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This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]On: 18 November 2014, At: 02:17Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Education 3-13: International Journalof Primary, Elementary and Early YearsEducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rett20
Primary grade students engage increative word play through traditionaland hands-on methodsAngela Naomi Webba, Audrey C. Ruleb, Adrianna D. Cavanaughb &Angel Munsonb
a Department of Primary Grades Education, Poyner ElementarySchool, Evansdale, IA, USAb Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University ofNorthern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USAPublished online: 16 Oct 2012.
To cite this article: Angela Naomi Webb, Audrey C. Rule, Adrianna D. Cavanaugh & Angel Munson(2014) Primary grade students engage in creative word play through traditional and hands-onmethods, Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education,42:5, 528-541, DOI: 10.1080/03004279.2012.732594
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2012.732594
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Primary grade students engage in creative word play through traditional
and hands-on methods
Angela Naomi Webba, Audrey C. Ruleb*, Adrianna D. Cavanaughb andAngel Munsonb
aDepartment of Primary Grades Education, Poyner Elementary School, Evansdale, IA, USA;bDepartment of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA,USA
(Received 14 August 2012; final version received 14 September 2012)
Word play is an important skill allowing product names, show titles, jokes, poetryand other writings or orations to be interesting, entertaining and well-remembered. This pretest–posttest counterbalanced study compared two instruc-tional approaches for teaching second and third grade students (n ¼ 71) wordplay skills. Students at a public elementary school in Iowa, United States studiedvowel patterns and rhyming as part of the regular school curriculum for literacythrough two conditions: a traditional format of reading, pocket charts, work-sheets and oral discussion; versus a more concrete approach of arranging objectsand corresponding word cards in a chart-like formation. There was no significantdifference in student performance between the conditions but an attitude surveyindicated that a large majority of students preferred the object boxes forunderstanding of word play concepts and task enjoyment.
Keywords: word play; creativity; primary age students; curriculum; riddles; hands-on
1. Introduction
Creative word play is a skill employed by poets, songwriters, inventors, advertisersand most writers to make their work more memorable, entertaining and interesting.Creators of popular products such as the popcorn snack called Crunch ‘n Munch1,the soft drink Mellow Yellow1, the limited-calorie frozen food line Lean Cuisine1
and the chocolate peanut-butter candy named Reese’s Pieces1, use rhyme to maketheir goods less likely to be forgotten. Similarly, words or phrases that employ thesame consonant beginnings and endings, but with different vowel sounds insertedform intriguing product names such as the chocolate cookie bar Kit Kat1, the candybreath mints named Tic Tacs1, and the sounds clip clop, tick tock and ding dong.The popular giant ape book and movie character, King Kong, and other commonwords such as knick knack, mishmash, hip-hop, chit-chat and flimflam also followthis vowel change pattern. Clearly, word play can be an effective way of grasping thereader’s attention.
Our study, which took place at a public school in Iowa, United States, examinedhow two word play language skills that support creative writing – rhyming and
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
� 2012 ASPE
Education 3–13, 2014Vol. 42, No. 5, 528–541, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2012.732594
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vowel change – can best be taught to young, primary grade students (ages 7–10years). Other word play techniques such as alliteration (repetition of initialconsonant sounds as in ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’), assonance(repetition of vowel sounds such as ‘How now, brown cow?’), homophones (wordsthat are pronounced the same, spelled differently and have different meanings suchas see and sea or write and right) or words with multiple meanings are also involvedin word play, but were not addressed by the current study.
In this article, we first explain the importance of word play followed bydescriptions of the two word play instructional conditions (traditional versus hands-on object box approaches) that were compared in this study. Then, we describe theunique creative drawing activity (figural transformations) in which students engagedto demonstrate their word play abilities by giving titles to their drawings. Theresearch questions are subsequently provided and the methodology of the study isexplained. Results and discussion of the findings are presented next, ending withconclusions.
