SOL5 World Literacy Day? #Slice2013

I am intrigued by the World Math Day Challenge http://www.worldeducationgames.com/WEG2013/Event/?id=1
which encourages kids to practice math facts as if they were preparing for an Olympic event.  I am amazed at how they remember their complex passwords and how they celebrate their victories as they prepare for March 6th, World Math Day.  Yesterday, there was a student in my school who was "#1 in the World for 4-7 year olds" at least for a little while! 

So, I hopped over the the site's World Literacy Day Challenge to check it out!  I was there last year when the focus was on Spelling....and while I do not consider spelling to be the essence of literacy, I did encourage kids to checkout the site....This year, I'm "soft" - not in support - dislike - the Literacy component on which the site focuses!

I tried some of the cloze sentence tasks.  No multiple choices...only one sentence from which to determine meaning.  A very strong reliance on grammar and memorization from (I assume) repeatedly visiting the site.....

During my first round, I got 2 out of 4.  The second earned me a 3 out of 4.  Hmmm I guess my earned doctorate in literacy is not helping on LEVEL1! 

There is apart of me who really likes the idea of the world being a smaller connected place where our children are learning to think on higher levels.  So I tried Level 3! 

SO here is MY thinking about all this: The Math component ROCKS; however, while this MAY very well be how SOME people around the world (and some people in the USA) think about literacy, it is not the way I think of!   

Please check out the site and let me know if I have gone out on a limb on this one! http://www.worldeducationgames.com/WEG2013/Event/?id=1