Crossword Puzzles in the Books and Beyond
By Catherine Nolan
I am one of those people who love crossword puzzles. Scratch that. I am one of those people who don't feel right unless they do at least one (and more often two or three) crossword puzzles a day.
Yes I am an addict. I am aware of this.
So you would think that I also adore the fact that crossword puzzles are a component of the Head First teaching style...but to be be honest...I'm not so sure if my love of the puzzle extends to my editorial day-job.
Why you ask?
Well, to be honest...Head First chapters are engineered to be compelling. We work with authors to create an experience that has learners compulsively flipping pages. So the crossword puzzle, as a chapter review element seems to create a natural stopping point for learners. A metaphorical big red sign that says "You're done with this lesson, if you want to take a break for the night - feel free", and that goes against everything we're trying to do.
So I was thinking, since the crossword puzzles are the only element of the book that we don't consider mandatory for the learner to complete...should we keep them? Or should we let them be an optional element to include rather than something we expect? Or maybe we should move the crossword puzzles somewhere else in the chapter where they make more sense to the topic we're exploring.
I'm at a loss...so I put it to the crowd...what do you think?
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I've never been a fan of the crosswords, but I have used the books for teaching classes at times, and a crossword can be great extra credit. I'm all for putting them at the end of the book. :)
Personally I like them at the end of the chapter. I agree that they are a 'big red' stop sign but I find that they give me a pause to go back through the chapter to find any terms that I may have missed, a kind of self-review of the chapter. Repetition is one of the Head First memory tricks, right?
I'd also like to keep the crosswords at the end of each chapter, for the exact reason Catherine mentions: they create a natural stopping point.
While I'm all for compelling experiences, if you make the material too compelling, you may have to put a warning label on the book's cover.
I can see it now. Without the "You're done with this lesson, if you want to take a break for the night - feel free" cue, I'd start reading the next chapter, then the next, and the next ...
Finally, around 4am, I nod off ... but then I oversleep, miss work, get fired, and have to take a minimum wage job at Starbuzz coffee.
;)
Please keep the crossword puzzles. They are part of what makes the Head First series so enjoyable and different from other computer books. The crossword puzzles help to reinforce parts of the chapter that you may have glossed over the first time around. (Plus, they're just fun!)
I'd agree with Bill. For me they are a distinctive and valuable part of the HF formula. And they are fun. Now as for the Pool Puzzles, which I am notoriously incapable of doing, that's a different story.