Student Generated Crossword Project
This project allows students to exercise their brains, use their creativity and practice vocabulary. Students of all levels can do this project
1. Provide the students with a full sheet of paper completely filled with an empty crossword grid. Make the boxes 1/2 inch square - the sheet will be 17 boxes across and 22 boxes long. Make sure to run off extra copies of the grid in case of errors and for a final copy.
2. Students begin to fill in the grid with words from the target language. The teacher should set a minimum number of words. (Fifty total words is a good number for beginning students). All words must read from top to bottom and left to right. If a word needs to be repeated, the student should add another word to keep the assigned minimum of different words. Words that run parallel to other words must match to form words, also.
3. When the student has as many words as he/she want to include, all empty boxes should be shaded in to make the words stand out.
4. Numbering is the next step. This can prove difficult is these directions are not followed. Begin in the upper left hand corner of the grid. Look carefully at each row that runs from left to right. If a given box is the first letter of a word either horizontally or vertically, it receives the number 1. Look carefully at the next box. If it begins a word either horizontally or vertically, it receives the number 2. By looking carefully at each box and only numbering those that begin words the student should be able to successfully number the entire puzzle. While there may be 1 Across, there may not be a 2 Across because all numbers written on a page are consecutive, no repeats. Some numbers, of course, may start a word going across and down.
5. After all numbering is completed, now it’s time to write the clues in the target language. All clues should be written on a separate sheet of paper. Here are some ideas for clues:
* fill in the blank one,___, three (two)
* forms of verbs form of go, he or she (goes)
* opposites opposite of tall (short)
* synonyms big, enormous (huge)
* general description a large, gray animal that
lives in Africa (elephant)
6. Evaluation of this project is based on the following:
- minimum number of words
- puzzle is neat and legible
- numbering is correct
- clues are comprehensible (this is the most important part)
