Spotlight on A.B. Day Scrabble Club

When kindergarten teacher Nancy Mines first started using Scrabble as a teaching tool, she decided to ditch the rule book for a game of her own design. So she laid the tiles out and told them to “make words.”

The youngsters responded enthusiastically, and Mines quickly realized she had a hit on her hands. The kindergartens clamored to “make words,” and Mrs. Mines obliged.

Vaughn (left) and Alonzo (right) deliberate during an ASAP tournament.

A few years later when she heard about ASAP’s Philly Plays Scrabble, knowing full well the educational power of the Scrabble tiles, Mines jumped at the chance to start a Scrabble club at her Germantown public school. Three years later A.B. Day has one of the strongest Scrabble programs in the city, with students who first encountered the game as “make words” now mastering the senior version of the board game.

Mines says that the club – which meets every Wednesday and serves students from third to sixth grade – helps students build their vocabulary and improve their interpersonal skills. “The biggest thing is the collaboration,” says Mines, “they know they have to be good sports.”

Once beyond that barrier, Mines sees Scrabble as a game that can turn young people into “lifelong learners.” She says she feels fortunate to have seen the evidence of that in the growth of her students. Pointing to a group of sixth graders, all of whom she taught as kindergarteners, Mines proudly proclaims that all three are in accelerated classes. “They’re always thinking,” Mines says.

That much is clear from talking to the students.  Sixth-grader Vaughn took so strongly to Scrabble that he decided to teach the game to his entire family. Now two younger siblings play with him in Mines’ club, and Vaughn knows why. “[Scrabble] helps with vocabulary. If you have better vocabulary it makes you seem wiser and it’ll help you go to college,” Vaughn explains.

Fellow sixth-graders Alonzo and Gabriel agree, and all three say they will attend college in the future. No question. For Gabriel it’s just the first step on his way to becoming a brain surgeon.

And although she spends most of her day teaching the most basic concepts to the youngest students, Mines certainly sees the big picture in Alonzo, Gabriel, and Vaughn.

“I want to hear about one of those guys going further someday,” Mines says, “and I think that they will.”