Besides the other 97, I have two problems:
- There are students whose vocabulary isn't as strong or numerous as it can be. We live in a society that places value on how well a person can express their inner propositions via the written and spoken word. Some part of this skill of expression relies on a solid pool from which to draw the most lively and appropriate words for a given situation. Knowing this, there are students who will be at a disadvantage in their relationships with others and in the job search without a better vocabulary. This is deeply problematic, especially when you consider that this problem can stretch across generations. The more exposure to more words a child has, including those of his or her parents, the better their vocabulary will be, and the better their children's vocabulary will be, and so on. The study of vocabulary may sometimes be considered overly mechanical or may cross the line into pedantry, but I believe that vocabulary is a critical component in human interaction.
- There are too many people in the world who aren't able to buy this every day:
It's cheap. For us.
In Michigan, we worry about our children developing moral integrity, a critical intellect, and social and emotional maturity -- but in many other places, people worry about themselves and their children eating enough to survive.
Enter http://freerice.com.
Free Rice is (by default) an English vocabulary quizzing game in which the user is faced with a multiple-choice vocabulary question. If she gets it right, she gets to answer a harder question; if she gets it wrong, she must answer an easier question. And so on. The questions feature words that are a part of everyday language; "cloth," "last," "pharmacy," "assistant," "worker," "spine" ... and with every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme. Much of the elegance of this game lies in its simplicity. It requires no engine other than a web browser, and it requires no controller other than a pointer. It is playable on both computers and mobile devices. Its real brilliance lies in its addictiveness. Because the game automatically matches its difficulty the level of the user's skill, it is always a fair match, and it has the ability to grow as the user's skill grows. Its levels range dynamically from 1 to 60, and every student from the beginning reader to the student rounding home on her second Ph.D. will be able to find a challenge here.
Another thing that makes Free Rice such a great tool is its versatility in quizzing on other subjects (http://freerice.com/category). The game offers subjects that range from other languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin) to basic math to chemistry to famous paintings and quotations. Some categories are extremely knowledge-based (Literature, for example), but I believe that to be because the game was created originally for English vocabulary, which is primarily knowledge-based. I found the module on flags of the world to be particularly fun.
There are a few other games (in no particular order) that are also fun and somewhat related to English language arts:
Words With Friends (http://wordswithfriends.com/)
I believe that, as chess is to those who favor competitions of logic and spatial dexterity, Words With Friends (and Scrabble, of course) is the absolute monarch of multiplayer games to those who favor competitions of linguistic familiarity with English in addition to those involving logic and spatial dexterity. Granted, playing a word in WWF doesn't indicate that a player knows how to use this word, but long-term players of the game develop a better understanding of which words exist and how they work at the level of the morpheme. With the creative incorporation of required look-ups for unknown words, a language teacher (English, French, Spanish, etc.) could employ Words With Friends as a powerful and fun vocabulary-learning tool. For teachers who which to de-emphasize the competitive aspect of the game, take a look at this quick description of cooperative Scrabble (http://www.ehow.com/facts_7588017_cooperative-vs-competitive-scrabble.html). See more about the potential benefits of multi-player competitive crossword games here: http://www2.scrabble-assoc.com/Images/Images/ourword07.pdf (NB: read this critically, as its claims are broad and not cited).
Word Ruffle (http://www.wordgames.com/word-ruffle.html)
Sounds like a weird chip. But really, it's a simple (and addictive) version of the sort of game where you have a finite number of letters (5-7, here) and you make as many words out of them as you can within the allotted time for each round (three minutes, here). This game likely assists with word recognition. At worst, it's fun, cognitively engaging, challenging, and both requires and develops skills that are likely to transfer well to Words With Friends or Scrabble.
Semantic Wars (http://www.wordgames.com/semantic-wars.html)
Think fast-paced hangman. Weirdo little creatures attack your castle; defeat them by solving Wheel-of-Fortune/hangman-style puzzles in various categories. This game doesn't really get at vocabulary development as well as the above games might, but it's an engaging, fun little number, and those who have sufficient trivia knowledge may find that it helps with spelling skills.
These are just a few; there are many more word games available at http://www.wordgames.com.
For those kind enough to read this post: What's your favorite word game or literature game? Why do you like it? How might it be helpful to teachers?
Ah, I forgot about Free Rice! I know there was some speculation when it first debuted over how much of the virtual rice actually makes it into the mouths of people who need it. So, thinking back to a past post about Snopes, I present: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/freerice.asp.
ReplyDeleteAnd, charity aside, I still think Free Rice is worthwhile for the vocabulary aims you so eloquently outlined above.
In terms of other literature games, I'm a big fan of the Lit. section of Sporcle (http://www.sporcle.com/games/category/literature). The usefulness varies by quiz, but I think overall anything that gets students (productively) involved in a subject outside of the classroom is a good thing, right? Plus, Sporcle has a ton of different categories, depending on what your subject area is. The trick is just not to get too addicted...
I'm glad that you mentioned Free Rice, Matt, and I was happy that you mentioned the many variations on the game that might make it more broadly useful among the MAC community. It's an intriguing attempt to link game play with pro-social purposes and is worthy of our attention on that front as well as on the educational front more specifically.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Emily I learned about Roots of English from the BBC History site, which is an interesting fusion between a creative task--make up a poem--and an investigation of word roots.
Matt- I always enjoy your creative posts. I had never heard of free rice and so was intrigued by this idea. I was happy to discover that the rice actually does get to those who need it after clicking on Emily's snope link. I think this would be a good game for my son, not only to improve his vocab, but to teach him about the thousands of people around the world who are less fortunate than him.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite word game is Scrabble! I LOVE the competition of it but my lack of a grand vocabulary causes me to be very tricky with my tile placement. For that reason, I enjoy Words with Friends because I sometimes make up words I did not know exist. How nice would it be if Words with Friends gave you the definition after you played a word?! Great post!
I didn't realize Free Rice offered other languages and subjects for practice! Seems like this site just got a little cooler from when I first discovered it a few years ago! I'm going to have to look into these English games a little bit more later! I've played Words with Friends before and I think it would be cool to somehow set this up so that students could play against each other. I remember in Art class during middle school a group of us would always play this game called "Lingo" on one of the computers in the classroom. Besides being completely off task, the game is designed so that a letter is given on a grid and then the player must think of 5 letter words including the letter given. It's not very complex in vocabulary when you're in 7th grade, but it was definitely fun and got us thinking about 5-letter words!
ReplyDeleteAnd like Emily first commented, you can't really go wrong with Sporcle.
I loved free rice. I spent $40 on those GRE flashcards but spent easily 10x as much time on this. I never really considered the reward aspect of the game as we've thought of it in this class, especially since the game has like 3 types. It rewards you with rice like points, it gives you the satisfaction of feeding others, and it makes your level go up. Who doesn't like rising numbers? (Well, maybe not for you list of problem, but as long as women never enter it, I think you'll be ok.)
ReplyDelete__If I had to pick a favorite word game, it might have to be those word jumbles games. Those taught me what anagrams were. They also taught me what an anagram generator was and a little bit about the associated statistics. I cheated at those games pretty badly once I learned about generators. hehe
__Like you commented, I think there really is something to be said for games that don't require much more than a pointer. Like defend the castle, if you have a good idea around a simple interface, you can make people spend so much time on your stuff. Hopefully they can learn along the way.