Most good word games are simple, but powerful tools for practicing, developing, and improving writing and vocabulary skills. Word games can be found included on a number of social networking websites as well as on educational websites. Many online word games are easily embedded into blogs or websites. Including a word game on a class blog is another way to increase student engagement with your blog.
Midlakes.org has a number of word games designed for school use. The games on Midlakes.org range from simple hangman style games to games that challenge a player’s knowledge of definitions and ability to use suffixes and prefixes.
Word Twist is an online version of the popular board game, Boggle. Word Twist comes in two versions a four by four grid and a five by five grid. The purpose of Word Twist is to identify as many words as possible using the letters in the grid.
Super Text Twist is a simple word game similar to Word Twist which asks plays to identify words from a set of jumbled letters. The Super Text Twist game be played online or downloaded for use offline.
Applications for Education
Word games are great way to get students excited about and hooked on vocabulary practice. Word games and educational games in general are good tools for differentiating instructional time in a heterogeneous classroom.
