Change the Way we Teach – For a Lifetime of Learning Part 3

How can we change the way we teach for a lifetime of learning?

How can teachers use games that:

·        Support and interact with the core curriculum?

·        Promote personal and interpersonal development?

·        Reinforce historical and mythological content?

·        Develop research, writing, and analytical skills?

·        Create leadership competencies?

·        Improve public speaking confidence?

Is this too much too ask? I say: No! And I believe I can prove it!

I cannot believe how old the game Battleship is – with the original version released by Milton Bradley in 1967. The game concept is much older than that, dating back to releases in the late 1800s in different countries under different names. Without going into too much detail about the game’s history, I will say that the basic idea of hide and seek using little plastic boats is amazing. I think this is why my daughter likes this game so much – she likes to play hide-and-seek. With Battleship, the playing area is confined to a small table. The biggest problem is to ensure that – if you have a cat in the house – you keep the cat in another room! For some reason, cats like to play Battleship – hide-and-seek – with the small pegs that come with the game.

Between 1967 and 2008, Milton Bradley released several versions of the game. Of course, the game has evolved to include electronic and ‘talking’ variations, but the basic game with each player having a two-grid play area works well enough. Teaching my daughter to play the game is the story that I will tell you now.

It was not so long ago (if years ago fits within that span of time) when my daughter and I were in Wal-Mart. My first stop at any Wal-Mart is the toy area – specifically the Lego aisle – then to the games. It was time for something new.  My daughter needed a new challenge, and a game fit the bill! Battleship! We purchased it and played the game that afternoon. It has been a long while since I last played; it was a good thing that this game has stood the test of time – meaning, the rules have not changed since my childhood.  

The rules of the game are straight forward: this truly is a game of hide-and-seek. My daughter liked that. Now it was a matter of teaching her the game mechanics. Each player gets five ships and a bunch of pegs – both red and white. The game tactics involve guessing where the other player hid his (or her) boats on the two-dimensional grid. After calling out a coordinate position (i.e., ‘C-4’), you either hit or miss the opponent’s boat. With a hit, you place a red peg in one of the holes on the vertical grid. If you miss, you place a white peg in that position. Easy stuff! The problem: my daughter could not see where I hid my boats!

Teaching my daughter to play hide-and-seek with boats was a fun and exciting experience. Guessing the locations of my boats was fun, but only if she hit the boat every time. That meant she both wanted, and needed, to know the locations of my hidden pieces. She would look at my boat patterns, then match those patterns against the two-dimensional grid on her platform. Many months went by before she no longer needed to look at my boat formations. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching her mature. She gained confidence with each game. She can now make good guesses to my boat hide-and-seek strategies. So much so that she can win the game without any help from her father (well, sometimes). The next step is to teach her how to strategize from both a defensive and offensive position.

Note: I do not consider giving my daughter multiple opportunities to view my boat positions as a form of cheating. This was a learning and growing experience. If doing so was helping her developing the critical thinking skills needed to play the game, then so be it.

The game of Battleship offers young people unique opportunities to gain valuable insight into the world around them. From an academic perspective, the game offers several avenues for learning core skills in math and analytical thinking.

Math competencies are embedded into the game. Consider the following:

·        Using a number line

·        Understanding location by using x and y coordinate locations

·        Mapping on a two-dimensional (Cartesian) coordinate plane

·        Graphing points on a two-dimensional place

Although the game is based on an alphanumeric coordinate system, the game can be translated into an x-y grid system using all four quadrants of the Cartesian plane for use in the classroom.

Beyond math, Battleship can be used to teach critical thinking, problem solving, and strategic planning. Looking at the simplicity of the game, it is easy for adults to see how we would ‘hide’ the five boats. There are a limited number of locations on the board. But that is not the point. The classroom lesson would include having your students do the following

·        Plan

·        Execute

·        Review

·        Revise

Plan your Defense: Use graph paper to recreate the two-dimensional grid. Use lined paper to plan a strategy. The strategy would identify the locations of all five boats. Before execution (i.e., playing the game), have each student consider the pros and cons of their defensive strategy. Write down the pros and cons in their notes. There are no right or wrong answers. Students are learning to think about their own plan. Do not have students change their original plan. Reason: you want to give them the opportunity to learn from it.

Plan your Offense: Have students write out their strategy for finding their opponent’s boats. The offensive strategy needs to be written out first before the student plays the game. Have each student think about their overall strategy. This would include where to look, what attack patterns might achieve best results, and so forth. A written plan serves to prevent cheating and is the basis for the overall learning experience. At the end of the activity, each student will review their strategic plan. During the game, each student will take notes to determine how well (or how poorly) their plan worked.

Execute: Have each student execute their plan. Integrity matters here. Remind students that this is not about winning or losing the game. This really is about how you play the game. The purpose is to find out how well each student planned and executed on that plan. The way to improve a student’s critical and strategic thinking skills is to review what went well, and what did not.

Review: At the end of the activity, have students review their notes. Each student needs to compare their strategy against the execution of that strategy. Students will do this for both their defensive and offensive strategies. Again, students should be able to consider the good and the bad. In small or large groups, students should share the things they learned, both what worked and what did not work well.

Revise: Finally, each student should be given a chance to revise their strategies, both offensive and defensive. This can be done as an in-class or homework assignment. Have students write notes on how to do things differently the next time they play the game.

 Big picture: This type of strategic and critical thinking lesson can be adopted into history, narrative, and stem education. Students should learn to plan a project, and other complex activities. This is a transferable skill in multiple venues. Explain to your students that planning is an activity that adults do all the time!

Credits for the pictures: https://pixabay.com/images/search/stratego/