Thinkersize

Thinkersize, LLC - makers of Cranium CoRE

Reading comprehension games that get grades 5-12 talking about the text

Thinkersize builds Cranium CoRE, a team game show for reading comprehension in grades 5-12. A class reads a chapter together, plays a round of higher-order questions on the big screen, then opens the book to prove every answer with the author's own words. The result is a room full of students arguing about a text - the good kind of arguing.

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In classrooms and libraries across the United States since 2008 Runs in any modern browser No student logins and no student data

Three middle school students huddle over a tablet and an open paperback during a Cranium CoRE team game.

Why Thinkersize

Middle school teams share tablets while a teacher hosts a game-show review on the classroom screen.

We started Thinkersize on one simple idea: if you read, write, speak and listen well, you can take those skills into any curriculum, any job, and greatly improve your chance at success. Everything we build serves that idea.

Most reading software hands a student a passage and a multiple-choice quiz, alone, on a screen. We went the other way. Cranium CoRE puts three students on a team, puts the question on a projector, and gives them one minute and three attempts to agree on an answer they can defend from the text. Reading becomes a team sport, discussion becomes the point, and the teacher gets to watch comprehension happen out loud.

That is how we accelerate equitable literacy gains: evidence-based reading strategies, collaborative gameplay, and student-authored questioning, blended into one routine. Educators get actionable insight. Students build comprehension, writing precision, and the confidence to speak up with a page number in hand.

How Cranium CoRE works

Four steps, one class period. No prep beyond picking the chapter.

Four steps of the Cranium CoRE method: read aloud, play, discuss and defend, write questions.
1

Read aloud, read along

The teacher or a student reads a chapter aloud while everyone follows in the book. Listening lets students comprehend text well above their independent reading level, so the whole class starts the game on the same page.

2

Play the game show

Teams of three huddle around one phone, tablet, or Chromebook. Questions go up on the big screen: inference, author's purpose, compare and contrast, sequencing, persuasive argument. Each team gets a time limit and three attempts. Points drop with every attempt, and being first earns nothing - being right does.

3

Discuss and defend

Open the book. Teams explain why their answer is the one the text supports, citing the author's words. This is where the metacognition happens, and it is the part teachers say they cannot get any other way.

4

Write your own questions

Once students have played, they want to write. Teams author higher-order questions on the next chapter, then play each other's games. Writing a good question proves mastery better than answering one.

See the full method on the Cranium CoRE page

Read. Debate. Win.

Built for every reading leader in the building

Teachers

Turn the novel you are already teaching into a 20-minute team game, then run the discussion that follows. Works for ELA, social studies, science - any class with a text.

Cranium CoRE for teachers

Librarians and media specialists

Run read-alouds, book clubs, and Battle of the Books practice from one browser tab, with a library of 7,000+ games on 1,875 books that your students can add to.

Cranium CoRE for librarians

Districts

One literacy routine in every school, licensed per building, aligned to Marzano, Danielson, and state ELA standards, with no student personal data to vet.

Cranium CoRE for districts

Biggest use case

Battle of the Books, upgraded

Cranium CoRE is how schools run Battle of the Books when they want the battle to be about reading closely instead of buzzing fast. Teams at the same grade compete inside one building or against another school across the district, questions come from this year's list, and every answer has to survive the discuss-and-defend step. Florida county programs have run their battles on Cranium CoRE for years.

Explore Battle of the Books
Two grade 6 teams in a school library compete in a Battle of the Books game on Cranium CoRE.

Evidence and outcomes

Cranium CoRE's process rests on research-based practices with decades of support: read-aloud, cooperative learning, higher-order questioning, and structured academic discussion. Every round puts all four in front of you at once.

  • Read-aloud first. Students comprehend about two years above their reading level when they listen, so mixed-ability teams start on equal footing.
  • Cooperative learning. Three students, one device, one answer - nobody gets to sit it out.
  • Higher-order questioning. Inference, author's purpose, argument, and structure, never just recall.
  • Structured discussion. The discuss-and-defend step makes text evidence the price of every point.

