Opinions on short chess intro class

I have the opportunity to teach an "e-term" on chess at a local school, where I'll get about 2.5-3 hours a day for a week for the class.  It's grade 7-12, and I'll be able to set an upper limit on students (I'm figuring around 8-12 total).  My goal is to focus mostly on playing, trying to show the kids there's a lot of depth to the game, and still making it fun.  It's possible this could be the catalyst for an after-school chess club down the road.

I'm a middling-at-best player who just started playing regularly again a few months ago, but I have a fair bit of experience teaching.  I'm looking for feedback on the general outline I've put together for the course (e.g. what am I missing?  Am I trying to cover too much? Where could I find some helpful materials?)  Any feedback is welcome, especially on the questions I've given at the end.

• Day 1 (Intro/overview)
  
  • Describe pieces, movement, and rules
  • Explain algebraic notation, touch move (15 min)
  • Play the rest of the time, recording moves, and not worrying about finishing games.  Timebox to 20 minutes a match-up, whether done or not.
• Day 2 (Tactics)
  
  • Material values
  • Explain basic tactics (forks, pins, etc.), and provide some puzzles about each as exercises to solve in groups
  • Do some "mate in x" puzzles to combine exposure to various tactics
  • Play with whatever time remains, timeboxing as before
• Day 3 (Openings)
  
  • Discuss rules of thumb re: openings
  • Show two sample openings in more detail
  • Have kids play each opening as black and white (recording moves, 20 minute timebox)
• Day 4 (Sample tournament)
  
  • Discuss using clocks
  • Swiss Tournament (2 rounds SD/30)
• Day 5
  
  • Finish tournament (1 round SD/30)
  • Watch "Searching for Bobby Fischer"?
  • Play blitz if any time left

Out of 13-15 hours, that breaks down into appx 3 hours of timed play, 3 hours of timeboxed play, 2 hours of instruction, 2.5 hour of tactics puzzlers, and a 2 hour film.  Any extra time would be at the boards.

I've thought of many other things I'd like to do, but I'm trying to keep things focussed on learning the game and playing it.  I do a lot of timeboxing play to reduce the focus on winning/losing right away; I've found that useful when teaching archery.  Is there any other big thing I should cover, perhaps in preference to what I have?

I like the idea of a small tournament to let people play and try to apply what they've been exposed to, but I don't know if it's too much stuff to pile on them to give time controls, etc.  Would playing without that, just watching the clock to move people along work?

I also like finishing with the movie; it's a fun film with a few things that they'll be able to identify with (especially if we do time controls in some games), and it's a low-key finish. Does that seem reasonable?  Other ideas for better usage of that 2 hour block (like playing SD/45 controls?)

I'm not a big openings guy (I've just started realizing how many main lines there are); any suggestions on two good ones that aren't too tricky to learn or use, and that would be good to illustrate solid opening behavior?

Any comments appreciated; I have about two weeks to put an outline together, then another four to polish it up and prepare.

That's a great program outline. I teach chess to teenagers (when I have the time) and the hardest part is keeping them interested. I'm glad you don't want to bog them down with too many openings. My chess coach taught me early on, not to memorize a bunch of openings. His point was that it all came down to strong endgame play. I'd give them some basic information on maybe two openings or even just keep the opening discussion to central square control and early piece development for central square control. Its a tough call because once you start talking about an opening, you have to follow it through or it gets confusing. Let me know how it goes.

Thanks!  The more I've been working on the days' presentations, the more I'm thinking exactly as you said.  Once you start explaining an opening, where do you stop?  So I think I'll focus on the general rules of thumb (center control, development of bishops and knights first, etc.) and maybe show a couple openings as examples of different ways to achieve those ends.

I just found out I've got a full class, so it should be interesting.  I'll post results after.  Thanks for the feedback! 

Maybe this falls under "rules", but stalemate needs to be in there someplace.

One problem with a 5 day class is that if you only tell them about any one thing one time, and don't have time to repeat it, they are going to forget a lot of that.  You may mention stalemate as part of the rules, for instance, but it won't really sink in unless it's repeated.  That's true for piece movement, en passant, stalemate, checkmate, etc.

