Let the Games Begin: Using Games to Implement Reading Strategies

As a high school librarian I began researching the methods and strategies promoted by the researchers promoting the Science of Reading, and I realized that there was very little I could do to explicitly teach these strategies in the high school setting; however, I also recognized that my students required the skills that the researchers were discussing. Therefore, I began searching for a strategy that would teach the skills in the library setting, and I found a variety of board games that teach literacy skills. I chose several of the games and placed them in the library to see if students would interact with them (and with each other) daily. We found that student engagement increased exponentially. Library attendance also doubled. Additionally, we found that students were engaging in more conversation, were participating in more creative endeavors like puzzles and painting, and were reading more books than in previous quarters.