Information Age Education is now publishing some books for the Kindle and Kindle-format readers that are available for computers, iPad, and other machines. See http://iae-pedia.org/IAE_Kindle_Books.

The most recent of these books is:

Moursund, David (2011). Introduction to Problem Solving in the Information Age.

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This IAE Blog entry draws on ideas in David Perkins book Making learning whole (2010). In my 4/26/2011 IAE Blog entry about David Perkins’ book, I gave several examples of “whole game” and “junior-level game.” This current blog entry continues to explore ideas of such games.

Consider a young child sitting on a parent’s lap and listening to the parent reading a child's story. Think about this whole experience as a game being played by parent and child. From the child’s point of view, the game has a variety of components such as the creature comfort of sitting on a parent’s lap, the fun of being read to, viewing the pictures and relating them to the story, and responding to story-relate questions posed by the parent.

From the reader’s point of view, this is a junior-level of the game of reading. The whole game is oral and written literacy. A very young child can learn to lay the "read me a story" game. This is a step in learning to play the game of reading a story silently to oneself. You know, of course, that reading is only part of the overall whole game  of effective communication.

What can the reader do to help the child gain some understanding of the whole game of reading and writing? From the junior-level game the child can learn that the pictures and the “squiggles” in the book are a representation of the story. This is a huge step forward in learning to read.

A story has meaning. The reader can interact with the child in many different ways to check for understanding of the story and relating the story to things that the child already has some understanding of.

Educators: Think in terms of the learning theory called constructivism. The child constructs understanding based on what he or she already knows and understands. Also think in terms of transfer of learning. How can you modify the read out loud game so that it contains elements of transfer of learning?

What’s another big idea relevant to the whole game? The pictures and squiggles on the page are representations of sounds. Suppose that the story is about a character named Sam. The book will contain a picture of a person named Sam. A picture of Sam is a way of representing Sam. The letters S A M on a page are a different way of representing Sam. The squiggles on the page are a type of picture of Sam.

I am not an expert in teaching reading. However, I have done a great deal of holding my children and some of my grandchildren on my lap and playing the junior-level game of reading and writing.

 In these games I also engaged the children in junior-level versions of the game of Math. For example, consider the junior-level math game of learning to say the number words and to find the number word that corresponds to the quantity of something.

Perhaps there are two people, three dogs, and four cats that are pictured in the book about Sam. The number word are one, two, three, four, and so on. With repeated experience, a typical child has little trouble in learning to say these words in order and in creating a one-to-one correspondence between the words and objects on a page (or elsewhere). The being read to experience provides many opportunities to practice using the number of words and to count a number of objects.

How many people are there on this page? Let’s count how many. … How many cats are there on this page?  Let’s count them. Pointing to a page containing three dogs and no other animals, I might ask, “How many elephants are there on this page.” With a little learning from the child, soon I am able to elicit both squeals of laughter and correct answers to a wide range of questions.

See this word (pointing to the word Sam)? It is made up of letters. Let’s count the letters in the word. (I role model, pointing to each letter in turn as I count out loud one, two, three.) There are three letters in Sam’s name.

As the child beings to learn about letters, the same counting activity is enhanced by pointing to each letter, saying its letter name, and doing a count. Note that this makes being-read-to game into a junior level reading, writing, and math game. Notice the challenge of learning to simultaneously say the letters and do a count of them. Children are often taught to make use of counting on their fingers as they say the letters (or, in some other way indentify/indicate the objects being counted.)

Just for the fun of it. Try saying the names of each word in a line of text and simultaneously count the words in the line. Or, do the same thing with the letters in a short sentence. How have you trained your mind to deal with this combination of reading and counting task? 

As a final example, suppose that people in the child’s household do a lot of silent reading of books, magazines, and newspapers. I want the child to learn that there are two kinds of reading:  out loud reading and silent reading. In silent reading one forms the sounds of the words in their head without saying them. A young child can learn that adults routinely read silently to themselves.

In summary, once you start thinking about whole games and junior-level games you will find it easy to create junior-level games that are relevant to a whole game and that are fun and intrinsically motivating to the learner

References

EdResearch.info (n.d.). Reading to children.Retrieved 4/27/2011 from http://www.edresearch.info/to_children.asp.

Moursund, Dave and Albrecht, Bob (2011). Using math games and word problems to increase the math maturity of K-8 students. Salem, OR: The Math Learning Center.The book is 222 pages in length and is available via electronic download for $10. See ordering information at [url]http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/node/6948[/url].

Moursund, David (March, 2011). Expanding the Science and Technology Learning Experiences of Children. Eugene, OR: Information Age Education. Free download available at http://iae-pedia.org/David_Moursund_Legacy_Fund#New_Free_Book_from_Moursund.

Moursund, David (2008). Introduction to using games in education: A guide for teachers and parents. Eugene, OR: Information Age Education. This free book can be accessed at [url]http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/19-introduction-to-using-games-in-education-a-guide-for-teachers-and-parents.html[/url].

Perkins, David (2010). Making learning whole. How seven principles of teaching can transform education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.