Using ThoughtMatch in the classroom

A practical guide for secondary, ESL/EFL and college teachers: two ready-made lesson plans, how the game builds word families and spelling, how to run it with a full class, and what to collect for assessment.

By Ansh R. Suryavanshi, creator of ThoughtMatch

What the game practises

ThoughtMatch is an online take on the party word game known as "Contact". One player, the Dener, hides a secret word and shows only its first letter. Everyone else posts clues for other words that start with the revealed letters, and presses Contact! when they think they know the word behind someone's clue. If every contacter matches the clue giver's word, the Dener must reveal the next letter. New to it? Read how to play first.

For a language classroom, each part of a round is a small, focused task:

• Retrieval: students search their memory for words that start with a given string of letters.
• Paraphrase: a clue has to describe a word without using it, or its singular or plural. That's circumlocution, a skill ESL learners need whenever they're missing a word.
• Reading for meaning: to contact, a student reads a classmate's clue and names the exact word, not just the idea.
• Accurate spelling: in the default Dictionary setting, every word must be a real word, spelled correctly.

Prefixes, word families and spelling

The revealed letters are called the prefix, and every clue word has to start with it. As the prefix grows, students are pushed from any word starting with I towards words that share a stem, which makes word families visible on the screen.

Afterwards, put INFORM, INFORMAL and INFORMATION on the board and ask what else belongs in the family: INFORMATIVE, MISINFORM, INFORMANT.

Prefix stages also suit morphology. At PRE, students reach for PREVIEW, PREHEAT and PREDICT, all built on "pre-" meaning before. Then someone offers PRECIOUS, and you can ask whether that "pre" means before too.

Spelling feedback is instant. In Dictionary mode, a student who types RECIEVE at the prefix REC has the word refused and can try again. Keep Dictionary mode on for language lessons; the Any word setting accepts any string of letters, so it would let misspellings through.

Choosing topic-linked secret words

The secret word must be 4 to 15 letters, and a real dictionary word or a common place, day, month, festival or language. That covers almost any unit vocabulary:

• Biology: HABITAT, ORGANISM, PREDATOR, NUCLEUS.
• History: EMPIRE, TREATY, REVOLUTION, PARLIAMENT.
• Geography: ERUPTION, LATITUDE, MONSOON, EQUATOR.
• ESL unit on work: INTERVIEW, SALARY, COLLEAGUE, DEADLINE.

Long words mean longer rounds. Words starting with common pairs like ST, CO or RE give students plenty of clue words; words like ECLIPSE or OASIS are harder. For more on difficulty, see word ideas. If you tell the class the theme, you're using the themed rounds variant from our house rules, which makes it easier.

A 15-minute warm-up

This works at the start of a lesson, with the teacher as host and Dener.

1. Minutes 0 to 3: create a room and write the 6-character room code on the board. Students open the site in a browser and type a first name or nickname. In the lobby, choose 3 rounds, a 3-minute round timer and "host picks" for the next Dener, so you can stay Dener.
2. Minutes 3 to 12: play. Each round lasts 3 minutes at most, so three rounds fit in nine minutes.
3. Minutes 12 to 15: ask each student to write down one word from the game they'd like to use this week, with a sentence.

Pick secret words from last lesson's vocabulary, so the warm-up doubles as review.

A 40-minute vocabulary lesson

1. 0 to 8 minutes, pre-teach: introduce eight to ten unit words with meanings and examples. Tell students the secret words will come from this list.
2. 8 to 11 minutes, set up: students join. Choose 5 rounds and a 3-minute timer.
3. 11 to 27 minutes, play: take the first round as Dener yourself, then hand the role to confident students. They pick from the list, which makes them recall and spell it.
4. 27 to 35 minutes, vocabulary log: students record words revealed during the game (see below).
5. 35 to 40 minutes, exit ticket: each student writes a new clue, under 100 characters, for one word from the list without using the word.

A class of 30 when a room holds 12

A room takes 3 to 12 players. With a class of 30, choose one of these set-ups.

Several rooms at once

Split the class into three groups of 10. One student in each group creates a room, and you write the three codes on the board. Give each host a short word list so their Deners stay on topic, then walk between groups. This gives every student the most turns.

Small teams sharing devices

Put students in ten teams of three, one device per team, with you as Dener on your own device: eleven seats. Teams have to agree before posting or contacting, which gets them speaking. The catch is that you can hear them, and if a team says "it's INSECT!" too loudly, you can break that clue. Students learn to whisper or write on paper.

Teacher as Dener with a projector

Never project the Dener's screen; it shows the secret word. Play as Dener on your phone or tablet, and join the room from the classroom computer as an extra player called "Board". Project that seat so everyone can follow the clues and the 10-second countdown, while small teams play on their devices.

• Don't type clues or contacts on the Board seat. The whole class, and you, can see what's typed there.
• The Board counts toward the 12 seats.
• A shared guess needs every other player to agree within 20 seconds, the Board included. Ask a student scribe to tap Agree or Disagree after a show of hands.

Assessment ideas

Scores reward speed and a bit of luck, so don't grade on the leaderboard. The words a game reveals are better evidence. Broken clues and failed contacts show their words to everyone, and the secret word appears when the round ends.

• Vocabulary logs: a four-column table: word, part of speech, meaning in the student's own words, and an example sentence. Students add three words per game, and the logs build up across a term.
• Clue quality: collect students' best clue from each game. A good clue shows they understand the word, not just recognise it. Peer-rate clues as "would get it" or "too vague".
• Word family charts: after a game like the INFORMATION example, students build out the family with prefixes and suffixes, and note any word the game refused alongside its correct spelling.

Fairness and inclusion

• Turn the timer off for beginners. ESL beginners and slower readers need time to read clues.
• Pair up. Put a less confident reader with a stronger partner on one device, sharing the thinking rather than the typing.
• Choose Deners on purpose. "Host picks" lets you give the role to students who'll enjoy it, and a student who isn't ready can skip their turn while choosing a word.
• Watch for private jokes. Two friends can contact on clues nobody else could read. The Dener can flag a clue once as an inside reference, and the uninvolved players vote on it. That's a useful rule to model with the class.
• Use the give-up vote. If a word is too hard, more than half of the players can vote to give up and the round ends.

For younger groups, our guide to playing with kids has more on easy words and keeping it kind.

Safety and privacy

• No accounts. Students play as guests and only type a name of up to 20 characters. Ask them to use a first name or nickname, never a full name.
• Rude words are blocked as secret, clue and contact words in every word mode. The clue text and names are free writing, though, so set expectations before you start.
• You control the room. As host you can remove a player, who's then blocked from rejoining that room. Only people with the code or link can join, so keep it within the class.
• Check your school's rules on student devices and web tools before the lesson.