Visiting Scrabble champion is a man of his word
By Cynthia Cantrell, Globe Correspondent, 1/17/2002 Eleven-year-old David, a student at Forest Avenue Elementary School,
deferred to his teammates, admitting that his mother wins the majority of
their Scrabble games at home. After lengthy discussion, 10-year-old Sam, a
student at Farley Elementary School, resolved to err on the side of
caution.
''It's probably a word,'' he sighed, resting his head in his hands.
''After all, he's a Scrabble champion!''
It was a good decision: ''Qaid,'' a derivative of ''caid,'' is a Muslim
leader.
The children's challenger, Ben Loiterstein of Somerville, was indeed a
worthy opponent, having won the intermediate division of the national
Scrabble championship in 1998. Now in the expert division, he offered
students a lesson in strategy on Saturday before taking on 12 teams of
three to six students, parents, and teachers simultaneously - and beating
them all by at least 44 points.
Some of the advice Loiterstein shared included forming multiple words
during a turn, using all seven letters on the rack at once to get bonus
points, and planning a turn ahead. As Loiterstein circled the room,
usually taking just a minute at each table to create a word or exchange
undesirable letters for new ones, 11-year-old Max Geist of St. Michael's
Grammar School bemoaned his lack of experience. ''It's kind of hard when
your first game of Scrabble is against someone who plays in tournaments,''
he said. Pat Barry, also a fifth-grader at St. Michael's, said he was
excited to play against one of the best. Brian Mulloney, father of St.
Michael's fifth-grader Patrick Mulloney, was pleased that his son was
applying his vocabulary lessons outside the classroom - and enjoying it.
''I came to root on the kids,'' he said. ''It's great that the library is
having such a nice family event.''
Linda Coldrick, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Michael's, predicted that
Scrabble would become the next addition to her classroom.
''I'm always looking for new ways to get students excited about
spelling and language arts,'' she said. ''Obviously, this works.''
Luna Greenwood, head children's librarian at the Hudson Public Library,
said she was thrilled with the turnout of about 55 children, parents, and
teachers. ''When you do something for the first time, you don't know how
people will respond,'' said Greenwood, who recruited participants through
visits last week to St. Michael's; JFK Middle School; and the Farley,
Forest Avenue, and Mulready elementary schools.
''One of the reasons we targeted this age group is because we don't get
a lot of teenagers in the library. They seem to stick to the Internet for
research,'' Greenwood said. ''It's very satisfying to see them here,
having so much fun. They barely know they're learning.''
Loiterstein, an educational consultant for the National Scrabble
Association's School Scrabble Program, travels to classrooms of fifth- to
eighth-graders across New England free of charge, facilitating the use of
Scrabble as an educational tool. A former fifth-grade teacher at
Brookline's Runkle School, he said the only time his students fought over
a dictionary - or, in some cases, opened one - was when they were playing
the game. ''[Scrabble] gives students an incentive to become good spellers
simply because they don't want to lose. It's also great for teamwork
development, math skills, and strategic thinking, and it can create an
intergenerational learning bond,'' said Loiterstein, who learned to play
Scrabble as a youngster with his grandmother. ''On a personal note, it
pleases me that such a low-tech game can stay popular in this high-tech
age.''
In addition to coaching students on the finer points of Scrabble,
Loiterstein also encourages them to compete in the 2002 New England School
Scrabble Championships on April 27 at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High
School. Online registration for the free event is available at
www.scrabble-assoc.com, but is limited to the first 100 schools, each of
which may send one two-student team.
For Sam, though, one afternoon of Scrabble was enough. ''If I can't
win,'' he said, both fists bulging with popcorn, ''at least I can eat.''
This story ran on page W8 of the Boston Globe on
1/17/2002. |