What educators say

"Students who rarely contributed now defend answers with cited paragraphs."

6th Grade ELA Teacher, Illinois

"The question creation cycle transformed passive readers into analytical thinkers."

Instructional Coach

"This TV game show format within the Cranium CoRE methods offers an exciting environment that motivates children of any age to read so they can participate in this fun filled event. I highly endorse it as a way to encourage children to read and write."

Debbie Svec, Palm Beach Gardens High School, Florida; Past President, Florida Association for Media in Education

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Standards and frameworks

Cranium CoRE's method maps to state ELA standards for grades 5-12 across Reading Literature, Reading Informational Text, Writing, and Speaking and Listening, and to the instructional frameworks your evaluators already use: Marzano's Domain I classroom strategies, Danielson's Framework for Teaching, Webb's Depth of Knowledge, and Bloom's Taxonomy. Alignment documents are published per grade.

Standards alignment detail for districts

Engagement snapshot

books with games in the community library
1,875
games in the community library
7,000+
Cranium CoRE members
7,700+
teams in one game
10
attempts per question, per team
3
student logins to manage
0

Frequently asked questions

What grade levels does Thinkersize support?

Thinkersize focuses on grades 5-12. Cranium CoRE's higher-order question style and team format are built for readers who can follow a chapter book or an article and argue about it; schools have used it successfully below and above that band.

How long does classroom setup take?

Most classrooms launch their first game in under 15 minutes from account creation. You need one computer with a projector, a strong Wi-Fi connection, and one phone, tablet, or laptop per team.

Is student data private?

Yes. Students never log in and never enter a name, email, or age; a team enters only a team name. Cranium CoRE collects no personal information from children, uses session cookies only, and does not sell or share data. It is designed around FERPA principles.

Does it align to standards?

Yes. State ELA standards for grades 5-12 across Reading Literature, Reading Informational Text, Writing, and Speaking and Listening, plus the Marzano and Danielson frameworks, with per-grade alignment documents.

Do students need special hardware?

No. Any modern browser on a Chromebook, tablet, phone, or desktop works, and the free Cranium CoRE Remote app runs on iOS and Android. Nothing to install on the classroom computer.

Is Cranium CoRE a speed game?

No. Every team gets the full time limit and up to three attempts on every question, and the first team to lock in earns nothing extra. Points go to teams that are right, and the point value drops with each extra attempt, so the careful team beats the fast one.

Is Cranium CoRE just trivia?

No. Recall questions are the floor, not the game. Questions are hypothetical, inferential, persuasive-argument, compare-and-contrast, author's-purpose, and sequencing questions, and every answer has to be defended from the text with the book open.

Who writes the games?

Andy Larson, Thinkersize's co-founder, writes new titles himself, and premium member schools write and publish their own games immediately. The library has always been meant to grow through its community, including the students who write the next round.

What does a free Cranium CoRE account include?

Any educator can create a free account on craniumcore.com and demo the product: play up to 25 games on the keyboard in 1-2 player mode, see the questions and the flow, and browse the library. A school's annual premium license adds unlimited plays, team play for up to ten teams, create-your-own games, sub-accounts for every staff member, community sharing, and support for Side Keys RF transmitters, which free accounts do not support. No student data is collected at either level, and students never need an account.

Can students play on school Chromebooks instead of phones?

Yes. A team can answer from the free Cranium CoRE Remote app on iOS or Android, or from any browser on a laptop, netbook, or Chromebook at remote.craniumcore.com. Either way the team enters the game code shown on the host's screen and a team name - nothing else.

Ready to see it in your classroom?

Andy will run a game with your students on a book they are reading now, on your schedule, in person or over video. It takes one class period and you keep the questions.

Request a demo Visit Cranium CoRE