It's not about Kings, Queens, and Rooks, but rather,
quadrants and coordinates, thinking strategically and foreseeing consequences.
It's about lines and angles, weighing options and making decisions. Chess might
just be the perfect teaching and learning tool. Since 2000, America's
Foundation for Chess (AF4C) has been working with 2nd and 3rd grade students
and their teachers to promote the use of chess as an educational tool. The goal
of the First Move™ curriculum is to use the game of chess as a tool, to
increase higher level thinking skills, advance math and reading skills, and
build self-confidence.
Research shows, there is a strong correlation between
learning to play chess and academic achievement. In 2000, a landmark study
found that students who received chess instruction scored significantly higher
on all measures of academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and
non-verbal reasoning ability (Smith and Cage, 2000).
While studies have shown chess to have a positive impact on
kids in elementary, middle and high school, AF4C targeted second and third
graders as the evidence, and certainly our experience, suggests it's the ideal
age. Eight and nine year-old minds and thinking skills are developing rapidly,
and chess teaches higher level thinking skills such as the ability to
visualize, analyze, and think critically.
If you teach an adult to play chess, they quickly comprehend
where they should and shouldn't move pieces to capture or avoid capture. Young
Kate knew the names of the pieces and how they moved, but initially moved her
pieces randomly. Soon she was saying, "If I move my piece here, you could
capture it, right? Then I'm not going to move there." You can almost see
the mental changes taking place.
Chess has a unique and strong brand attribute, in that it is
generally perceived that playing chess and being smart are connected. This can
be very positive driver for young children, who, rather than being intimidated
as many adults are, embrace the notion. As children get older, a stigma, or
nerd factor attaches to "being smart." But in the second and third
grade, kids want to be thought of as smart. It is also an important age for
developing an attachment to school. If kids associate school and learning with
fun, they will most likely develop a stronger attachment to school.
To be referred to as "the perfect teaching tool,"
chess would have to do much more than be age appropriate, and it does. As our
classrooms become increasingly diverse, being able to reach all children
becomes increasingly challenging. Chess levels the playing field as it crosses
all socio-economic boundaries. It is a universal game, with worldwide rule
consistency. Age, gender, ethnic background, religious affiliation, size,
shape, color, and language don't matter when playing chess. Everyone is equal
on the chessboard. Students who are English language learners find success with
chess, because they don't face language barriers on the chessboard. Principal
Jeff Newport commented, "We have 34 different languages spoken at our
school, and chess is now the one we have in common."
Many schools have after-school chess clubs that create a mix
of fun, competition and learning. Predominantly the members are boys. An
unintended consequence of these programs is that they often leave some kids
behind who are not drawn to the competitive aspect of the game. By integrating
chess into the classroom, we are able to reach all children and provide them
with the benefits of learning
through the game of chess. These benefits include the fact
that students who wouldn't have thought to join the chess club on their own,
are more apt to join after having been exposed to chess in their classroom. In
Philadelphia, where 20 schools have implemented First Move™ during the school
day, participation in chess club after-school increased in several schools that
already had a chess club, and five schools created a new club in response to
student demand.
The First Move™ curriculum was developed by a curriculum
professional, and designed specifically to connect with National and State
academic standards. For example, while learning about the chessboard, students
are taught that each square has a name/location. You can find each square by
using coordinates, a set of numbers, letters or a number and a letter, that
tell you the exact location of something. On the chessboard, each square is
located at the intersection of a file (vertical line) and rank (horizontal
line). As they learn, students begin to talk in chess terms, i.e." I am
moving my c3 Knight to e4." This helps their chess game, and it also meets
the Washington State Standards for math (1.5.1 and 5.3.1). "Chess will
never show up on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning [test]"
says Kent Ferris, Lafayette Elementary School, "but the confidence, focus,
and academic skills our students are gaining through becoming analytical
players will pay measurable benefits in the years ahead." Principal
Michelle Hartman was concerned about her 3rd grade class because they were
considered a "high-risk" group. At the end of the school year she
noted, "Chess has really made a difference for these kids, and their test
scores help prove it."
In any classroom, there are disparate levels of prior
knowledge on any given topic; chess is no different. Teachers find some of
their students already know how to play chess. This becomes an opportunity to
place those children in leadership roles as teaching assistants for their
classmates. The reason isn't clear, but in many interviews with children in the
First Move™ program, they express their desire to teach others to play chess.
Superintendent Reece Blincoe from Stockdale ISD reported his delight when his
family gathered on the living room floor so his 3rd grade daughter could teach
them all to play chess, based on the lessons she had learned during the school
day in the First Move™ program.
The way chess can incorporate and relate to other core
subjects makes it an amazingly powerful tool. In First Move™ Teacher Training
Workshops, classroom teachers learn how to develop their core curriculum using
chess. Chess is one big science experiment; every time you play a game you are
testing hypotheses and learning by trial and error. Chess is rooted in history
and can open a door to history knowledge. Our current game of chess developed
in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, though it began in India at least 1500
years ago. The King, Queen, Bishops, Knights, Rooks, and Pawns are symbolic of
real groups of people in the Middle Ages and studies of them can take children
into an understanding of what life was like at that time.
As children play chess, they begin to see the importance of
thinking ahead, trying to figure out what their opponent might do next and what
their alternatives are too. This ability to anticipate outcomes can transfer to
their reading comprehension. Students can predict outcomes, and realize that
characters in their stories are interconnected, just as just as they and their
opponent, and the pieces on the chessboard are.
In the First Move classroom, kids aren't thinking about the
benefits of chess, and how it might help them on their standardized tests, but
they are thinking while having fun. Their teachers can see the benefits,
however. Julie Doan, teacher at Medina Elementary says:
My students are more focused—chess certainly accounts for
this. In math, for instance, students who had studied chess were able to read
graphs and work with charts so much more smoothly than the students I had last
year, who weren't even able to read a grid prior to the lessons in math class.