1.1. Importance of word play
Word play can add humour to a product, title or piece of writing, motivating theconsumer. Word play was found to be one of the six main ways an effective lecturerentertains an audience (Nesi 2011). It can stimulate students to remember newvocabulary and to search for words that have the most appropriate shade of meaningfor their purpose (Whitaker 2008). Word play can also help students develop theirmetalinguistic awareness, the ability to dissect language as an objective codeindependent of meaning (Zipke 2008), that supports reading decoding andcomprehension. This is especially important for English language learners, forwhom word play can unlock new comprehension of the complexities of English(Lems 2011). In a study of college students, Wang (2012) found that creativity scoresin general, but especially the measure of elaboration, correlated with positive attitudetoward and time spent on reading and writing. Word play, a particularly creative,motivating aspect of writing, may contribute to this connection. In an essayexploring the assumptions underlying the possibility of children being creative,Glaveanu (2011, 130) ‘argued for considering children as active and creative beings,developing forms of creative expression in interaction with adults and through playand experimentation with cultural artifacts’. Early exploration of creative word play,as engaged in by the 7- to 10-year-olds in this study, may lead to later inspiredwriting accomplishments.
In addition to more simple exercises of matching rhyming words and pairingwords related by a vowel change, students grappled with word play riddles in both ofthe instructional conditions. The traditional condition presented a two-word clue fora two-word answer in which (1) the words rhymed and referred to one item (a hinkpink) or (2) were the same except for a change in vowel (vowel change word pair).Each word of the clue was a synonym for the corresponding word in the answer. Theformat of riddles was similar in the hands-on conditions, except an appropriateobject was provided for each riddle and the clue was printed on a word card with itsanswer on the back. Riddles provide engaging practice for several reasons (Zipke2008). Most children have heard riddles before and enjoy guessing the answer. Theyare short units of meaning and therefore do not present an onerous reading orcomprehension task. Finally, riddles increase student attention and effort because
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the student wants to solve it to discover and enjoy the clever or humorous answer(Berk 2002). The next two sections describe the two instructional conditions thatwere compared in this study, the traditional method and the more hands-on objectbox approach.
1.2. Traditional methods of teaching word play
Educators have long utilised teacher-centred approaches for reading and word playinstruction. One traditional strategy is using trade books to teach a reading concept,such as rhyming. Rhyming poems are often short, making them easy to read morethan once to increase fluency with practice (Rasinski, Rupley, and Nichols 2008).Rhyming books like Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) and A Light in the Attic (1981)by Shel Silverstein are popular choices for teaching the concept of rhymes. In thisstudy, both Silverstein books were used. The initial story from the Madeline (1939)children’s picture book series by Ludwig Bemelmans and several others in this seriesalso provided a variety of rhymes as an additional resource.
Pocket charts (classroom charts with clear vinyl pockets into which index cardsor sentence strips with printed letters or words can be inserted) with word cardactivities like identifying the beginning, middle and end of a one-syllable word havebeen used to teach phonemic awareness for years (Manyak, 2008). During thetraditional condition of this study, students had access to a pocket chart with lettercards. They were given the beginning and ending letters, and asked to put a vowel inthe middle to complete a word.
In traditional classrooms, a common pedagogical technique centres on the teacherexplaining a concept with students listening and then participating as appropriate topractice the idea. Generally, students engage in additional practice using writtenworkbook or worksheet exercises to reinforce the concepts. Such whole classroomdiscussions and written exercises were also used in the traditional condition of thisstudy. The next section describes the instructional approach used in the secondcondition of the study that was then compared to the more traditional approach.
1.3. Hands-on object box activities
The hands-on materials used in the second condition of this study constituted anontraditional approach to teaching in which small groups of students workedtogether to pair objects with word cards, words formed of letter cards or riddles toshow relationships. The instructional materials were sets of objects (doll housefurniture, plastic animals and other toys) and corresponding word cards, letter cardsor riddles were housed in plastic shoeboxes – ‘object boxes’. This type of curriculummaterial was first developed by Montessori (1964) who believed that the hand guidesthe mind – handling objects representing ideas helps the student focus attention onthe concept being learned (Lillard 2005). Arranging the objects and cards to showrelationships provides a visual representation of the idea, allowing students toreorganise their knowledge according to new principles (Montessori 1976). Thistactile-visual approach used in the second condition of this study contrasts with themore traditional approach that included no objects and fewer word or letter cards tomanipulate.
