A Game Called Linguishtik: Making Grammar Fun (Academic Games)

By Don M Shannon

Don Shannon has been coach of 21 National Sweepstakes Championship teams, across two leagues, (A sad split divided the players into two leagues around 1991, he stayed with the original game creators and the NAGP-- National Academic Game Project.) i ncluding multiple sweepstakes titles in all four divisions. He and his school have been r ecognized by the United States Senate a nd he has been a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Academic Games Project. Despite all this, he credits all those accomplishments to some incredible students it has been his privilege and honor to have worked with. It was the kids that mattered most to him, and he did wind up helping to tutor a couple of students in the other League, (THE AGLoA--Academic Games League of America) who would go on to win national honors. The worth of this program, in particular the game Linguishtik covered here, is best taken from his own words. "Welcome to the wonderful world of Academic Games. I started playing and coaching these games back in the year 1980. In over a quarter of a century since that time, I have enjoyed a very successful career coaching students in this game, and others, to national championships from every school at which I had taught. If I may be allowed a brief moment of immodesty, if for no better reason than to justify my qualifications to have written this text, success and the drive for it can be an incredible motivational learning tool. There is no game in the Academic Games program for which my teams haven't won multiple national championships. There is no division in which my teams haven't won multiple sweepstakes titles as best overall team, (including repeats, threepeats and even a fourpeat!)--and that's an accomplishment that no other coach in the program has ever reached, and one in which I obviously take great pride. I take pride, but not even nearly all the credit, as I have had some incredible student scholars that played for me, without whom, none of this would have been accomplished. At Ecole Classique in Metairie, we established a dynasty stretching across a decade that resulted in our being recognized as the only school in the history of the program to have won sweepstakes titles in all four divisions--multiple times! But winning titles is by no means all that this game is about. I mention it only in stressing that it can be a powerful motivational tool. And despite the of suggested axiom, that competition may not be in the best interest of children, the fact of the matter is that life itself is an ongoing struggle, often against the odds, and that we are obligated to prepare them for that competition. I have found the game Linguishtik to be the most effective tool I've encountered in assisting children in English speaking countries to master the mother tongue; and that's what it should be all about. When I was younger, I found learning English with diagrams and repetitive drills extremely trying, and it just didn't motivate me very much. What turned the tide were two things: taking Latin, and playing Linguishtik. The former introduced me to so many cases that I was glad to get back to the comfort of English and three. The latter made learning English grammar and spelling FUN! It was a game! Granted, you have to learn a lot about grammar if you want to be a champ, and therein lay the secret to the success of Linguishtik in teaching mastery of English grammar, and vocabulary. I can't stress enough, how much this game has the potential, to make children willing to commit to learning how to play it--into champions of the English language! I have modified the play herein to the AGLOA system using Now and Impossible, so that either group can still learn to play like a champ.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0D4JBGT6T
• ISBN13: 9798325897108
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"