Peggy Kaye - Games for Reading

Copyright 1984 by Peggy Kaye

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publisher, Vanguard Press, Inc., for permission to reprint a poem from And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss. Copyright 1937 by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel). Copyright renewed 1964 by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel).

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kaye, Peggy, 1948
Games for reading.

Bibliography: p.
1. ChildrenBooks and reading. 2. Reading games.
I. Title.
Z1037.K26 1984 649.58 83-19403
eISBN: 978-0-307-80935-3

Book design by Naomi Osnos

v3.1

I owe more than I can say to the students and teachers of a school on the East Side of Manhattan called the Learning Community. The Learning Community was tinyit never had more than seventy children at a timebut it was full of ideals and warmth, and was just the place to develop games to help children learn. Unfortunately the school went the way of too many tiny institutions in our big society, and folded. But I like to think that a bit of the Learning Community survives in the pages of Games for Reading. The book tells many stories about children from that school. I have changed names and drawn some composite portraits, but Im sure the old alumni will still recognize themselves.

Mary Katherine Barker was one of the Learning Community teachers and actually invented some of the games. She read the manuscript and offered excellent criticisms, as did Nancy Garrity, Elizabeth Kaye, Wilhemina Kraber, and Katherine ODonnell. The judgment and good taste of my editor, Sara Bershtel, improved the book enormously. Thank you also to Helena Franklin and Amy Johnson.

Paul Berman played a major role in getting Games for Reading written. He took time from his own writing to give me help and guidance. He clarified my ideas. He straightened out sentences and paragraphs. His intelligence and writing talent enrich every page of the book, and to him the book is dedicated.

For several years, I was the reading teacher at a small private elementary school. I taught children with every kind of problemchildren who were hyperactive, undermotivated, or confused. Some of my pupils spoke Spanish or Korean better than English. Others had no problems at all; some, in fact, were too advanced for their regular classes and were coming to me for extra work. With all these children, I used the methods every reading teacher usesI taught formal lessons, I gave assignments in workbooks, I listened while children read aloud. But I also used games. We played dozens of games in my workroomgames with rhymes or tall tales, games with pencil and paper, games with playing boards and tokens or scissors and paste, games that got me and my students hopping around the room and tacking up funny things on the walls. Games for Reading shares these games with you.

Games have three great virtues. First, you can use them to teach nearly every skill a beginning reader needs to learn. If a first-grader has trouble telling b from d, games can improve his eye for tiny details. If a second-grader is working on remembering words, games can help train his memory. The right game can zero in on any need or interest a child might have.

These games are funthats their second virtue. They draw on the one skill all children have in abundance, the ability to play. When children play, their resistance to learning goes down and their willingness to apply themselves goes up. They never absorb ideas more easily than when theyre having a good time. And theyre happy to play these games over and over again, which is useful in acquiring certain skills. Games take the drudgery out of drill.

Finally, the games get parents more involved in their childrens education. I realize that many parents are shy about teaching their children and feel that teaching should be left to teachers. In general, I agree; but parents do teach their children in many areas every dayperhaps without realizing it. They teach children to throw a football, cross a street, make a bed or a sandwich; they help with homework, and theres even a method of violin instruction that has parents practice along with their children. Why shouldnt they help with reading, tooin a fashion that doesnt interfere with school?

Games are the perfect way for parents to give reading help without turning into mean taskmasters. In fact, the games can be as much fun for adults as for children. And while some require time and energy on the parents part, most do not. There are valuable reading games that can be played in five minutes while straightening the house or waiting for the bus. There are useful games that adults can enjoy with children while watching TV. Most of the mothers and fathers I meet work full time and are extremely busy. These games fit into even their hectic schedules.

Games for Reading offers seventy-six games, all of them tried and true. They train beginning readers (meaning first-through-third-graders, by and large) in virtually every skill required for reading. Playing these games is extremely beneficial for children who are stumbling at their studies; the games offer alternative ways of tackling areas of difficulty. But they are equally valuable for children who find reading a breeze. Children who have trouble playing baseball may require special sessions devoted to batting and fielding; but even the greatest athlete can benefit from a game of catch. Just so with good students and these reading games.

Exactly what skills are needed for reading? Let me describe them by pointing to a child who learned to read effortlessly by herself. When Sara entered first grade, she already knew the alphabet and many of the sounds letters make, and she could read a few words. By the end of that year, she was quite a fluent reader. Sara really didnt need teaching at allbut not because of any mysterious talent. It was just that she instinctively grasped the main approaches to reading.

I watched Sara at work in her reading group one day. She was reading aloud and doing fine, when up came a word she didnt know. The sentence with the unknown word read like this:

Carl ran down the street.

How to decipher the unknown word? Sara saw that qu were the first letters in the word. Knowing her letter sounds, she understood that the word began with the sound kw. She also grasped the general drift of the sentence. Putting together these bits of knowledgethe initial sound of the word and the general meaning of the sentenceshe tried to fill in the blank with a reasonable guess. Quickly was a good guess. Carl ran QUICKLY down the street. It was that or quietly. Does anyone run quietly? Or perhaps quacking. Would Carl quack? No, quickly was the word.

Two pages later, quickly reappeared. This time she read it without hesitation; having figured out the mystery word earlier, she remembered it now. Thus Sara taught herself a new word with no help from the teacher.