In my school, crossword puzzles have come to represent everything that is wrong with education. With a constant emphasis on the Five Dimensions of Teaching, our principal is very clear in saying that crossword puzzles do not fit into any of those five dimensions. Word searches and crossword puzzles do not teach our students anything--they are a waste of valuable class time that could be filled with engaging instruction.
I mostly agree with my principal. She is a very smart lady, and I am very thankful to be under the leadership of someone that works tirelessly to better the academic and social situation of her students. However, I think that there are good ways and bad ways to use any activity. I can get in many more reps of target structures with my students in a 50 minute class period if I engage them in a personalized discussion or class story than if I pop a crossword puzzle in front of them with hints or translations as clues. However, our brains crave novelty and variety, and there are ways that we can use crossword puzzles to variet-ize our lessons.
I created this crossword puzzle template (fully editable and free!) for students to create their own crossword puzzles--they choose the words and create the clues. I am always looking for new ways to review stories and administer assessments, and I think that this is a novel way to do it. You could require the students to write the clues in question or statement form, or leave it open (ex: Which character is smelly? or The name of the smelly character). The words could be target structures or facts from the story (ex: The wolf is sad and ____ (cries) or The ____ (wolf) is sad and cries). You could also use this to review cultural topics that you've studied, or pieces of information from class discussions about anything (ex: which student went to Fairbanks last weekend?). After students create their puzzles, they can trade them with their classmates to "quiz" each other. I can collect them and combine several to create an assessment or review activity for the class, or students could use it as a "Find Someone Who" activity and have multiple classmates work together to complete their puzzle. It would also be a great activity to include in sub plans.
What do you think? Is this wishful thinking--am I deceiving myself into believing that I can turn crossword puzzles into a worthy instructional tool?
