Cooperative Games in the Classroom

When I was in school, teachers often used games to help students review for tests. But the quiz-like nature of these games limited their usefulness as teaching tools, and led to aggressive play and the early elimination of players. On the other hand, cooperative tabletop games and those in which players compete to attain a specific score promote participation and teamwork, are challenging, and encourage players to have fun.

Cooperative games can simulate history, spark ideas for writing, explore complex problems, deal with math concepts, and more. These games often involve planning, decision making, and peaceful conflict resolution while providing a low cost, social experience for students, emphasizing play and encouraging teamwork.

There are many different types of tabletop games for middle- and high-school students. Board games use a cardboard playing field with pieces that can be placed on, moved across, and/or removed from the board. There are also board games, generally called tile placement games, where the board isn’t a fixed surface, but changes during game play. Traditional board games can simulate real life (Monopoly, Clue), require strategy (Chess), involve vocabulary (Scrabble), and more. Many games developed in the past 10 years in Germany and by independent game designers combine these elements in non-competitive ways and build other skills as well.

Traditional card games use a deck of cards for game play, but today the cards can be specialized to represent people, places, or objects. While cards in Poker or Uno represent numbers or values, many games have cards that represent a building, a fighter, an enemy, or a treasure. A sub-genre of card games are collectable/customized card games (CCG), like Magic the Gathering. Players trade cards with other players to get the strongest decks, which is how they developed the nickname, tradable card games (TCG).

Two other similar types of tabletop games are miniatures, which use small figurines to represent soldiers engaged in battle, and role-playing, which uses paper, pencil, dice, and the player’s imagination to venture through a fictional world as one player becomes the Game Master or storyteller. Players take on the persona of a character within the game world and make life affecting decisions. Teachers have been integrating role-play into the classroom for decades through mock trials, debates, reenactments, and drama. Role-playing has often been described as interactive storytelling, and many players write their character’s experience in the form of fan fiction. Be supportive of gamers by encouraging them to write fan fiction, and highlight it in the library.

Bring History to Life

Chrononauts. Looney Labs. $20. Card game.

Grade 6 Up–There are two versions of this game. The original begins by recounting history after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, and lays out all of the key historical events for 135 years. Its sequel, Early American Chrononauts, which can be played alone or combined with the original game, spans the years from 1770 to 1909. In both games, players are time travelers from alternate time lines who must either collect artifact cards from the game’s time line, change events to reshape history, or simply become rich. Students will learn about and develop a deeper understanding of major historical events.

Settlers of Catan. Mayfair. $38. Board game.

Grade 5 Up–In this board game, players are explorers and settlers on the island of Catan. Players begin with two settlements which can access three bordering regions that produce one of five resources with varying frequency. These resources can be used to expand or upgrade settlements, but are limited in this island habitat, and players must work together through trade, while competing to be the first colony to achieve ten improvements.

10 Days in…. Out of the Box. $24.99. Board game.

Grade 5 Up–How well do your students know the countries in Europe, Africa, or Asia? Each of these three games includes a game board map of the continent and destination and transportation tiles. Players are challenged to create a ten-day trip through a continent. Their journey must progress in a logical order. Librarians can use this game to create a book display to accompany a winning expedition.

Reading, Writing, and Vocabulary

Nanofictionary. Looney Labs. $17. Card game.

Grade 5 Up–Every story needs a character, a setting, a problem, and a resolution. In Nanofictionary, players use these elements, printed on cards, to tell the most interesting story. The game is played in two parts. First the storytellers create the elements of their tale, and then the stories are told using all of the cards they played during round one to map out their tale. Judges and storytellers listen to all of the tales and then vote for their favorite. Consider adapting this or another storytelling game, such as Once Upon a Time (Atlas Games), into a writing exercise.

Balderdash. Mattel. $22.99. Card game.

Grade 8 Up–In Balderdash, the classic game of bluffing, a vocabulary card is selected. One player supplies the correct definition, and the other players write fabricated meanings for the word. Everyone votes for the definition they think is accurate. You can even make your own version with SAT vocabulary words. Beyond Balderdash (Parker Brothers) contains questions in five categories—words, people, movies, initials, and dates—and players must write down inventive, believable responses. Players score points for guessing the correct response or by fooling others with their bluff.

Role-playing

Dungeons and Dragons: Basic Game. Wizards of the Coast. $24.99. Board game.

Grade 5 Up–This game is rich in fantasy and medieval history. If you want to start a D&D group in your school, all you need is this board game. It has everything beginners need.

Patterns, Numbers, and More

SET Enterprises. Cards: $12, Transparencies: $15. Card game.

Grade 3 Up–Math is a series of patterns, and seeing them can be a difficult concept for students to master. Using a regular deck of cards, where each card has three elements (color, suit, and number), you can work with students on probabilities. But SET has four elements per card (color, number, shape, and pattern), and you add a new level of complexity to the game. The goal is to select three cards that create a “set” where each of the four elements is either all similar or all different. A 12-card puzzle is posted daily (http://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle_frame.htm), and you can recreate it in classrooms and libraries.

Ingenious. Fantasy Flight Games. $34.95. Board game.

Grades 5 Up–Playing games that involve the placement of pieces in order to form patterns can lay the groundwork for an understanding of abstract mathematics. Ingenious involves a hex grid and domino like pieces, with shapes instead of numbers, that are placed on the board in order to score points based on the pieces around it. Your score is calculated for each shape, and totaled every time you play a piece. This game and other abstract games such as Go and Blokus are terrific for casual play in the library.

Educational Resources

Commercial publishers are beginning to realize that their games are classroom friendly. The Web sites for many of the games mentioned here offer lesson plans and other educational activities created by the publishers. A few, like Looney Labs Academy (looneylabs.com/Academy), provide teacher-created lesson plans. Table games are fun activities for public libraries as well as classrooms. Make them available during game nights. You may have to explain the rules to students at first, but soon they will be hooked and teaching everyone else how to play. You can also invite employees from your local gaming or hobby store to bring demo games to the library.

For general information about board games, you can access gamers’ reviews and more online at Board Game Geek (boardgamegeek.com), Board Game Central (boardgamecentral.com), and Board Games with Scott (boardgameswithscott.com).