Community of Reading Engagement

Cranium CoRE: the team reading game show for grades 5-12

Cranium CoRE is the one product Thinkersize makes. CoRE stands for Community of Reading Engagement, and that is exactly what it is: a browser-based game show that turns any chapter into a round of higher-order questions, a team huddle, and an open-book argument about what the author actually said. Students in grades 5-12 play it in teams on one device. Teachers run it from one browser tab. Nobody installs anything.

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A high school class plays Cranium CoRE in teams of three, one device per team, with the game board on the front screen.

What a Cranium CoRE game looks like

Picture a seventh-grade room on chapter four of Hatchet. The teacher or a student reads the chapter aloud while thirty students follow along in their copies. Then the screen changes to a game board. Ten teams of three each have one phone or Chromebook open to the Cranium CoRE Remote app. A question appears:

"Brian decides to keep the hatchet on his belt at all times after the porcupine attack. Which earlier moment in the chapter most directly explains that decision, and why?"

Every team has one minute and three attempts. They whisper, flip pages, disagree, and lock in an answer. Points go to teams that are right, not teams that are fast, and the points shrink with every extra attempt. When the round ends, the teacher hits the Game Alert and the real work starts: each team defends its answer from the text while the others push back.

That is the whole product. The game is the hook. The discussion is the point.

Cranium CoRE game board showing a multiple-choice question, team badges and a countdown timer. — Cranium CoRE screen: the game board.

Two students debate an answer using the text during the discuss-and-defend step.

The four-step method

Step 1: Read aloud, read along

A chapter is read aloud by the teacher or a student while everyone reads along. Listening comprehension runs roughly two years ahead of independent reading level, so a mixed-ability class gets the same shared text and the same shot at the questions. Occasional student read-alouds double as elocution practice.

Step 2: Play a TV-style game show

Teams answer on one shared device so the team has to talk before it taps. Question types are deliberately above recall: hypothetical, inferential, persuasive argument, compare and contrast, author's purpose, and sequencing. The host can pause at any time. Up to ten teams play at once.

Step 3: Discuss and defend

The round is open book by design. Teams prove their answer using the author's words and listen to the teams that chose differently. This is the metacognitive step, and it is where accountable talk, textual evidence, and inference stop being vocabulary words and start being habits.

Step 4: Compose your own questions

Students who have played want to write. Teams take the next chapter, write higher-order questions with the built-in question-writing tutorial, and play each other's games. Writing a question that only works if you understood the chapter is the clearest mastery check there is.

Questions written above recall: Webb's Depth of Knowledge

Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge sorts questions into four levels: recall, skill and concept, strategic thinking, and extended thinking. Most academic gaming for books and competitions stays at Level 1. Cranium CoRE questions are written for Level 2 (explaining how or why) and Level 3 (defending reasoning): students infer, use context clues, predict cause and effect, compare, differentiate, hypothesize, and draw conclusions.

Level 4, extended thinking, arrives in step four of the method, when students design and write their own games. Complex reasoning, planning, and synthesis are what it takes to write a question that only works if the reader understood the chapter.

Infographic: Cranium CoRE and Webb's Depth of Knowledge. A four-part wheel shows Level 1 recall, Level 2 skill and concept, Level 3 strategic thinking, and Level 4 extended thinking, with callouts showing Cranium CoRE questions at Levels 2 and 3 and student-written games at Level 4. — Cranium CoRE and Webb's Depth of Knowledge: alignment and academic gaming comparison.

Game rules at a glance

Rule	How Cranium CoRE handles it
Team size	Three is ideal: small enough to talk fast, odd enough to break ties
Teams per game	Up to 10
Time per question	Set by the host; one minute is typical
Attempts	Three per team per question
Scoring	Correct answers score; points decrease with each extra attempt
Speed	Irrelevant. First to answer earns nothing extra
Pausing	Host can pause for discussion at any time
Discuss and defend	Game Alert cues the open-book defense of every answer
Student accounts	None. Teams enter a team name only

What you get

7,000+ games on 1,875 books

On titles students actually read - Holes, Hatchet, Wonder, The Giver, Esperanza Rising, The Lightning Thief - plus community-built sets for Battle of the Books lists and curriculum games in science and social studies. New games are added every day.

Collaborative game mode

Puts three students on one device and drives accountable talk and evidence citation.

Higher-order question cycles

Push past recall into inference, author's purpose, argument, and structure, and adapt to the text you choose.

A student question builder

A built-in tutorial on writing textually complex questions, so students move from answering to authoring.

Create-your-own games

For premium members: any book, any article, any chapter, published to your school immediately.

Community participation

Comment on, rate, and share games with other members.

Sub-accounts

For every teacher and librarian in a licensed school.

Standards mapping

To state ELA standards for grades 5-12 and the Marzano and Danielson frameworks, with per-grade alignment documents.

Devices and setup

Cranium CoRE is 100% browser based. The classroom needs one computer connected to a projector or large display (speakers optional), running Chrome 85+, Edge 85+, Firefox 80+, or Safari 12+. Each team answers on the free Cranium CoRE Remote app (iOS 12+ or Android 7+) or in any browser on a laptop or Chromebook. A strong Wi-Fi connection matters; the app includes a built-in network test so you know before the bell rings. Most classrooms are playing within 15 minutes of creating an account.

