Teaching English in today's classroom is changing. Rarely do students sit in neat rows, copying spelling words. Instead, they work at an interactive whiteboard or on a computer. They learn in flexible groups and sit at tables. The focus is on the individual's needs. In this new environment, word games are a useful tool in teaching students English and still meeting the demands of the transforming classroom.

Learning Styles
Students have different learning styles: visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social or solitary. Most students learn using a combination of these styles. In an English classroom, appealing to all these learning styles seems almost impossible, but there are simple learning tools that help. Word games are tools that incorporate many of these styles. When students act out words, they are appealing to those who learn through visual, physical and social means. When students play word games using music, they appeal to the aural, verbal, physical and social styles.

Flexible Grouping
Word games are also a tool to encourage flexible grouping. They help divide children into learning groups without argument, embarrassment or a lot of planning on the part of the teacher. The results of the games determine the next grouping for the students. For example, play a word game with synonyms. The students who get 10 points go to the another group that is playing a game with antonyms. The students who do not have a score of 10 points stay in the synonym group and play another game.

Unpacking Standards
One requirement in many of today's English classrooms is to unpack the standards. The key component in unpacking the standards is to make students aware of unfamiliar vocabulary that they may face during standardized testing. Word games are a tool that keeps the interest of the students and familiarizes them with difficult vocabulary. Begin a lesson with a word scramble. Give each group a packet of the new words. Flash a definition on the screen. The first team to match the correct word to the definition gets a point. Continue until all the words are covered. As a bonus, have a lightning round to review; all the definitions go up at once, and the teams scramble to get their words in order.

Activating Strategies
Activating strategies are attention catchers that occur at the beginning of a lesson. Quick word games at the beginning of class are activating strategies. Begin class with a mini-mystery. Put a list of words up on the board that relate to the day's lesson. Let the students guess what the subject of the day will be. Put scrambled sentences on the board that are the key teaching concepts of the day, and time the students as they unscramble the concepts.

Extending and Refining Skills
English classrooms are more focused on higher level thinking skills. At the end of lessons, students extend and refine their skills, using their thinking ability to create, analyze, compare, contrast, classify, category, construct, support and reason. Word games lend themselves to these tasks. To analyze a piece of literature, give students cards with literary terms. Reread a piece of the literature aloud and ask students to hold up the literary term that relates to the passage. If students get the answer correct, they get two points. If they get their answer incorrectly, they have to explain why their answer was incorrect. If they are successful, they get one point.