The Anatomy of a School Chess Program
by Alan M. Kirshner,
Ph.D.
When I volunteered to create an after-school chess club at my son 's elementary
school eleven years ago, I would never have suspected, in a million years, I would
still be running the club when he was a senior in high school,
In the summer of 1988, my son, Micah Fisher-Kirshner, ready for first grade at Weibel Elementary School in Fremont, California, entered a local library chess tournament.
Micah enjoyed the library tournament so much, I decided it would be nice if he had a few other children to play chess with after school. I started out with about eight children from Weibel Elementary School and three from a nearby school, Mission San Jose Elementary. Today that small Weibel club has grown to 135 children, a 40-person waiting list and five paid instructors. Mission San Jose, a smaller school than Weibel, has about 50 members in its chess club and continues with parent volunteers. Inquiries from other parents has enabled chess in Fremont to expand to five other schools, averaging about 70 children in each program.
While only a few of our Fremont children
have been on the USCF Top 50 list for their age group and our schools have won few
National Championships, the excitement of chess continues to explode in this area.
Perhaps this explosion is because our emphasis has been on the art, the proven educational
value and the fun of the game.
Last year, one of my Weibel players asked me why I continued to run the club when my son was now in high school. I answered him, "without the support of the parents and their willingness to volunteer there would be no chess in Fremont."
I believe the three most productive concepts
at Weibel for maintaining interest in chess and producing good chess players has
been our hands-on approach to learning, peer instruction and an extensive system
of rewards. All of our students have their own chess sets. At first we used full-size
tournament sets, but as our numbers increased we moved to pocket sets for each player.
In recent years, we have gone back to
tournament sets, as we break the club into two days--one for Team and one for Club.
Since I now have the help of other instructors, we can break these groupsdown into
smaller sections based upon ability, and the school has given us more classrooms.
The PTA first purchased the boards and pieces, but presently parent contributions
and funds from chess tournaments supply all our equipment.
The children are taught something with the traditional demonstration board, with a small group around a teacher, or using computers hooked up to projection TVs, they are asked to move the pieces on their own boards. They repeat each lesson on their own and then demonstrate the lesson, such as checkmating with a King and Rook vs. King, to a classmate.
At the beginning of each year children
are asked if they want to be in the Club for fun or on the Team for competition (and
fun, of course). Team members must commit to attending three USCF tournaments during
the year (girls must play in the CalChess Girl's Tournament as one of their tournaments),
playing in the CalChess State Scholastic Championships and doing a minimum of 2 1/2
hours of chess homework per week. In contrast, the Club members have no commitment
other than to attend our lessons. Team members meet for an hour and a half with 30
minutes of instruction and an hour of tournament style play. The Club members receive
20 minutes of instruction and play chess for 40 minutes. We make no decision as to
who will be on the Club or the Team; that is left to the children (well,
in reality, the parents). This year
we had 55 children from K through 6th grade on the Team and 80 children participating
in the Club, most of who were in the lower school grades. We have 40+ children on
our waiting list each year, as space is limited. The number of chess players in our
program constitutes about 22 per cent of the students at Weibel, and one-third are
girls. I am happy to report that the dropout rate for the girls is no different than
for the boys, and for both the numbers are very low.
At the beginning of each year, we have about 40 new students who have limited knowledge of the game (usually about ten of them are in kindergarten). Our
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School Chess Program ...
(continued from page 8)
more knowledgeable students become our chess aides. We lecture and the chess aides (students) work one-on-one with the new club members. This usually lasts for about eight weeks. Then we divide the class into smaller groups based on ability.
Our reward system is extensive, effective and really simple. The children respond beautifully to positive feedback and little goodies. Handshakes for good participation, chess stickers (made on the computer), certificates and an in-house rating system work wonders for our students' self-esteem and our 97% retention rate. This year we had a special pizza and ice-cream party for the Team's tenth straight year winning a state championship title.
Our rating system has proved the most effective motivation for the children. We award points for winning a game (3), drawing a game (2) and losing a game (1). If the children attend USCF tournaments, these points are doubled. They obtain points for doing homework and for helping other students with their learning. After obtaining eight points they receive the rank of Pawn. After obtaining 16 points they become a Knight, and so forth. A few students have obtained the title of Weibel's Gary Kasparov, obtaining 1, 150 or more points accumulated over the years. Each week all the students receive an updated rating sheet and each month the parents receive progress reports. Children love collecting these sheets and announcing out loud how they are now, for example, a Queen.
The points are cumulative over the years. Five players in the Club and five players on the Team are given special recognition at our year-end potluck awards banquet for obtaining the most points in that year. All Weibel chess members receive trophies at this ceremony plus a colorful certificate recognizing the title they have earned.
If you are interested in learning more
about our program, you can view our website at: http://www.Weibel Chess.usaweb.nu.
There you will even be able to download some of the forms and monthly newsletters
that are distributed to our members and parents and learn a little about the e-mail
chess.
I am willing to answer any questions that would provide assistance with your programs
and hear any ideas you may have. The aid I received from other chess parents, coaches
and teachers enabled me to produce a tremendously successful program at Weibel, and
helped turn
Fremont into a mecca for scholastic chess in Northern California. /
Some members of the Weibel Chess Club and two of the instructors.
reprinted from School Mates, November/December 1999
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