Crosswords Across Purposes
Design Pattern Tags : Gamification, Personalisation
Crosswords Across Purposes December 2015
Crosswords, such as Puzzlemaker; Educaplay; Crossword Labs (refer to resources/technology) are often used to supplement lectures and engage students with important course concepts and new vocabulary. The crosswords can be applied to pre-test tools, revision tools, and team-building exercise.
Rationale Crosswords orient students to important course concepts.
Learners/Context Crosswords can be very useful in first year courses or anywhere where students need to engage with and practice new vocabulary and concepts; especially where a course has many English as Additional Language (EAL) speakers.
Alignment Crosswords can be very useful in first year courses or anywhere where students need to engage with and practice new vocabulary and concepts; especially where a course has many English as Additional Language (EAL) speakers.Crosswords Across Purposes give students the opportunity to facilitate critical thinking when acquiring important course concepts and new vocabulary.
Instructions/Processes Prior to Semester
Select the important concepts and develop a vocabulary lists.
Vary the levels of your descriptions for the list. Your clues can take many forms, for example:
Multiple choice questions.
Comprehension questions.
Fill in the blank questions.
An equation that needs solving.
A definition that needs completing.
Decide on which crossword (Puzzlemaker; Educaplay; Crossword Labs to deploy for the course:
Puzzlemaker can construct 10 different types of word puzzle and word searches which can be printed.
Educaplay permits images and sounds to be used as well as words. Registration is required but construction of puzzles is currently free.
Crossword Labs offers puzzles that may be printed or saved as Word or PDF files as well as completed online. It has the added benefit that sign up is not required.
Create crossword in the chosen crossword application.
Use crossword URLs to upload to a wiki or forum in the Blackboard for self-study and practice drills.
In class
Ask students to complete the respective crossword.
Crosswords can be used for many purposes:
Pre-tests to gauge levels of knowledge at the start of a course.
Vocabulary training.
Self-testing on concepts.
Competitive fun (working in pairs or groups).
Collaborative fun (making puzzles for other groups to solve).
Extension - Flip the crossword
Students can sign in with Google or Facebook to create their own puzzles (recommended).
Ask students in pairs to create crossword puzzles for each other. Impose simple rules, for example, only words used in the tutorial session (or previous lecture) can be used.
In larger groups, ask teams to brainstorm the puzzle clues and challenge other teams to solve them within a given time limit. This provides elements of both collaboration and competition.
Develop a peer to peer assessment rubric to add an element of competition.
Conditions/Critical Success Factors Knowledge of crossword applications.
Resources/ Technology Related Patterns
