I think we can all agree that teaching students how to use context clues is important. I spend a lot of time on context clues in all of my classes, especially my lower proficiency level classes, but I have long had two recurring frustrations. The majority of context clues practice activities are made for young learners, and they almost always use nonsense words. Those two things are show-stoppers for me and my older language learners, particularly my beginning-level students.
Over the years, I’ve developed several different activities for my older students (middle school and up) that practice context clues that use actual English words:
- Academic Vocabulary Connect Four
- Contranym Context Clues
- Kangaroo Words
- Pirate Vocabulary Treasure Hunt
- and others
These games are all wonderful in their own right, and we play them quite often, but I wanted something even more fun. Inspired by a game of Balderdash, I decided to make a context clues board game in which players would define real words that even native speakers weren’t likely to know.
I started by searching for names of objects that few, if any people knew had names at all. Once I had compiled a list of them, I checked each word by looking it up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Not surprisingly, a few of the words had to be eliminated from my list because they have either been removed from our modern dictionary or were never recognized in the first place. You can download a free copy of my final list via the Whatchamacallit Glossary below.
The hardest part of the game creation process was the same as it always is: writing an example sentence for each of the 32 words remaining on my list. This time it wasn’t that I had to use the same word(s) over and over again, but that I needed sentences that would give enough clues about the meaning of the words so students could guess it without actually giving the definition. I wanted the sentences to be challenging enough to keep the game interesting but not so challenging that my students became discouraged. Consequently, the sentences ended up being a bit longer than I would normally write for this type of activity.
After creating my playing cards with the sentences, I made sure to number them. This allows me to use the cards, along with the recording sheet I created, as a scoot activity and not just a board game. Game/activity versatility is important to me because the composition of my classes changes so frequently. I don’t want to be locked into a specific format or type of activity if it won’t be the most effective for a particular group of students.
I added in a copy of my standard zig-zag game board, some place markers, and six-sided dice, and we were ready to play. I tested the game with several different groups of students and found it worked with all of them, though my lowest proficiency students really struggled with it. The sentences were a little too linguistically complex for them, and a few became frustrated. I wasn’t surprised when my intermediate students gave their approval to the game, but I was a bit concerned about my advanced students. I was afraid it would be too easy and they would be bored. I was wrong. The game was easier for them, but they still had to think about many of the words and thought it was fun to learn vocabulary their native English-speaking friends wouldn’t know.
My students’ final assessment of the game was it was fun and something they’d like to play again. My advanced students asked if I’d make them copies of the glossary and came back the next week with stories of impressing friends with their extensive vocabulary knowledge. Hopefully, your students will like the game just as much. Happy teaching, everyone!
Here’s the glossary download I mentioned:
If you don’t have time to make your own context clues game, try out one of mine:
Need digital versions of the games? I have those, too:
Or get a bundle with all of the games at a 20% discount:
The Gaming Grammarian 