3 games in a blog by Larry Ferlazzo up for review

Larry Ferlazzo's  "Best of"series

After reading through his list and getting to the section of gaming, and choosing the games from the list on The Best Learning Games For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s  I choose the only three games available  Headline Clues, Wordmaster, and Free Rice. 

Headline Clues is a cloze activity where the student needs to read a lead paragraph of a news article then try to file in the title of the article using the contextual clues in the paragraph.  The titles are presented with the first letter of each missing word present and the student needs to type in the word missing.    This game can be useful in an ESL classroom.  To improve this game I would also use the reverse, with the title complete and the lead paragraph missing select words.   

Wordmaster is another cloze word game where the student is given a sentence and is asked to input the correct word.  This game is very useful in the ESL classroom; it allows for students to improve spelling and vocabulary.  To improve this game further I would have multiple options / alternate options for each word.  This would allow students to learn synonyms.    

Free Rice  is meaning definition game where the student is presented with a word and has to select the correct answer as a reward they donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme.  This is a useful game that can be used in the ESL classroom as a way to motivate students to learn word definitions.  To improve on this game further would be for the students to be able to receive a list of the incorrect words along the frequency of errors.