Board Games: A Perfect Match for Reading Comprehension

Analog board games greatly benefit students’ development and overall well-being. Board games offer opportunities for early learning, help boost language skills, sharpen students’ ability to focus, teach the value of teamwork, and soothe anxiety. Integrating board games with literacy skills allows students to assimilate information and develop into lifelong learners. Without solid literacy skills, the future is bleak for most students. To compound the problem, a trend today is to replace traditional board games as an educational tool with digital alternatives. This trend has seen a downward correlation with students having significant reading deficiencies in their reading comprehension in grades three through five. This thesis will examine how utilizing analog board games in elementary classrooms can improve reading comprehension skills in students. To better understand how analog board games an effective as an instructional tool in the classroom, research will be conducted through a series of research questions: 1. How has the increased use of technology in the classroom affected students’ learning outcomes? 2. What is the difference between an analogy and a digital board game? 3. What are the environmental aspects that aid in employing analog board games in the learning process of the classroom? 4. What effects do board games have on the learning process in the classroom? 5. What are the opposing concerns about using analog board games in the classroom? After completing this research, a literate review was conducted in addition to visual and content analyses. A graphical solution will be created as an analog board game to aid in developing reading comprehension skills in elementary school students, grades three through five. The creation of the deliverable will provide the stakeholders at all levels, individual, institutional, and societal, with a concrete example of a reading comprehension game that can aid in developing literacy skills in students