English Game: Thematic Scrabble (TheScrab)

Thematic Scrabble (TheScrab)

by H. Nasrullah

INTRODUCTION

THEMATIC SCRABBLE (THESCRAB) is a vocabulary game played by students in a group of 3 or 4. It is modified from conventional scrabble, in which it is played based on a certain theme, such as Scrabble of Adjective, Scrabble of irregular Verbs, etc.

HOW TO PLAY IT

• prepare a piece of paper for each group, draw matric (lines) on it consisting of sixteen boxes in horizontal and vertical as well, 
• put the students in groups of four, then they decide their turn: who is the first, the second, etc. 
• each student holds a marker with different colors, to ensure they write with different colors.
• the teacher decides a topic, whether the scrabble of animal, flower, or of adjectives, noun, past verbs, irregular verbs, etc. 
• then, the students play based on the relevant topic. 
• Therefore, in the middle of the matric, the teacher writes a password vertically, for example: BEAUTIFUL, if the topic is "adjective."
• the students play it by means of one letter of the word early written. 
• the student is scored based on the number of the words they wrote, for instance: he/she wrote HANDSOME, so he/she got score: 8
• In a certain circumstance, the score could be doubled or tripled. if the player is able to bridge 2 letters from 2 available (existed) or triple score for bridging 3 letters of 3 available words altogether.
• the winner of the game is determined by those who got the highest score and the quickest to stop it.
• the next step after the game, students can make use of the words to compose sentences, and the sentences finally become a text. The teacher guides the students to compose a text, for example, descriptive, recount, etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GAME

The game is on the basis of a certain topic or theme. There are some similarities as well as the difference between TheScrab and conventional Scrabble:

-         using matrix 

-         used for vocabulary 

-        played in a group of 3 or 4 

-         the winner is those who got the highest score 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCRABBLE AND THESCRAB

Scrabble	TheScrab
the use of dice	the use of colorful board marker
the use of  scrabble board	the use of white paper drawn with lines of boxes  or matrix 15 x 15
each player may use only 7 dices or as per agreement	no limitation on the use of letter, except as limited by the box
there are double letter, double word, triple word as written on the scrabble board	the double score is obtained if the player is able to bridge 2 letters from 2 available (existed) or triple score for bridging 3 letters of 3 available words altogether
no topics or themes	the game is on the basis of a certain topic, e.g.: scrabble of animal, scrabble of adjectives, scrabble of past verbs

   EXAMPLE OF TheScrab

A

C

C

O

M

P

A

N

I

E

D

C

C

O

P

M

A

S

K

E

D

O

S

A

D

V

E

R

T

I

S

E

D

A

V

T

E

R

A

S

E

D

E

R

L

D

A

B

O

L

I

S

H

E

D

S

O

E

W

L

B

A

N

D

A

G

E

D

D

D

 *the player who wrote ALLOWED was scored double since he/she bridged ERASED and ABOLISHED

Those who are interested in trying to implement this game may contact me...