Teams without the app can play directly in the Chrome browser at remote.craniumcore.com - nothing to install. Premium schools can also use Side Keys, the handheld RF transmitters Cranium CoRE supports; free accounts do not support Side Keys.

The Cranium CoRE Remote app asking for a game code and team name on a phone. — Cranium CoRE screen: joining a game on the Remote app.

What students tap

Each team sees four big answer buttons and its team name on the remote - the same buttons whether it is a phone, a tablet, or a Chromebook.

Cranium CoRE runs on a Chromebook, a phone, and a projector - nothing to install.

A student taps one of four colored answer buttons on a phone, with books and a notebook on the desk.

Pricing

Cranium CoRE is licensed per school, per year. One annual premium license covers every teacher, librarian, coach, and administrator in the building through unlimited sub-accounts, and the price depends only on the school's total enrollment.

Annual premium license, per school
School enrollment	Price per school, per year
Up to 499 students	$349
500 to 999 students	$399
1,000 to 1,499 students	$449
1,500 to 1,999 students	$499
2,000 or more students	$549

Licensing every school in a district?

Every building is $349 per year, the lowest tier, regardless of its enrollment. See district pricing.

Purchase options

Pay by credit card on craniumcore.com, or by purchase order: create a free account, print the order form, and send it with your PO. Premium access is normally live in under 48 hours. Renewals work the same way, by credit card on the Renew Subscription page or by a new purchase order.

Free account vs premium license

A free non-student account lets any educator demo the product with up to 25 games before buying. Premium unlocks everything else. Free vs premium on craniumcore.com

What premium adds
Feature	Free account	Premium license
Who it is for	Any educator who wants to demo the product	A school, for every staff member in it
Game plays	Up to 25	Unlimited
Players	1 or 2 player games on the keyboard	Up to 10 teams
Team remotes	Keyboard	Free Cranium CoRE Remote app (iOS, Android) or any browser
Side Keys RF transmitters (handheld clickers)	Not supported	Supported
New games on popular literature by staff and the community	Included	Included
Online training and best practices	Included	Included
Sub-accounts for other staff at your school	-	Included
Create your own games	-	Included
Community participation (comment, rate, share)	-	Included
Student accounts or student data	None	None

Pricing on craniumcore.com Order on craniumcore.com District rollout

Student privacy

Students never log in to Cranium CoRE. They do not enter a name, an email, or an age; a team enters a team name and that is all. Cranium CoRE collects no personal information from children, uses session cookies only, and does not share or sell data for commercial purposes. Teacher accounts hold a name, school, and email. It is designed around FERPA principles, and your technology director will have very little to review.

Cranium CoRE vs the alternatives

Versus reading logs

Reading logs record minutes and page counts, are easy to back-fill, and tell you nothing about depth of understanding. Cranium CoRE produces cited claims and defended answers out loud, in front of you, with the evidence on the page.

Versus generic quiz apps

Quiz apps reward recall and speed, run one student per device, and use teacher-written items only. Cranium CoRE rewards correctness over speed, runs one device per team so students must talk first, pushes every question above recall, and ends with students writing the next round.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cranium CoRE an assessment tool?

Not a formal one. Its purpose is to drive thematic discussion that improves comprehension. You will learn a great deal by listening to teams defend answers, but it does not score individual students, and it is not meant to.

Can I use it for nonfiction and other subjects?

Yes. The library includes curriculum games in science and social studies, and premium members write games on any text, including articles and primary sources.

How often are new book games added?

Every day. Premium members publish their games immediately, and Andy writes new titles throughout the year.

Does a correct answer stop the round?

No. Every team gets its full time limit and up to three attempts, so a quick team cannot shut out the slower, more careful one.

What if a chapter only has a few questions?

Some titles started as demo sets or head starts for a school. The community is expected to build them out, and your students can be the ones who do.

What makes Cranium CoRE better than other reading comprehension strategies?

It runs several strategies at once instead of one. The two most visible are discussion and the high level of engagement that educational gaming brings, but a single round also includes read-aloud, cooperative learning, higher-order questioning, text-evidence citation, and student question writing. Most programs deliver one of those. Cranium CoRE delivers all of them in one class period.

What types of questions does a game use?

Literal recall questions exist, but the game is built on question types above recall: hypothetical, inferential, persuasive argument, compare and contrast, author's purpose, and sequencing. That is how the game develops critical thinking rather than memory.

How does scoring work?

A correct answer scores, and the value goes down with each attempt a team uses, up to three. Speed is irrelevant: the team that answers first gets no bonus, and a correct answer from one team does not stop the others. The issue is not speed but correctness.

How do teams connect their devices to a game?

When the host sets up a game with remote play on, a game code appears on the setup screen. Each team opens the free Cranium CoRE Remote app or goes to remote.craniumcore.com in a browser, enters the game code and a team name, and is in. With remote play off, up to two teams can answer on the host's keyboard.

How many games can I play on a free account?

Up to 25, in 1-2 player keyboard mode, which is enough to see the question style and the four-step flow with your own eyes. A premium license removes the limit, unlocks ten-team play, and adds support for Side Keys RF transmitters, which free accounts do not support.

See Cranium CoRE with your students

Andy will run a game on a book your class is reading now, in person or over video. One class period, no obligation.

Request a demo Visit Cranium CoRE