• Most people agree that a lifelong curiosity about words is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a child. Scrabble is a motivating and exciting way for to develop vocabulary, spelling, math, spatial relation skills, and critical thinking skills while providing a fun way to practice in math, spelling, and other areas of the curriculum.  Playing Scrabble develops a love for words while it reinforces other important skills. Determining word scores requires a knowledge of  addition and multiplication. Figuring out where to place their words builds spatial relations and strategic thinking skills. Social skills are strengthened while children play with each other and adults. School Scrabble competitions foster teamwork and cooperative learning skills.
  

• As an introduction to the game of Scrabble, teachers might want to have students practice solving and creating crossword puzzles. Students may use a puzzle maker to create their own crossword puzzles. Students may solve simple or more advanced interactive online crossword puzzles or crossword puzzles that may be printed out.

•  In this WebQuest students will be develop skills needed to research the history, rules, strategies, and masters of Scrabble on the World Wide Web. As they play, students will recognize word patterns, practice spelling, and increase their vocabulary as they build words on the board. In addition, students reinforce addition skills as they total their word scores for each play and add the word score to their game score.

• Students will also develop critical thinking and writing skills as they enter their moves, strategies, reasons for each move and plan their next move in their journals.

Standards Addressed

1. Use information technology to assist in gathering, organizing, and presenting information.

2. Work with others to complete a task.

3. Participate in group meetings.

4. Identify strengths and weaknesses in his or her own work.

5. Show or explain something clearly enough for someone else to be able to do it.

7. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work.

Procedure:

A KWL CHART is used as both a formative and summative assessment tool. Students share what they already know pertaining to the  history, rules, strategies, and masters of Scrabble. The teacher elicits what information the students would like to know about the game of scrabble. Students research information to complete the KWL chart using Internet web sites. The completed chart will be used as a post assessment tool. Students share the information found with the class and a class chart is completed and displayed.

Students, as a class activity, reenact the play by play of Joel Wapnick and Brian Cappelletto at the Scrabble 2001 World Championship. Students analyze the strategies involved in each play of the championship. Teacher assesses students participation, ability to reenact moves and ability to point out strategies used.

Students work in groups of two in a scrabble competition. Students may play online or with the actual Scrabble board game. Either the Merriam Webster, The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary or the Hasbro Online Scrabble Dictionary will be used in cases in which words are challenged. Winners of each pair compete against each other until a scrabble master is found. As students play, they record their moves and the moves of their opponent into a journal. Student will include strategies used and what their next play might be. As students play, the teacher will observe strategies used and assess students play. The teacher will also assess student's journal entries for spelling, grammar, usage as well as completeness of the explanation of the plays and strategies used. Students will meet in groups or as a class to discuss strategies they have used with one another.

Teacher Resources

• Additional word games may be downloaded for a free trial at: http://bigfishgames.com/downloads/wizard/index.html or played at http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/games/

• Online trial scrabble can be downloaded for student play.

• A complete class Scrabble kit may be purchased from Scrabble In School.

• Teachers may register the class for a Scrabble Championship like the one run by Newsday or the School Scrabble Program.

• Teachers should read the Tips and tools for using Scrabble with children.

• A blank KWL chart may be found here.