Using chess in math

Hello,

I teach high school math as well as chess at my school, Forest Charter School. Some ways I use chess in my math class are:

1) Introduce how a Knight moves on a chessboard then ask how to calculate (without moving the piece) how many possible squares can the piece move in the corner, side and center. Have students check thier calculations by testing them.

2) Play the Knight Tour game. A Knight tour is where a knight needs to visit each square of a chessboard. Ask students what is the fewest possible moves it would take? Then have students play the game in teams, one counting moves and the other making the moves. Have teams compete to complete the tour with the fewest possible moves. After the teams have completed the tour, ask about the best (optimal) strategy that might be used. Play the game again using the strategy.

These are just a couple of activities I use.

-- Steve

Just What Does Chess Do?

In the day and age of standards and high-stakes testing it is often hard to justify the utilizing of chess in the classroom without taking a leap of faith...and having a principal that will buy into your ideas. However, as most are probably aware reading this blog, there is plenty of empirical evidence suggesting at least some advances in test scores...especially with younger students. I have done a lot of work on this and don't want to bore anyone with the details...but I will try to gloss over what I am trying to do.

I have become interested in virtues of chess that are not directly tested by standardized tests and perhaps justifying the use of the game based on other criteria...hoping that there is still room for the game in even the most ardent standards-based classroom. Oftentimes the criteria is difficult to quantify such as "improves foresight" or "enhances concentration" and this is where the problem really lies but there are plenty of ideas expressed anecdotally throughout the last 400 years that propose a slew of valuable traits that are either enhanced or discovered through chess. For instance, Benjamin Franklin proposed persistence to be one of the top traits cultivated in the game and, several hundred years later, Josh Waitzkin's book "The Art of Learning" devotes an entire chapter to the notion that one has to believe that effort/strategy will triumph over innate ability in the game.

There have been no less than six books (and there may be more) published in the last few years devoted purely to the notion that chess exercises or provides insights into life itself (see my January 1, 2008 entery of my own blog). These range from "The Tao of Chess" where author Peter Kurzdorfer proposes, among other things, that chess requires a certain search for truth that once honed can spill into real life to other authors such as the mighty Kasparov ("How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves - From the Board to the Boardroom") who suggests, among other ideas, that chess training and training for the business world are not too much different and require a sculpting of intuition. Certainly these authors are taping into an area that many of us intuitively hold about the game of chess and the many interesting characteristics or habits of mind it may foster in kids and ultimately why it should have a special place in the school.

I utilize chess in my sixth grade advanced science classroom in many ways. I often utilize the centers approach in my classroom which means I organize my students into several groups and then have them rotate to different activities (usually one group will meet with me, another will work on seat work, and the other will be involved with visual-spatial tasks). One of the activities or "centers" I have available is those involved with visiual-spatial thinking activities such as origami, tanagrams, serious drawing (not doodling), and of course chess. I have found most students gravitate toward the game and are drawn to playing with the many different types of boards and the clocks. It takes the first two or three weeks to train the students that it is not a time to goof off...but once that has been established it is usually smooth sailing. I even have students rushing into my class between bells to see if they can get a quick 'blitz' game in before class starts.

Ultimately I would like to expand what I am doing and continue to explore how chess can be utilized in the school. I am encouraged about what I have read from previous posters and I hope to contribute if and where I can. Clearly I still need to narrow my interests but am very optimistic.

--Edukator
recess-bully.blogspot.com

Chess helps Learning Disabled

This is my second year teaching chess to children in an inner city school in Chicago. I am very enthusiastic about the program because not only do regular students do well in the program, my learning disabled students seem to respond very well also. The reward of playing a game at the end of the program is very motivating to stay in the program. The reason, I think, learning disability is addressed by the program is that they receive a lot of individual and peer attention. When a group needs to wait for all members to finish, in order to play, they tend to help the individual that is lagging behind. Also, because chess separates students by talent, learning disabled students tend to wind up with each other, at their level, and so allows them to win against each other. Learning disabled students do not experience a lot of success at school, so this is very helpful for them. The main problem that the program has is lack of advertising, at least in Chicago. So many students come up to me when the program has already started, wanting to join. Unfortunately Chicago Public is set up so that no new students can join after initial registration. This does a great disservice to the program since students tend to listen to others before they want to join a program.