Several studies have confirmed the efficacy of using object boxes to teach avariety of language skills (Long and Rule 2004; Rule and Barrera 2003; Rule,
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Dockstader, and Stewart 2006; Rule, Stewart, and Haunold 2005). The sets ofrhyming and vowel change materials used in this study had been used previously inseveral classrooms with positive results.
1.4. Figural transformations
All study participants engaged in a unique drawing activity as a pre-post activity toprovide a context for labelling drawings with titles, thereby providing theopportunity to exhibit word play. This drawing activity involved figural transforma-tion, an activity similar to those found on a widely used creativity test, the TorranceTest of Creative Thinking – Figural (Torrance, Ball, and Safter 1992). In thisactivity, students were presented with a simple figure (a geometric shape or squigglyline) that they transformed into a picture of an object or scene by adding additionallines and shading. Torrance originally developed the test to evaluate students in theareas of: fluency (generating many ideas to complete many figural transformations),elaboration (adding details to the drawings) and originality (thinking of ideas seldomsuggested by others), but later added abstractness of titles. According to Torrance(1990), abstractness of titles goes beyond simple labelling to include descriptivewords and abstractions. The current study examined the titles children assigned totheir figural transformation drawings for word play.
Students in the current study were given a printed sheet of paper divided intonine rectangular boxes as a pretest–posttest activity. Each box contained a differentgeometric shape or squiggly form. Students were asked to add lines or shading tothese figures to transform them into pictures of their choice and then to label eachdrawing with a unique title that showed word play.
1.5. Research questions
Now that both of the instructional conditions that will be compared through thisstudy have been described and the figural transformation activity has been explained,the following research questions that guided this study are provided:
(1) Are both the traditional method and the hands-on object box activitiesequally effective in teaching these word play concepts?
(2) Do students prefer one method of teaching and learning over the other?(3) What kinds of word play will students be able to generate as titles for their
figural transformation drawings?
2. Method
The pre- and posttest research design was counterbalanced with two differentconditions for rhyming and vowel change word play: a traditional condition and ahands-on object box condition.
2.1. Participants
The sampling subjects in this study were 71 elementary students from a low socio-economic (57% receiving free or reduced-cost lunches) elementary school in Iowa,USA. The participants consisted of 19 second grade students (14 female, 5 male) and
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52 were third grade students (28 female, 24 male). The second grade class wasrandomly divided into two groups, while each of the two mixed-ability third gradeclassrooms was used intact as a group. This study was approved by the humansubjects committee at the researchers’ university, the participating public schooldistrict, and through written assent by all participants and their parents or guardians.
Second and third grade students (ages 7–10 years) were chosen for the studybecause the phonics and phonemic awareness concepts addressed by this study werepart of the state standards for literacy curriculum at these grade levels (IowaDepartment of Education, 2011). Although they had been exposed to these languageconcepts earlier in school (as kindergarten and first graders), they were judged to beat a level at which they could begin to ‘play’ with the concepts.
2.2. Study design
The study examined the effect of two different conditions: (1) using worksheets,books, and word and letter cards in pocket charts on the learning of creative wordplay skills; compared to (2) using hands-on materials consisting of objects and wordor letter cards that were arranged by the student to form a chart-like arrangement.The study focused on these two creative word play skills: (1) rhyming words or hinkpinks (two rhyming words that refer to the same object or situation such as pinksink) and (2) vowel change word pairs or families (words with the same consonantsounds, but different vowel sounds such as can-cane or tap-tip-top).
Each group experienced two units of lessons, one in the traditional condition andone in the hands-on object box condition as shown in Table 1. Each unit consisted ofseven lessons taught for 15–20 min each day for a total of 14 lessons in the study.Table 2 lists the types of activities for each condition.
Figure 1 presents objects from the rhyming pairs set of rhyming words withdifferently spelled endings: snail-whale, candle-sandal and float-note. Figure 2 showshink pink riddles printed on cards (answers were printed on the back) andcorresponding objects. The hink pink answers that correspond to the objects are‘sheep leap’, ‘thick stick’ and ‘fish dish’. A vowel change word family (hat-hit-hot-hut) and corresponding objects are displayed in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows riddlesinvolving vowel change with corresponding objects. The short-long vowel changeriddle answers are: tap tape, tot tote and stripe strip.
