Games

The remarkable power of games to engage our attention is evident all around us. Individually, and as a culture, we spend vast amounts of time, energy, and resources to watch and participate in games. Athletes are well-paid, stadiums are lavish, video games are ubiquitous, and school calendars are arranged to make sure that interschool sports can be accommodated. I’ll bet that your cell phone even includes some tiny games so that you can play while waiting at the fast-food drive-up window. We are so awash in games every day that we may not even notice their abundance.

The fact is that most people willingly engage in diffi cult and even arduous tasks if those tasks are in the context of a game. This is the rationale for taking school skills and wrapping them up in some fun to harness the power of games for learning. The features that make some games fun and others dreary are tricky, but we know that people enjoy a challenge, some fair competition, an escape into another reality, and a bit of surprise, and so the games in the pages that follow contain those motivating features. Each game is an opportunity to bring playfulness to skill practice in a way that increases the “fun quotient” and fuels the desire to engage in the game again and again.