| Variants of the game of bingo, usually played with | | | | offers as much benefit as the actual game itself. |
| bingo cards containing words or phrases instead of | | | | Teachers can make the most of bingo in their classes |
| numbers, are increasingly popular in educational | | | | by preparing before class (by which I mean selecting a |
| environments. Many people think of the game as being | | | | vocabulary list, and printing bingo cards using those |
| mainly for K-12 education, for example using sight | | | | words). Additionally, it's usually helpful to review the |
| words (common words that students must learn to | | | | vocabulary list, particularly any difficult words, with the |
| immediately recognize in order to read fluently), or | | | | class before starting the game proper. |
| math bingo, in which students must write in answers to | | | | The first one or two times that you play, you will |
| math problems rather than simply tick off squares. | | | | probably find the game takes a long time, because |
| While it is true that bingo is great for K-12, it turns out | | | | students are still learning the rules - you may even |
| that the game also works very well in English as a | | | | want to have students play in small teams, or allow |
| Second Language (ESL) classes too. | | | | them to help each other. After playing a couple of |
| One thing that many ESL teachers find is that it can | | | | times, the pace will pick up, and you'll be able to fit a |
| take ESL students some time to learn how to play. | | | | game of bingo into a few minutes. Introducing bingo to |
| The reason is of course that unlike native speakers, | | | | ESL lessons can work well, and as well as the direct |
| ESL students are learning the rules and game | | | | educational benefits, if played at end of each class, |
| mechanics in a foreign language. In fact, it may well | | | | can provide students feeling positive, happy, and eager |
| turn out that the process of learning how to play | | | | for the next class. |