading? Whether it's oral or silent, we can appreciate the printed word in a variety of ways, none of which ALWAYS HAS to be graded by "how much" or "at what level."

P.S. Many of the textbooks on the market today have audio CDs that I and my colleagues in English would use in our classrooms daily to help our struggling readers read along with the texts. Sure, a few would not always read along, but most would try to focus. It was helpful for some stories in the books that were not always at the students' instructional levels, but at their frustrational levels.

If it's good for a textbook company, why not a pleasure book, too?

Ok, I am off my soapbox for now.

Connie Young
Frontier HS
Bakersfield, CA

"Anyone who has a garden and a library wants for nothing."

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of ladewig
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 2:32 PM
To: CALIB POST
Subject: [CALIBK12] Some thoughts on chess and reading

Dr. Krashen (and listserve friends):

There's an old expression "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make
him drink." Even if every school and public library had the most wonderful
books and Teacher Librarians, that still might not be enough for many of the
kids who are "reluctant readers." If you are a 4th grader (or older) and
can't read well, or you have a reading or attention disability of some sort,
or an undiagnosed eye problem, ineffectual or no reading
glasses,(unfortunately, those are also the "symptoms" of many of our
grown-up students who are now INCARCERATED!)you still aren't going to learn
to read and read well, unless you have a burning desire to succeed and get
some help. Just having access to books or magazines with pictures of cars,
jets, sports, drawing books, "Where's Waldo," etc. (all favorites of
reluctant readers) doesn't mean you are actually READING between the
pictures!

Maybe chess helps, either as an incentive (as in Randy's brother's
experience) or by helping children learn to sit and stay focused, and
develop strategy (and patience and persistence!)- all of which are also
skills needed for reading (and life!). Even small gains are worthwhile.

But frankly, I think what really helps children read better is having
someone LISTEN at least part of the time, on a regular basis. Unless you
HEAR a student read aloud (and you can see the actual text), you really
don't KNOW for sure how fluent they are. I had a 3rd grader who wanted to
check out a 6th-grade level country book instead of an appropriate level
chapter book. (He first told me he wanted to "help" his 7th grade sister
with her report!) I explained to him his sister should be checking out her
own books AT HER school library or the public library. Then he decided he
wanted to read it for himself. Fine - so I asked him to start reading it to
me. He began ripping right along - except that I noticed (and I was reading
upside-down as he read with the book on the counter) he was sounding out the
first part of the word and then making up the endings! To his teacher (who
was only half-hearing him as she was attending to other students) it sounded
fine - he was reading quite rapidly (for a third grader). Except of course,
he was making it up as he read along! After he completed a paragraph I
stopped him and explained to the teacher what was going on. Now some people
might say he should have the right to get the book, but the reality for him
was HE WAS FOOLING HIMSELF. He needed to read an easier book THAT HE COULD
ACTUALLY READ without making up most of the words. And he needed to have
someone who would actually LISTEN and CHECK.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for "free choice" of reading. And some
children really can read and understand books at a much higher level. But
unlimited "Free choice" of even the best books or magazines they can't read
isn't going to help the struggling readers. There may be some exceptions,
but most struggling readers will read less and less due to the frustration
and embarrassment, not push themselves to read more and more. They need an
adult WHO WILL LISTEN to them read and find ways to help that student if
necessary. And if they can't help, they need to find out who or what system
or technique can help.

Silent Sustained Reading is great, but struggling students need frequent
practice opportunities to read aloud with an adult who has the time and
patience (perhaps a volunteer if not a parent)to improve, and if the student
still fails to improve, professional evaluation and intervention.

Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")
Library Media Tech
Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD
Garden Grove, California
shatz at verizon.net

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Professionals built the Titanic.

Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Krashen
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 10:52 AM
To: Calibk12
Subject: [CALIBK12] chess and reading

CHESS and READING

Randy de Jong posted this message:

"This is partly serious and tongue-in-cheek. Buy chess books and set up a
chess area. My brother sent research to his administration about the
positive correlation between chess and reading. They allowed him to teach
his class chess as part of the curriculum. At the beginning of the year only
2 kids in his class were at grade level. After a quarter or semester. Chess
became a reward for high quality work that was finished. Often 1/2 the class
played chess while giving the others time to concentrate and finish. At the
end of the year, all were at grade level or very close to it except two
students that refused to do anything."

Randy's brother's experience is very interesting. I have been checking out
the chess/reading connection.

An article in USA Today on Sept. 18 announced that second and third graders
in Idaho are being exposed to chess as a means of improving their math and
reading scores. The article did not mention any evidence that chess helps
reading, and Idaho schools superintendent Tom Luna is quoted as saying that
"there's little hard evidence students actually benefit from playing chess,
and it could take a few years before Idaho can gauge whether students who
learn chess are more successful in academics."

I was able to find only one study, published by the American Chess
Foundation in New York, published in 1992:  The Effect of Chess on Reading
Scores:  District Nine Chess Program Second Year Report, by Stuart Margulies
Ph. D.

53 children in the mid-elementary grades in District Nine in the Bronx, New
York City (we are not told exactly what grades they were in) voluntarily
participated in a chess program in 1990 and 1991. It is claimed that these
students made better gains in reading over the year than comparison
children, moving from the 57.69 percentile to the 63.07 percentile, a gain
of 5.37 percentiles. Comparisons, we are told, showed no gain, but readers
are invited to read about them, in District Nine Achievement Patterns, by E.
Whitney, published in July, 1992.

A look at the actual scores shows that six of the 53 children made
unbelievable gains, ranging from 38 to 66 percentiles. If we remove these
outliers, the difference between the groups is less than two NCE  ranks.
The case for chess in the published research, in other words, depends on
unusual gains made by six children in one study done 15 years ago.

I wonder if the folks in Idaho have considered improving their school and
classroom libraries as a means of improving reading?

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