Submitted by Andrea Cope, Texas

Idea posted March 8, 2006

I spent two weeks at the beginning of the year helping students learn how to find the correct page. I was pretty sure if they were frustrating me, they were frustrating their classroom teachers even more.

Game One - Write a page number on the board in a square. Start a stopwatch and say "GO!" After all have found the page, without helping each other, write the final time on the board. Try to beat it with a few more tries. Then stop and strategize: When you see the page number, can you tell if it'll be in the front, the middle, or the back of the book? If you look at the page number you're on, how can you tell if you need to keep going or if you've gone too far? If you're looking for page 300 and you're on page 200, which is faster - turning one page at a time or turning a whole chunk of pages? Then try again with the stopwatch. If they get below a predetermined time (I always say a minute, but I sometimes fudge to make them feel successful if they're working really hard), they get to sing the song on that page.
Game Two - Line them up in teams. Set a book at the front of each line. Write a page number in a square on the board and let the first two batters go at it. First one to find the page gets a run for the team. If you notice one poor kid who just doesn't have a clue, add a batting coach to help them with their turn until they get the hang of it.

These games made a huge difference in their ability to find the page and were worth every minute we spent on them.