Whiteboard games are an essential tool for any English teacher----teachers can use them to reward a class for good behavior while still teaching essential language and problem-solving skills. These games can be lively, even raucous, and work best when they allow each student in the class to participate.

Ghost
The teacher writes a letter on the board. Students take turns adding new letters to that letter, with the caveat that the first student to add a letter that spells a complete word found in the dictionary loses the round. If the teacher wrote the letter "G" on the board, for example, and a student then wrote the letter "O," that student would lose the round because "GO" is a word found in the dictionary.

All letters added to the board must allow for the eventual spelling of a word found in the dictionary. If the teacher wrote the word "G" on the board, for example, and a student then wrote the letter "X," that student would lose the round because no word in the dictionary begins with the letters "GX."

Students may challenge each other if they believe a letter added to the board will not allow for the eventual spelling of a word found in the dictionary. However, if the contested letter allows for the eventual spelling of a word, the challenger loses the round. For example, if one student challenged another after that student added the letter "N" to the letter "G," the student making the challenge would lose the round because "GNU" and "GNOSIS" are both words found in the dictionary.

The game continues for as many rounds as the teacher wishes. The winning player is the student who lost the fewest rounds over the entire period of play. In large classes, play Ghost in groups of two students at a time, tournament style, or by dividing the class into two groups that take turns adding letters to the board.

Dictionary
The teacher writes an obscure word on the board. The teacher then asks his students to write down what they imagine might be the definition of this word. At the same time, the teacher writes down the actual definition on his own piece of paper. The teacher collects the students' definitions and reads them aloud, mixing in the actual definition somewhere in the process. Students vote on which they believe to be the actual definition. Any students who guess the word's true meaning receives a point, as do any students who receive a vote for their made-up definition. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Any student who knows the definition of the word may whisper it to the teacher before the game begins. If this student is correct, she automatically receives a point.

After each round, the teacher may discuss with the class strategies they might have used to guess the actual definition of the word. Dictionary is a useful game for building vocabulary and writing skills. Students will quickly learn how to write dictionary-style definitions when they can gain points by doing so effectively.

Hangman
The teacher chooses a word from the dictionary but does not reveal the word to her students. Instead, she writes a series of dashes on the board, each representing a letter in the word. Next to the dashes, the teacher draws a scaffold.

Students try to guess the letters in the word. When the students guess correctly, the teacher writes the letter they guessed over the corresponding dash. When the students guess incorrectly, the teacher draws one body part of a hanging man swinging from the scaffold. (The teacher might begin with the man's head, and continue to his torso, arms and legs. If the teacher wishes to give the students more time to guess, she might include details such as mustache, glasses and shoes.)

Students win if they guess the word before the teacher completes the drawing of the hanging man. This game builds vocabulary and can reinforce common word structures.