2.3. Instrumentation
There were two different pre- and posttests administered. The first pretest–posttestinstrument was a content assessment consisting of two parts, each with three
Table 1. Study set-up.
Grade Number ofSex
Rhyming and hinkGroup level students M F pink unit Vowel change unit
Group A 2nd 10 3 7 Hands-on object boxactivities
Traditional worksheetbook or pocket chart3rd 25 12 13
Group B 2nd 9 2 7 Traditional worksheetbook or pocket chart
Hands-on objectbox activities3rd 27 12 15
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questions. The questions from the first part focused on: rhyming word pairs withendings spelled the same; rhyming word pairs with endings spelled differently; andhink pinks with a drawing or description of corresponding item. The questions forthe second part addressed vowel change and consisted of: word pairs that showedshort to long vowel changes; and two words that described one item and were relatedby a vowel change, along with a description or drawing. The last vowel changequestion asked students to give an example of a vowel change word family of at leastthree words. Each question was worth two points, for a total of six possible points oneach of the two parts, or 12 points in total for the assessment.
The second pretest–posttest activity was the figural transformation page withnine different simple geometric shapes of figures on it: a star; a seven-sided figure
Table 2. Types of activities.
Word play Condition Types of activities
Hink pinks Traditional Reading books of poetry or verses that rhymeCompleting rhyming worksheets to match or supply rhyming
words.Large group discussions of generating words that rhyme.Hink pPink riddle worksheets in which a two word clue was
given and the student supplied a two-word rhyming answerthat was synonymous with the clue (e.g., clue: ‘‘‘scaryevening’’’; answer: ‘‘‘fright night’’’).
Hands-onobject box
Boxes of rhyming objects with corresponding word cards to bepaired; some rhymes spelled the same (e.g., clown, frown),others spelled differently (e.g., snail, whale). Written work:generate three more rhyming pairs with endings spelled thesame, then with endings spelled differently.
Hink Pink riddle boxes with objects and matching clues (e.g.,clue: false dessert; answer: fake cake corresponding to achild’s toy plastic cake). Generate two more hink pinkriddles.
Vowelchange
Traditional Pocket chart with word parts written on sentence strips wherestudents place missing vowels in the blanks (e.g. h¤t ¼ hat,hit, hot, hut)
Completing vowel change worksheets to place a vowel to finisha word that corresponds to the given picture.
Large group discussion in which students were given a shortvowel word and asked to supply the long vowel partner(e.g., tot, tote).
Hands-onobject box
Vowel change sets with objects and matching word cards forword families (e.g., p¤t ¼ pat, pet, pit, pot). Generate anew word family of at least three words in which the vowelchanges.
Environmental print cards and corresponding images for shortvowel word families (e.g., p¤g ¼ peg, pig, pog, pug).
Box of object pairs related by long short vowel changes (e.g.,can, cane). Generate two new word pairs that are related byvowel changes.
Set of objects and clue cards for short and long vowel changeriddles (e.g., clue: jet schedule; answer: plane plancorresponding to a airline boarding pass). Generate twonew vowel change riddles.
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with two parallel lines through the centre; two isosceles triangles; a small dark bloband a larger gray blob with a reentrant gap; a shape with three steps; a knoblikefigure made of two cylinders; three rectangular prisms placed to form an arch; twoconcentric circles and a squiggly blob resembling seaweed. Each figure was assessedfor the presence of word play in the title or riddles similar to those experiencedduring the lessons.
Students were also given an attitude survey consisting of two questions. The firstquestion asked students which way of practicing word play helped them learn therhymes or vowel change patterns better. They were given two choices to mark: onefor object boxes and the other for worksheets, pocket charts and books. Eachstudent was asked to list three reasons for his or her response. The second questionasked students which way of practicing the rhymes or vowel change patterns was themost enjoyable. Again, students could choose between the object boxes or the
Figure 1. Rhyming objects and word cards.
Figure 2. Hink pink riddles.
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worksheets, pocket charts and books. Each student was asked to list three reasonsfor his or her response.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Pretest–posttest results
Table 3 shows the mean pretest, posttest and gain scores for the content assessment.The pretest indicated students had some knowledge of rhyming, but virtually no
knowledge of vowel change word play, although his concept had been introducedpreviously in earlier grades. This finding indicates the difficulty of students attendingto vowel sounds and the need for additional exercises to build a stronger foundationin this area. Posttest scores for students learning rhyming skills under bothconditions were very close. A t-test conducted on the posttest scores for rhyming
Figure 3. Vowel change word family.
