Games can be a very strong
motivator for students in school. By “gamifying” your
classroom, you can use game elements
such as challenges, feedback, levels, creativity, and rewards to motivate your students
to learn, and master concepts. If you "gamify" your classroom, your students
may benefit from increased motivation and engagement.
Students are learning
while having fun
+ Teachers can
remediate or enrich in a game format
It’s a Win-Win!
Keep reading to learn
about three easy steps to gamifying your classroom.
STEP 1: ASSESS YOUR STUDENTS
Identify your students’ trouble spots: Pinpointing
student trouble spots will help you determine the best gamification strategies
for your classroom.
For example, if
you notice PowerPoint presentations cause your students to not pay attention, add interactive elements.
STEP 2: DEFINE LEARNING GOALS
Set learning and behavior
goals: To
gamify education, you need learning (remediation
or enrichment) and behavior goals that address the areas you identified. I don’t mean
behavior goals as if a student is misbehaving.
The behaviors I mean are working efficiently and concentrating on their
work.
For example, you
may set a learning goal to have students master a specific skill by a certain
deadline. A behavior goal may focus on empowering students to ignore classroom
distractions.
Video games typically allow players to make choices that
challenge them and suit their abilities, so consider offering choices when it
comes to projects. For math, I
typically set up Prodigy.com accounts for my students each year. Then I use their teacher planner to assign
specific work to each student. Hello
differentiation! In my fifth grade
classroom, I can tailor practice problems to student IEP’s or RTI targets. Student A may receive single digit
multiplication for 2 weeks, and Student B may receive fraction multiplication
for a time period that I set in the planner.
Both students are playing a game, leveling up, persevering through
challenges, and having fun!
STEP 3: STRUCTURE THE GAMES
Use stages:
When you are looking
at your state standards and the curriculum you need to teach, you help your
student progress through skill-building all year. You refer to your teaching units and topics
all year long, but you need to use student-friendly terminology with your
students.
Try calling them stages.
While topics and units
have provide clear focus for teachers, students may not easily see how they fit
together. On the other hand, it may be
natural for students to understand that to reach the next stage they need to
overcome challenges. You can highlight this by naming certain everyday classroom
activities as prerequisites to reach the next stage. For example, unless students do homework,
participate in class and turn work in on-time, they won’t be ready for the next
stage.
Hopefully after
reading this post, you will agree with me that gamification makes
learning fun.
And while “making
learning fun” is cliché, I have found that there are three key points that gaming
helps my students with:
- Focus — Students who have
a hard time focusing may find it easier when tackling an engaging topic.
- Skill-Building — Students may
shy away from building certain skills until they see the importance.
- Content Delivery —
Students may have trouble processing content presented through traditional
methods, such as textbooks.
Have you gamified your
classroom? Please share your lessons learned and best practices in the comments
below.
