Gamification in the Classroom

Summary

Taking a look and why gamification works as a tool and how you can implement strategies in the classroom.

Gaming, or gamification, is a newer concept used in instructional design that can help teachers create engaging lessons from which students may glean a variety of skills. In Michael Matera and John Meehan’s popular book, Fully Engaged, they offer a variety of tools, strategies and games that can enhance the learning of students. But how does that happen?

CLICK HERE for a short video from a teacher about why gamification works for him and some classroom examples and tips.

Let’s dig deeper into a few key skills and areas where gamification can help students grow:

Engagement: Student engagement improves for a variety of reasons when using gamification.

• Tech is their language: When using technology to play games, they are often more engaged because they are saavy technological end users.
• Choice: When games give them choice, the control shifts from the teacher to the student. Choice Boards work work can give learners a sense of ownership in their academics.
• Feedback: Teachers who provide feedback over grades has been a proven way to engage students and drive student learning.

Creativity: Student creativity can improve when using gamification.

• Creative Thinking: Students typically must use creative thinking skills to play games and engage in gamified lessons.
• Teamwork: Students often times must work in Teams and come up with creative ways to solve a problem together. When students have to collaborate, like in Dungeons and Dragons style games, their creative teamwork improves.
• No-Tech: When students stop relying on technology to create, it must uniquely – and creatively – come from within.

Innovation: Student innovation is driven forward when using gamification:

• Outside the box: Games can present problems or assignments that are not solved with a paper or multiple-choice quiz. Gamified lessons may have students thinking outside the box to come up with ways to complete an assignment.
• Adaptation: Games can change and adapt based on student need. For example, a game-based, adaptive rubric can make learning feel like an adventure. Adaptations can then lead to more innovative learning.

This week, I started implementing a gamified BINGO style choice board. This is going to be rolled out over the next few weeks in a small group ELA class. I started by looking for a template, since my planning time was cut short this week because we only had a 3 day week! I first found an awesome, interactive, gamified template from Meehan (author) that uses Google Slides.

I quickly realized that this in not one that I could use as an Intervention Specialist in the middle of a quarter, while co-teaching. There are SO MANY choices, many of the activites required extensive time (that I don’t have in small group), and the activities were geared more towards Middle and High Schoolers. Check it out HERE. Really, it is amazing, but not what was going to work for me.

I needed something much simpler for elementary students where I could create different activities for the week for station options.

Thankfully, I found another good one on Teachers Pay Teachers HERE. It’s even Fall themed! I also found one that I can prep for winter HERE.

We did not get to have extended small group time this week because of our schedule. But I did get to work with my students to pre-teach the tool. This is always an important piece for my students. They need that direct instruction on the steps to use technology and games. They were very excited to get to use a tool like this and are already looking forward to small group next week! I really like the idea of using a choice board for them. I think that a success is that they will start to take more ownership of the station that they are working on and that they will find it fun and engaging! One thing I would do differently is that I am going to ask them to provide input on things that they would like on the choice board, that way, it can be even more individualized and accessible. I am very excited to do something different and really expand my small group work with more creative and gamified ideas.

TCE Threshold concepts are related to gamification in the following ways:

Curriculum is more that standards, textbooks, and courses of study: Gamification turns to non-traditional instruction over just a book or test. I was especially intrigued by the concepts of game-based feedback over traditional grades and the research that shows how important actual feedback is than a grade based on a state or curriculum “standard.”

Check out a video of some amazing Teacher Gamification PD in action!

Teaching is an intellectual engagement: Teaching the skills needed to think intellectually is a focus of gamification. Games are teaching students to think critically, creatively and innovate based on gamified activities instead of only reading and regurgitating information.

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