Figure 4. Vowel change riddles.
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showed no significant difference (p ¼ 0.45). Posttest results for students learningvowel change skills under the two conditions were not as similar as those pertainingto rhyming. A t-test showed that the vowel change posttest scores between the twoconditions were not significantly different at the alpha equals 0.05 level (p ¼ 0.14).Student gain scores show significant improvement through the lessons in bothconditions.
Other longer-term studies (Rule and Barrera 2003; Rule, Dockstader, andStewart 2006; Rule, Stewart, and Haunold 2005) have shown an academic advantagefor the object boxes. Work with objects may initially distract students from focusingon the concepts to be learned because of the novelty of this approach and theresemblance to of the objects to toys. However, when object boxes are used for alonger time period (a few months rather than the three weeks of the current study),students become accustomed to work with objects, engaging less in unrelated playand attending more to the academic concepts they represent.
3.2. Student preferences
On the survey, students reported better perceived learning and more enjoyment withobject boxes compared to the traditional approach of worksheets, pocket charts andbooks. Out of 71 students, 60 stated they learned better using object boxes and 57reported that they enjoyed the object boxes more than the traditional approach, asindicated in Table 4. The most frequent reasons given for favouring the object boxeswere enjoyment of this technique of learning, easiness, the opportunity for partnerwork, the play-like quality of the work, the sense of improving reading skills, thematching activities, the riddles and the limited required writing. Students whopreferred the more traditional approach to learning these skills most frequently gavethe reason of feeling they were developing their reading skills. The positive responsesfrom students to the object box work indicate the high level of motivation they felt inworking with these materials. This finding, coupled with the fact that there were nosignificant differences in learning between the two conditions, indicates that teachersshould incorporate more hands-on object box-like activities into their instruction.
3.3. Word play in figural transformation titles
There were only four instances of vowel change in the titles. For example, onestudent added lines to the stair-shaped figure to make a cube and labelled it ‘cub-
Table 3. Mean pretest and posttest scores.
Group ConditionWord play
skill
Meanpretest
score (SD)
Meanposttest
score (SD)
Meangain
score (SD)
A Traditional Rhyming andhink pink
1.49 (1.5) 4.01 (1.8) 2.53 (1.8)B Hands-on object
boxes1.28 (0.9) 3.99 (1.5) 2.71 (1.5)
A Hands-on objectboxes
Vowel change 0.01 (0.1) 3.17 (1.9) 3.17 (1.9)
B Traditional 0.00 (0.0) 3.64 (1.8) 3.64 (1.8)
Note: Scores out of six possible points on each skill area.
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cube’, indicating that it was a cube-shaped ‘cubbie’ or open storage cube; anotherstudent made the figure with two triangles into a triangular can and a triangle-tippedcane for ‘can and cane’. All of the vowel change drawings were made by studentswho learned vowel change skills through the object box condition.
In contrast, there were 167 instances of rhyming and hink pink riddles in the titlesgiven to figural transformations. Rhyming was an easier concept for the students toapply, particularly because it is often emphasised in school through read-alouds ofrhyming text in many children’s books. Students showed prior knowledge ofrhyming on the pretest, but did not demonstrate knowledge of vowel change at thattime. Because students were more familiar with rhyming, they likely decided to usethis type of word play exclusively. For many children, identification of vowel soundis a difficult task that requires more extended practice than was offered through thelessons in this study. Students need to reach a level of proficiency with a conceptbefore creative production can occur; this may have been the situation regardingthe paucity of vowel change word play. Figures 5 and 6 present examples ofhink pink rhymes produced by students. All of the rhymes shown here wereoriginal to the students and not rhymes encountered during the instruction. Studentsenjoyed making the figural transformation drawings and labelling them with wordplay titles. This indicates that figural transformation should have a place inclassroom practice of language skills, as these allow quick opportunities for creativeexpression.
Thirteen attempts at creating hink pink riddles (with clues and answers ratherthan labels containing two rhyming words) were made with six of these being
Table 4. Student reported preferences and reasons.
