A portion of the faculty at my school has become obsessed with the game Words With Friends, and my fiancé is leading the charge. He first downloaded the game on New Year’s Eve when two of his friends showed it to him. Within a week he’d found two more friends to play with and by late January he was starting conversations with “Do you have an iPhone?” If the answer was yes, the instant follow up was “Have you downloaded Words With Friends?” On several occasions he has then taken the person’s phone, downloaded the app, and set up an account for him/her so the game could begin immediately. Currently, he is simultaneously playing 21 different games and most of his opponents are our co-workers.
Have I mentioned that he is a math teacher?
Yes, the non-reader of the family is exercising his vocabulary with great enthusiasm. With so many resistant readers in my classes, I wonder how teens would respond to this game especially as I overhear teachers talking about words and point totals as they walk through the office or see them covertly playing during faculty meetings. Some schools are purchasing iPads to serve as e-readers for the student population, and if my school did so, I would love to have the opportunity to set up a Words With Friends tournament in my classes.
For those completely unfamiliar with the game, it is a social version of Scrabble. You play online, typically from your phone, which means you can play anytime, anywhere. Games can last for days as users are notified when their opponent has made a play. There is also a chat feature to allow players to communicate with each other. Of course this social aspect is what would draw the teens in and the challenge and drive of competition is what would keep them hooked. We’re more apt to learn if we’re having fun while doing so. The only other way I’ve gotten students excited about vocabulary in the past was through the website www.freerice.com , a United Nation’s sponsored site that will donate 10 grains of rice for every question you get correct. The kids become obsessed with seeing the rice bowl fill with grains that they forget that they are learning. Words With Friends could have the same effect; helping them not only improve their vocabularies but also develop math, strategy, and problem-solving skills as they have to carefully select tile placements to be the most advantageous for points and blocking opponent’s moves. They can play as many games at a time as they want, and with all of tricky two-letter words, triple word scores, and multitude of word possibilities, they’ll be learning and having F-U-N (8 points, if you're keeping score).
A few Words with Friends resources:
“A Beginner’s Guide to Words With Friends” OS X Reality 1 Jan. 2010. http://aasl.metapress.com/content/n58189jm02h42r51/
The Unofficial Fan Site for Enthusiasts of Words With Friends
The Unofficial Stat Site for Fans of Words With Friends
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