For February 23 after-school chess I had four students (3 boys and 1 girl). Some of my students had pre-UIL practices for their instruments, which may explain the low attendance. Objectives: Each student will take notation for some or all of the ladder chess game. Students will discuss the importance of reading and writing in chess and in general, as also covered in my book Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities.

Materials needed: chess sets and chess boards, pencils, paper.

Procedure:
1. Discuss why we write down chess games. Discuss why we read chess games. Then discuss why we write and read for "real life" too. I showed the first five moves of an Exchange Ruy Lopez chess opening. I made each move on the demonstration board, paused for students to write what they thought the notation was, then wrote the notation for the move on the dry erase board.

2. Snack. We discussed the upcoming talent show.

3. Ladder game. Each player needs to take notation. Everyone did, too, perfectly!

4. Post mortems of ladder games

5. Pack up at 4:50 p.m