Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators by Alexey W. Root

Synopsis

Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators is the first book to show the connection between accepted educational theories and chess. The relationship of chess to academic and humanistic educational goals is convincingly illustrated as curriculum and psychological theories from John D. McNeil, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Howard Gardner are outlined and applied to the question "why chess?" Children and Chess features lesson plans teachers can use immediately, and from which they can learn the basics of the game. Since the plans meet academic goals through chess, teachers also learn that chess can be a part of reading, math, science, and social studies. An appendix showing how chess meets the requirements of curriculum standards is another plus. Grades 4-8.

Biography

ALEXEY W. ROOT has a Ph.D. in education from UCLA. Her work history includes public high school teaching (social studies and English). Her most notable chess accomplishment was winning the U.S. Women's championship in 1989. Since the fall of 1999, Root has been a senior lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). She has taught UTD education classes, tutored prospective teachers for certification exams, and supervised student teachers. Root's current assignment for UTD is to teach, via the UT TeleCampus, online education courses that explore the uses of chess in classrooms. Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators (2006) and Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving (2008) were both published by Teacher Ideas Press.