Junior Scrabble is ideal for intermediate to advanced elementary school
students or beginning junior high students in that it helps them spell
English words silently and out loud and increases vocabulary at the same
time. Although the game was originally designed for four students,
actually from two to eight students can play. Each student or pair (if
eight are playing) takes seven letters and lines them up in front of
themselves so everyone else can see them.
The Jr. Scrabble blue board is printed with illustrated words that are
linked together, which helps students read and spell naturally via visual
cues. The first student must put two letters down on the Jr. Scrabble
Board. But the letters must be put down in order; in other words, the
first letters of two words or the first two letters of one word must be put
down over those letters. That student then selects two more letter tiles
from the tile pile. Then the next student repeats the same process, putting
down two letters either at the beginning of a word or continuing other
words.
Students will naturally try to insert their letters anywhere, so the
teacher has to be strict about the order rule: letters can only be put down
from the beginning of a word and proceed from there. The game continues
this way until a word is completely spelled out. When a student completes
a word, the teacher asks the student to say the word and spell it. The teacher can say
to the student, "Please say the word." Once the student has done that,
then the teacher can ask the student, "Please spell the word," or "How do
you spell the word?" Upon complettion of this, the teacher can ask, "How do
you say.......in Japanese?" If the student can read the word, spell it and
tell the teacher what the word means in Japanese, then he/she receives a
token. The student or pair with the most tokens wins the game.
As time goes on, the teacher can assign one of the stronger students to be
the "teacher." And that student can be in charge and ask the students to
read, spell the words and ask what the word is in Japanese.
The suspense always builds when teams are about to complete a word. And
the students or teams are always especially excited as they start
collecting tokens for completed words from the teacher or the student
"teacher."
Junior Scabble is a cozy game to play with classmates, and students learn
how to spell and increase their vocabulary easily and naturally. The
language needed is repetitive, so the players are usually confident after
one game.
On the reverse side of the board is another game entitled "Colors and
Counters." In this game, higher level students (who can spell) can make
their own words which interlock vertically and horizontally.
Both games, which take about twenty minutes to play, are good training for
students to eventually develop the skills necessary for playing Original
Scrabble, the most popular word game in the world.
Helene Jarmol Uchida
Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum
development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan.
She is the director of the Fukuoka-based
Little America English Schools
and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the
LATEM seminars every year
in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book',
an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese
elementary school students.
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