Basic end game theory, like 2 rook vs king endings, rook and king vs rook endings, help a lot.  Without an intro to basic checkmates, lots of new players playing another new player reach an endgame that is easily winnable - but they have no idea how to win.  Mostly they make random moves checking the opponents king.

Sounds like fun.

The difficult part is assessing the entry level skills of your students. At that grade level and depending on the selection process (especially if it's self-selection), they might be more advanced than your plan anticipates.

I'm not sure how you would build in some flexibility except perhaps not stipulating a schedule in terms of days but sections or something, in case you need to move into the next set of activities more rapidly than anticipated.

Also, there might be a range of skill levels that might make things difficult.

I thinking about your task, I think I should wish you.....Good luck!!!

It should still be fun.

One nice thing about learning k+p v. k endgame basics (opposition and tempo) is that much of it is very easy and can be practiced in a minute or two.

Useful knowledge too.

Good point, fcolombo and Baldr. Since I put together that outline, I've found that as I work with my own kids I tend to show them one of the basic mating patterns (whichever seems the best fit to the game that just finished).  So I'll probably take time over Thanksgiving to tweak things to get some time in on that.

That should help address stalemate as well; I already have some "is this check, checkmate, or stalemate" puzzles, but seeing how easy it is to get stuck in stalemate in a K & Q endgame might make it sink in.

My teaching style has always been pretty flexible; I'm comfortable adjusting on the fly.  My goal is to have a good outline, but with enough material that I can adjust as needed after the first day.

I'm still trying to come up with a fallback plan if I have one or two kids at a significantly stronger level.  Ideas welcome.

Since my last posting here, I've become a full time chess instructor (between private and school teaching gigs). The hardest thing to do, which I think you've handled excellently, is coming up with a short program to teach the game. Your time table is really well thought out. The only difficult part is dealing with kids that are stronger players. We have a few kids that are playing at an expert rating, so we have to accomodate them as well. What I do with them is have them teach me:

I ask them to present an explanation for each move and an analysis of my counter move. Then I ask them to walk around with me to inspect the games bbeing played by the other kids.

One of the problems with kids that are really good is that they cannot explain why they are making the moves they're making. while they make excellent moves, they need to learn analysis at this point and having them explain their game helps achieve this goal. Of course, sometimes the good players get a big ego so I have them work out soultions to Grandmaster's games (which usually deflates their heads a bit).

One lessson I cannot stress enough is good sportsmanship. We start our games with a hand shake and greeting and end with a handshake and a thank you. The number one unforgivable action I have with my students is being mean or even slightly rude. My students know that this is the quickest route to a parent/teacher meeting.

One last note: I stress that chess requires higher brain function which comes from a brain operating at 100%. To operate at 100%, you need to feed the brain with healthy food and exercise. My kids tend to eat better (without protest) when they attach the idea to becoming a better chess player.

Thanks for the comments.  The class went well, I think. My biggest concern was what to do if I had a wide variety of skill levels in the class, so I spent time the first day getting a decent idea about that.  Fortunately, while there was a fair gap in the experience levels between students, the overall skill levels were similar enough to allow everyone to participate and be challenged.

Your comment about sportsmanship is a welcome one; it wasn't a problem in my class, but if I were to expand it to a regular activity, I'd stress that even more than I did.

In case it's useful to anyone, here are a few lessons learned:

1. You can't emphasize basic board setup, touch move, clock management, etc. too much at this level. 
2. It was very interesting for me to see how quickly a student that had no experience but was willing to be tutored in some basic strategies and tactics could learn.
3. I was surprised how much pushback I got on requiring notation of games. This came mostly from younger players who seemed more interested in faster games, but I wasn't expecting it.  I've got some ideas on how to increase the willingness to do this, but any thoughts from others would be great.
4. I definitely saw improvement in many of the students over the week of the class, so I think the balance on what I covered was decent.  If I had more time, I'd spend it on endgames and problem analysis.  I was shown Silman's Complete Endgame course after my class, and I really like what I've seen of that so far.

Thanks for reading and contributing!

 There was a decent experience ra