The
NEW Chicago Academic Games League- U-CAGL emerges with University
partnership
from
the September 2006 Conference Reporter
By Judy Dupont
and Joy Nieda, HPKCC CAGL Committee co-chairs and HPKCC board members.
The Chicago Academic
Games League (CAGL) has begun a new association with the University
of Chicago's University Service Center (UCSC). This partnership, U-CAGL,
will bring together the direct, one-on-one community services of civic-minded
University students and the community oriented math program of CAGL.
Substantially the same, structurally new, CAGL will share a future
with the University, tapping into the intellectual capacity and avid
commitment of University student volunteers.
CAGL is a teacher/parent
collaboration, a program merging substantive math with athletic models
of teams, games, and tournaments. Each year, from October through
April, students and teachers from Chicago schools around the city
meet once each month for a Saturday tournament. This program is geared
to grades 5 through 8. Participating students practice math skills
and learn creative thinking, respect for rules and procedures, for
other people, arbitration, and good sportsmanship.
In the past few
years, this superb opportunity for intellectual growth and development
for grade school students has atrophied. Leadership transitions and
new priorities have resulted in a failure to recognize the value provided
by a math enrichment program of this nature.
With UCSC student
staff coordinating, the new partnership will launch this pilot program
in the fall of 2006. University student staffers will recruit
Recognized Student Organizations (RSO's) to sponsor schools to participated
in U-CAGL. U of C students will supervise after school practices at
participating schools as well as the monthly tournaments.
Annually a group
of approximately 100 participating CAGL students have traveled to
Aurora University's Lake Geneva campus for a weekend final year-end
tournaments. U of C sponsors would help staff this event.
A necessary but
achievable goal of the U-CAGL partnership is to identify and seek
government, education, and corporate dollars for sponsorship.
Rita Yacker,
a founding director of CAGL, has committed to partner with UCSC staff
to develop grant applications to historic education funders as well
as to local community-based initiatives with education set-aside dollars.
It will take
time. The new U-CAGL partnership gives CAGL the "spark"
it needs; it gives the 5th through 8th graders the benefits of CAGL;
it gives U of C students a social service opportunity that is experiential
and cognitive. It forges collaboration among the community-based leaders
of CAGL, Chicago Public Schools, U of C Lab Schools, and the University
of Chicago*.
*As
to be corrected in next issue of the Reporter: insert "The Women's
Board". HPKCC is grateful for funding from the Women's Board
and the volunteer and organizational commitment for the University
Community Service Center.
Top
Kids
and Games: CAGL's Natural Combination
by
Rita Yacker
If
you should visit a Saturday tournament of the Chicago Academic Games
League at the U-High cafeteria, you would find a cavernous room full
of middle-grade children and you would hear nothing but an occasional
crumple of paper or the scrape of pencils moving quickly across paper.
No electronic beeps or dings or clicks--nothing but brains getting their
juices flowing, whatever that sound may be! At times, there will be
a hand in the air, the signal that a player needs a judge to help settle
an issue, part of the arbitration process that is an integral
piece of the whole package in the playing of the games. That's not surprising
when one considers t hast the author of the game was a law professor
at Yale.
Layman
Allen, the professor, as trying to teach law students to think purposefully
and logically in their written and oral arguments. To this end, he invented
WFF 'N PROOF (logic) and then EQUATIONS in a game form that students
could play together and teach each other, all the while taking responsibility
for their own conclusions and processes by keeping score.
Rules
are an essential part of the package: rules of the game, rules of Math
(in Equations), and rules of civility. The rules key to the variables
the kids have to keep in their heads as the play progresses. Academic
Games is not contact sports. Every move is orderly and "by the
book." The point of the game is to be the last player left with
a viable solution, within the time allowed (a timer is part of the game).
Observers will see a playing mat shared by three students, holding colored
wooden cubes with symbols on them: number 0-9, and the four math operations
plus square root and exponent. Closer observation will reveal that the
playing mat has four large sections: the largest is resources, which
has to hold a random "shake" of all 24 colored cubes to start
the game. Under the resources spot are three sections labeled
forbidding, permitted, and required. As each player
takes a turn, a cube is moved to block an opponent or enhance the player's
(mover's) chances.
This
is the genius of the game. Making decisions is critical in the game
and in life, and so is taking responsibility for choices made. The playing
mat, with its model of decision-making, has been used by me in strategizing
in the community or personally to evaluate choices and what is viable.
Program Director James Wilson calls it the "Game of Life"
when he speaks about the program. It makes a powerful statement, keeping
argument to a minimum and conclusions clearly defined.
Substance,
discipline, teamwork, and good sportsmanship are all fundamental to
the games and have been so for the 25 years we have run it. The individual
school may bring as many kids as the sponsor designates, encouraging
teachers to include youngsters at all levels of math ability. The content
of the games fills needs at both the upper and lower ranges of ability.
Organization of the teams is another critical difference that sets CAGL
apart from other activities. There is always movement during the tournament,
at the end of the rounds. No child is frozen in place by his or her
ability. The goal is to keep kids playing at the limits of their ability
without being wiped out by opponents. Teachers rank their teams and
opponents from other schools are matched so that kids are challenged
and comfortable at the same time. Teachers must be sensitive, informed
and supportive, a requirement that actually makes them better
classroom teachers.
Over
the years, administrators of various sorts have asked us for evaluations
of the program. We have never had the resources to do an evaluation
of the type they refer to: the quantitative (and often meaningless)
drone of how many did this, what scores they made on the Iowa Tests
afterward, and all that goes with that. With this much experience, what
keeps us enthusiastic is that everyone participates voluntarily: teachers,
students , and the Games organizers. From time to time, we hear of our
alumni who remember their experiences with the program very vividly.
In the past year incidents of our impact on young lives have increased
so much that we realize that we have grown our own cadre of teachers
in the Chicago Public School ranks. The mature young people are now
creating a new wave of second-generation players as they as they contact
us to join the League. They have told us that, although they were from
different schools and frequently did not know one another prior to their
encounters at workshops, area meetings, or professional development
programs, their enthusiasm has always been keen, evoking the recollections
of the Invitational at Lake Geneva, the meets at U-High, and the sponsors
that guided them, providing mentoring and modeling.
In
our dealings with both children and adults, we emphasize that our standards
and requirements are based on fundamental good sense. The new crop of
teachers were have grown underscores our good instincts were trustworthy.
For
information about the monthly Saturday tournaments at U-High, October
through April, and the weekend in Wisconsin in May, [contact the University
Community Service Center Director Wallace Goode.] Students in grades
5-8 may join only as pat of a school team, with a teacher-sponsor
from that school. Games may be ordered using the same contact numbers
as above.
Top
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