Ready, Set, Gamification!
Hello!
Welcome to another edition of Game On Language. This is an exciting week because it marks the official launch of the blog, my TPT store, my FB group, page…ALL the things! I am encouraged by what I want to share with all of you because a specialist in my district observed one of my lessons and she was blown away with this style of teaching. She instantly saw the value of what was happening in my classroom. I KNOW that this method works and I am so excited to begin to break things down and share with all of you! Please feel free to reach out with questions and feedback if you begin to implement some of the things we discuss.
Let’s dive into why gamification works. A quick Google search will tell you that, “gamification leverages game mechanics and behavioral science principles to increase engagement and motivation by tapping into the brain’s rewards system, particularly the release of dopamine, which drives individuals to repeat behaviors that lead to positive outcomes”. With further research we find that gamification can improve memory and problem solving skills. In essence, this methodology causes the adolescent brain to light up and increases engagement, learning, and the enjoyment of class. If you don’t want to focus on the science of it all, watch your students when they have free time in a structured environment. My bet is that they open chromebooks and start playing some sort of game. They are obsessed with who has the highest score, the fastest completion time, the highest rank. These are things they choose to do when they have their preference. If we can make school more like their preferred activities, kids will start to value learning as well.
As I type this, my school district is two weeks away from our spring break. Some schools are only eight weeks away from summer. Spring has sprung and spring fever is starting to hit. I teach middle school and when I say that the energy levels are through the roof and distractions are at an all time high, that is not an exaggeration. Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air to find a way to keep your students engaged and learning through the next few weeks? What if you had a way to keep them focused on the lesson at hand? What if students were so engaged in what they were doing that outside factors couldn’t distract them? What if they learned new content without having to be overtly taught over and over again? The answer my friends, is gamification! Let’s give students more of what they want in a way that helps them reach their academic goals.
So what exactly is gamification? It’s not JUST playing games in class. It's choosing an entertaining way to maximize practice in order to solidify content knowledge. There isn’t one game that works to teach a specific topic or concept. A lot of it comes down to how you frame each practice opportunity. In my 7th grade this week, the students are learning how to tell time in French, including the 24-hour clock. Not the most thrilling lecture, but I can tell you the students are playing a game each day that requires them to tell time to win. They are going to play amongst their groups, or where neighboring teams are opponents. But the bottom line is, through Memory, Rock-Paper-Scissors, a board game, Boom Cards and a life-sized puzzle race, students will play with telling time. By the time they finish all of these fun activities, they will have learned the correct way to tell time in French. I have planned similar lessons in my 8th grade class, where the topic is learning how to form questions. Talk about BORING…that is until I gamify that concept!
Honestly, I am looking forward to watching my students learn in cooperative learning groups where they are driving the lesson instead of me standing in front, walking them through another practice worksheet. My personal goal moving forward is to never hand out another practice worksheet to assess if students have internalized a concept. Let them play with each concept and they will show you if they understand. #NoMoreWorksheets is my new personal motto. Imagine walking into a classroom where having fun was encouraged and celebrated. The learning comes through the game playing, but that isn’t the overt focus of the course. Students can still be held to rigorous learning standards, it's just the activities we are using to deliver the practice for these concepts can, and should be, fun and engaging. Remember, gamification triggers the release of dopamine and endorphins. Students will naturally be drawn to it.
How do you start gamification in your class? Does it take a ton of preparation? What steps do you have to take? Do you have to go broke buying prizes? I am sure there are a dozen other questions or maybe even doubts running through your mind. Let me do my best to appease these anxious thoughts. Start small. Test the waters. Find a topic that has a basic factual knowledge and pick an easy game to play. I love to use simple games like the dots and boxes game, tic-tac-toe, or rock-paper-scissors to reinforce content knowledge. These games require minimal prep work and kids already know how to play them. Imagine that squirrely class you have after lunch directing their energy into playing rock-paper-scissors instead of chatting across the class!
So, what is the buy in? Why do students get so involved in these games? Well, at the very least, it isn’t a lecture or a test and frankly, it's fun! That is normally enough to encourage student participation. If you find that your students are resistant to engage, things like leaderboards, banners or badges can be highly motivational. My classroom is full of badges students have earned for mastering verb conjugations. As my students will tell you, their goal is to fill my classroom walls and expand into the hallway with their verb badges. I’m all for it! I have a leaderboard posted in my room for the class that improved the most on different topics. Every Monday the class with the highest improvement for the week gets candy. My students are all reading a novel independently and the class that finishes first gets to have a class day outside before the end of the school year. I have a virtual race posted in my room that I update weekly with which class is in the lead. These are all inexpensive or free ways to “gamify” the tasks that I need students to complete this year.
Every time I launch a learning game in my classroom, I look around and I’m stunned to see 100% engagement. That is not an overstated figure. Every single one of my students is actively playing and learning simultaneously. One of the unexpected and beautiful side-effects of gamification is watching students help each other. They want their team to come in first, or they want their class to win the challenge, so if one student begins to struggle, another will step in to support them. At first, stronger students were just answering questions for students that were working toward mastery. That is something you have to train out of them. But with a little guidance you can create an environment where everyone wants to learn and the stronger students will assist the struggling students to meet the challenge. That innate collaboration that ends up built in to the gamified classroom is a lesson that will take students far.
So now we know why gaming works, how to begin using it in our classes, we have seen some examples of games to start using, how to reward student effort and some unexpected benefits. There really is not a down side to gamifying your classroom. It’s time to take the leap and try it with your students. Help them direct some of their growing energy into the content you want them to master! It’s time to plan for some games and some fun. It’s time to love your lessons and Game On!
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