What’s the word?

whats the wordMy students are currently engrossed in a new iPhone/Android game called What’s the Word? In each level of the game, you are presented with four photos, a set of letter space boxes, and eleven letters to help you spell out the word.

The four pictures represent the word in some way. Some of them are really easy – like the one on the left. Others of them are a bit more abstract and require a bit of creativity to reason through.

But as I have watched my students get engaged with this game, I realized it was so much more than a simple iPhone app. It could be used for vocabulary development and would make for a really interesting classroom activity.

What if we grouped students together and either assigned them a set of words or let them choose words related to a current unit? Then, students would create their own What’s the Word levels to math their words. Finally, once all students have created their words, the teacher could compile each level and the class could play the game as a review or the words could be made available for students on the class web site.

It sounds like it would be a lot of fun, and as I am eyeing the new project cart housed in my room, I am forming a plan to have my students create their own What’s the Word game for science next week. Does this sound like something doable for your?

(Oh, and if you haven’t seen the game, you should really check it out. It’s very addicting – although I’ve already worked my way through the currently available levels!)

By Janelle

Space geek, science nerd extraordinaire. That's me! Want to know more, visit the About page.

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