How To

Make Your Own Word Lists in SketchParty TV

For teachers and parents, one of the best features of SketchParty TV is the built-in Word List Editor.

In addition to being a party game, SketchParty is a wonderful educational tool. People around the world are using the game to teach vocabulary and other subjects. Kids love it because its fun (it's a game, after all!) and teachers can be confident in the classroom value. Some children are "visual learners" who make concepts concrete through drawing.

Much research has been conducted around the efficacy of doodling in learning. See the Resources section at the end for some further reading.

Creating a Word List

There are two recommended methods for creating a word list in SketchParty TV.

• The first is to use the built-in Word List Editor directly; its a light-weight text editor made just for this purpose.
• The other option is to create your word list in your favorite word processor. On the iPad, this might be Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, or Google Docs. Each word or phrase needs to go on its own line, so be sure to hit Enter between each new entry.

  Once you've created your document, simply tap on a blank space near the words in Pages or Docs to make the context menu appear, then Select All and Copy, then Paste into the Word List Editor in SketchParty TV. iOS 11 on iPad also makes it easy to drag and drop between apps.

If you've created your word list on a desktop or laptop computer, you could email or AirDrop the file to iPad or iPhone, preview the file in Mail and copy and paste that way as well.

Be sure to include enough words

The editor displays how many items (words or phrases) you've added in the upper right corner. Be sure to include enough words for the number of players, number of words per turn, and number of turns each player will have. The equation is:

(# of players) x (# of words per turn) x (# of turns per player) = total words

For example, if you'll be playing with 10 players, and each player will need to draw 3 words per turn, and each player gets 2 turns, you'll need at least 60 words to avoid duplicates.

Note: duplicate words are automatically removed in the editor. Duplicates during a single game session will happen if there aren't enough words to cycle through the entire list without using the same word(s) again. Duplicates across multiple game sessions will happen if there aren't enough words to cycle through multiplied by the number of game sessions. E.g. in the example earlier, you would need 120 words available to avoid duplicates across two games, and 180 words to avoid duplicates across three games.

Conclusion

And that's how you make your own word lists in SketchParty TV. You can use this feature as an aid in teaching nearly any subject, including English, natural and life sciences, even math and geometry! We'd love to hear how you're using the Word List Editor in SketchParty TV. Be sure to follow us on Twitter!

Resources

Learning by drawing – Symmetry Magazine

Picturing to Learn project website – https://www.picturingtolearn.org/

Drawing to Learn in Science – Shaaron Ainsworth, Vaughan Prain, Russell Tytler - PDF

Doodling in Math – Khan Academy – https://www.khanacademy.org/math/math-for-fun-and-glory/vi-hart