Can our students learn through gaming?

Summary

Gamification in the classroom is an upcoming trend that teachers are seeing, as more and more online platforms are being created to use in the classroom with our students. Have you introduced gamification in your classroom? If you haven't yet, read on to see how gaming can have a positive effect on our students learning experiences!

Gamification can enhance our student’s learning experiences and fosters creativity in the classroom:

• Problem solving skills are strengthened
• Students practice using decision making skills
• Students are collecting coins, badges, points, trophies in order to work towards an end goal
• Students are able to design characters
• Stimulates student’s academically
• Game like activities increase student motivation and productivity
• Tracking their own progress (Student ownership)
• Advancement through worlds or levels builds excitement
• Students receive instant feedback and support with skills that are challenging
• The learning process is more enjoyable than using a workbook, or listening to a teacher lecture
• Incorporating students interest into the classroom increases engagement
• Team work and collaboration is strengthened
• Builds curiosity
• Students are more willing to work and participate in activities in game mode
• Student choice

TCE Connections:

Teaching/Learning is an intellectual engagement-

As students are learning they should feel challenged and feel intrinsically motivated while completing a task. Through the use of games in the classroom, students are taking their learning one step further as they are not just sitting and listening to gain new information. But rather, students are actively interacting with the new content to make sense of the material and apply what they have learned into these games/activities. As students are interacting with the content it is more meaningful for them, and they will be able to build these lasting connections and retain the information that they have learned because the learning experience was of interest to them personally.

Teaching and Learning honors people’s full humanity-

As teachers are planning lessons, we automatically should think about who are students are and what are their interest? Along with what are their personal experiences and background information based on the new concept. There are a lot of things that we assume students have done or seen before, however that is not always the case. Through gamification we can provide different experiences for ours students, that allow them to make connections. As a primary grade teacher, we know that our students NEED to play, so why not allow them to play while they learn and recognize them as humans with needs that go beyond the academics?

Game Introduction: Lalilo

The game that I was able to introduce to my students this week was Lalilo by Renaissance. This is a game that I have had on my list to try for over a year now, aimed for students grades K-2. However, I have not had the opportunity to use it as we use I-Ready for differentiated learning paths, and we are only able to use “approved resources” in my school district.

I gave Lalilo a go this week and my kids LOVED it! The first time student logged in, I had to give them our classroom code, and then they clicked on their name. Once they clicked on their name it started their pre-assessment to gauge where they were in their learning. The process was very user friendly for myself, as well as my students! If I can say it was user friendly for 1st graders… that says a lot!

Once students completed their pre-assessment, which took about 20 minutes give or take, students were introduced to a new “world” where they would work on literacy skills such as vocabulary, comprehension, high frequency words, phonics patterns, and fluency. The results it gives me as a teacher are MIND BLOWING! I can see where each of my students are in each domain, which is so insightful.

Students work through their individualized lessons to collect treasures, badges, and stories. This motivates students as they progress through the lessons as they feel like they are earning something for the work that they are doing. You should have heard the conversations I heard when we closed up our computers this week, students asking each other how many lessons they got finished, if they earned any badges, or treasures. Students were so engaged the whole time, they were asking me when the next time they will get to play will be! This may be something that I use more often as it built so much excitement for my students.

I luckily do not feel like I faced any challenges when using this resource, besides that is not on the approved list in my district. However, I may work to get it on the list as it follows the science of reading, and that is what we focus on! As for successes, Lalilo was successful all the way around. My students were engaged, willing to work, excited, as well as working on their differentiated content meeting their individual needs!

Here is a quick introduction video to Lalilo for those of you that are interested in learning more…

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