Reason
Number of students giving preference and reasons
Objectboxes
preferredfor learning(n ¼ 60)
Worksheets,pocket charts,books preferredfor learning(n ¼ 11)
Objectboxes
preferred forenjoyment(n ¼ 57)
Worksheets,pocket charts,books preferredfor enjoyment
(n ¼ 14)
It was fun or enjoyable 33 1 46 3The work was easy 22 1 21 4Partner work was involved 22 0 16 1Helped me be a better reader 14 8 6 5I enjoyed the rhyming 11 4 3 1It was like play 11 0 14 1There was only a little writing 9 0 12 0I liked matching 9 0 5 1I liked the riddles and clues 4 0 5 0It was very visual 4 0 1 0The activity was hands-on 3 0 1 0It was challenging 1 1 1 1I learned new vocabulary 1 1 0 0I liked the writing 1 0 1 1New activities 0 1 0 0Quiet activity 0 0 0 1I liked the vowel change work 0 0 1 0It was creative 0 0 1 0
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completely correct. Three of these were generated by a student who practicedrhyming in the traditional condition, while the remaining 10 examples were fromstudents who practiced rhyming using the object boxes. This may be an indicationthat the hands-on materials inspired students more to create riddles and to gobeyond the required assignment of generating titles with word play. Four examplesof student hink pink riddles are shown in Figure 7. Clearly, these students enjoyedthe riddle nature of the exercises so much they spontaneously decided to createriddles of their own. As explained in the Introduction section, riddles are an effectivemeans of capturing student attention and practicing high levels of thinking; their usein the classroom should be increased.
The rhyming exercises presented a developmental sequence of work. Manystudents produced titles with rhyming pairs of otherwise unrelated words for apicture that only showed one of the two words (75 instances). There were a fewsituations in which students drew two unrelated pictures side by side that representedrhyming words (four instances). See Figure 8 for examples: the top two drawingsshow only one of the two rhyming words from the title; and the bottom twodrawings show both unrelated rhyming words side by side. However, it seems thatonce a student was able to mentally connect the two rhyming words, he or sheproduced a drawing that showed a true hink pink in which the rhyming wordsreferred to one object or scene (88 instances). Therefore, this study shows that manystudents were able to reach this level of proficiency. A few (13 instances) wentbeyond drawing a hink pink representation to composing a riddle with clue and
Figure 5. Rhyming hink pink transformations made by students.
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Figure 6. Rhyming hink pink transformations made by students.
Figure 7. Hink pink riddle transformations made by students.
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answer, demonstrating more advanced thinking. Sharing of student work that showsthe higher stages of thinking might help students move to the next level. We did notdo this during our study because the posttest occurred so close to the end of theschool year. However, when this instructional unit is taught again, we plan toincorporate additional sharing of student ideas.
4. Conclusion
The object boxes were preferred for understanding and enjoyment by most studentsand produced comparable learning results to traditional methods. Therefore,educators can use object boxes to offer variety from traditional teaching approaches.Many students with special needs perform better when using concrete, tactile, hands-on materials (Scruggs and Mastropieri 2007); object boxes offer this advantage.
Figural transformation drawings offer the opportunity for students to expresstheir creative ideas and were successful in this study in eliciting word play. Althoughthe researchers did not evaluate the drawings for other creative aspects, such asemotional expressiveness, storytelling articulateness, movement or action, humour,fantasy, and unusual or internal visualisation, lessons focused on these skills andevaluation of the outcomes could be conducted. Such a focus on other creativeaspects of the drawings would allow students to integrate creative thinking withacademic content such as the rhyming and vowel change phonics skills in the currentstudy.
Figure 8. Non-hink pink rhymes made by students.
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The authors suggest that teachers using these activities consider requiringstudents to attempt hink pink riddles rather than merely asking for titles that showword play. Several students in the current study, on their own initiative, producedhink pink riddles with clues and answers. This extra step required higher orderthinking of taking another’s perspective to construct an effective clue. Additionally,because the concept of vowel substitution is more difficult for students, the authorsadvise that more instructional time be devoted to practice of this skill. Other wordplay skills might also be addressed through instruction such as alliteration,assonance, homophones and words with multiple meanings.
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