Scrabble - Games and activities for all levels

39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For Teenagers and Adults - Jackie Bolen, Jennifer Booker Smith 2015

Scrabble
Games and activities for all levels

Skill: Writing

Time: 20+ minutes

Materials: Oversized wall-mounted board, or one board per table and a set of letters

Your students will likely be familiar with Scrabble, either the board game or similar apps. It’s a great way to get students to recall vocabulary and use correct spelling. It’s a bit labor intensive to create the board(s), but I get several years of use out of a wall-mounted board.

To make a wall-mounted board, I use a large (big enough for letters to be seen across the classroom) piece of felt. Thin quilt batting is not as durable, but may be easier to come by. The Velcro on the back of the letters will pull bits of it off, but I still can get enough use out of a board to make it a viable option. I use an actual board as a guide for number of squares and arrangement of “special” squares, but I add in a few more than in the standard game. Wikipedia has the official list of number of letters and point value, which I use as well.

I make the letter cards about the size of my hand so that the words can be read across the classroom. I laminate them (of course!) and stick a square of “pointy” Velcro on the back. Since the board is felt or batting, the Velcro sticks right on.

If the class is lower-level, I have the students work in pairs or threes. If the class is quite large, I use table-top game boards. You can splurge and pay for real boards, but I just use A3 paper. I make a top board and bottom board, print them, cut off the border at the join, laminate them, and tape them together. You will need a set of letters of the appropriate size, but you don’t need Velcro.

Teaching Tips:

To increase the challenge, you can limit them to words they have studied, for example, as a semester review. However, the game itself is likely to be challenging enough. In fact, I usually give a bonus of one point per letter, and sometimes a further bonus for 6+ letter words, to encourage longer words.

Procedure:

1. In advance, prepare one wall-mounted board with letter cards with Velcro on the back, or enough game boards and letter sets for each table to have one. (I use Wikipedia for the game board layout and letter point values and numbers.)

2. Depending on class size and level, have students work as individuals, pairs, or threes. (A large class playing as individuals on a wall-mounted board will create a lot of downtime.)

3. You may want to give bonuses for longer words. If necessary, start a new word in a corner of the board or add a long word of your own if there is a large number of 3-4 letter words.