Vocabulary Quest® is a sophisticated, online game for learning vocabulary and spelling. It can be used by students in grades three and above and is also great for adults who want to improve their vocabulary.
This is a beautifully designed game with warriors, swords, and quests to complete. While the player advances to different levels, the play is essentially the same throughout the game: players win by identifying words and their definitions and by spelling them correctly.
More than 1,000 words are included in the game. You can customize those words into your own groups or use the default setup. The publisher says that the included words provide “excellent review for SAT®, ACT®, and GRE (Graduate Record Examination®) tests.”
Students tackle groups of five words at a time, working through preliminary activities before they are ready to battle a monster in the arena game. The preliminaries begin with a flashcard activity to learn the meanings of new words. The flashcards include definitions and example sentences. From the onscreen book about the Land of Vocab, students can read short passages that incorporate their spelling words.
Practice exercises that come next are set up sort of like games; students have a series of exercises: multiple choice, matching, a crossword puzzle, fill in the blanks, type in the word, and a spelling test. All these activities help students become familiar with the five words, their definitions, and how to spell them. Students have to remember the words from their list for the crossword puzzle and the fill-in-the-blank activity, so doing the other preliminary activities helps cement the words in their brains.
Players can skip the preliminary activities and go straight to the arena game if they are confident they already know the meanings of the words. For the culminating battle for each group of words, students are given only definitions and/or synonyms unless they’ve pre-selected the easier-play option (during setup) which shows a word bank during the arena game. Having worked through the preliminary activities makes it easier to quickly come up with the correct answers in the battle, but they still might be hard to recall. The word bank essentially makes the game a multiple-choice activity rather than one that relies solely on memory. So the word bank might prove to be an important feature for some students to prevent frustration.
The game can be customized in many ways. Players can choose the appearance of their avatar. They can select the level of difficulty and time allowed for responses. The lovely, lilting music that plays in the background can be turned on or off.
As players progress, they have even more options. They can join guilds (not with other players) and get special powers and gear. During the battles, hints are available, but they come at a price by lowering the player's score. The game tracks the student’s progress and brings up words for review that were missed previously. The learning management system (being added one level per month in 2024-2025) automatically tracks student progress so it can be viewed by a parent or teacher. While the learning system is being integrated, not all levels are available and the program is available at a lower price. All levels should be available by August 2025.
I know that many students will prefer this approach for learning vocabulary over a workbook.
