Ep 115 // Gamification in the Elementary Classroom (How to Make it Work, and What to Consider Before Starting)
Inside This Week’s Episode: — Using games as a mode of learning in the classroom can be powerful. Kids love games. When they play games in the classroom, they have fun, and when they have fun - they learn. So, what is it about games that are so attractive? And how can we capture those elements and apply it to other areas in the classroom? Well - that’s exactly what we’re about to explore.
Playing is Learning
Over 10 years ago I started a blog called The Classroom Game Nook blog. I started it because I am a big fan of finding ways to make learning more fun for students. When learning is fun, motivation, engagement, and student success often follow.
On my blog the Classroom GAME Nook, I shared all the ways that I used fun and games in the classroom. And, although over the years I dropped the word “game” from my title, and am now just The Classroom Nook, I certainly did not stop striving to find ways to make learning fun through games.
I want to explore gamification in the classroom. Gamification is a term that we’ve heard pop up in the education world lately. Kids love games. When they play games, they have fun, and when they have fun: they learn.
So, what is it about games that are so attractive? And how can we capture those elements and apply it to other areas in the classroom? Well - that’s exactly what we’re about to explore.
Why Games in the Classroom?
Everyone loves games. Even Albert Einstein agreed. He said that games were a form of investigation. Games allow students to flex their critical thinking skills, use strategy, evaluate, and apply new knowledge.
When I was little, probably first grade or so, I can remember playing Twister with my family. And, as you likely know - in Twister, you’re being asked to put your right hand on red, or your left foot on yellow.
At that age, I was constantly getting my left and right messed up. I have a vivid memory of playing Twister in our living room and finally being able to remember left from right as we played the game over and over. It was like a lightbulb finally went off in my head. It’s a silly example - but a perfect one - to illustrate how playing a game helped me to apply new knowledge, and not just apply it - but retain it long-term.
Games are in our everyday life, you just may not be thinking about it. Have you ever earned rewards points for shopping at a certain store, or eating at a certain restaurant? After earning a specified amount of points, you usually get a discount, or a free coffee - or whatever it may be.
Our life is often gamified. Companies know that we are motivated by things like points and free stuff. They know it motivates us to spend more money with them, or come to their restaurant. There’s an incentive - a reward.
I recently watched a really interesting TedTalk done by Paul Andersen, an AP Biology Teacher from Montana, who described a a little experiment with his students.
He put up his laptop in the front of his classroom set up with the video game Angry Birds. Next to his laptop he had a piece of paper that said “play” with an arrow pointing to the laptop. As his students came in that day, they took turns playing this game on his laptop. A webcam was also set up to capture the students as they were playing.
What he saw was that his students eager and willing to want to participate. They cheered each other on, they worked together to beat the level of angry birds, and were all willing to try and fail until they had success.
He also had some key take-away from his experiment that I thought were really powerful.
1- Students want to participate when something is fun. And school should be fun.
2 - Failure is ok. In video games, we have to fail at a level time and time again before we can beat that level. But the failure is not the important part - it’s the learning that comes from trying. In school, failure should be about the learning.
3 - We should treat our classrooms like the levels of a video game. As a player in a video game, you can go through the levels of that game as quickly or as slowly as your abilities allow you. You’re not held back waiting for others to catch up, OR forced to go any quicker than you’re ready for.
In his ted-talk, he goes on to talk about how these key take-aways that he got from his little experiment revolutionized the way he approached teaching and how he approached his students.
He began to apply elements of games to his teaching and realized that gamification in the classroom is powerful! It promotes communication, cooperation, and even a healthy dose of competition (which we know often increases motivation). Games give students practice with problem-solving, learning through trial and error, and so much more.
Making Gamification Elements Work in the Classroom
But - I want to talk about more than just playing games in the classroom. You likely are already playing games in your classroom in your small groups, in your centers, and maybe even as a whole group. These are great ways to motivate students and give them fun opportunities to apply what they are learning. But - at the heart of gamification is taking those elements that make games so engaging, and applying them in other kinds of learning activities.
Gamification elements like:
Earning points toward something
Earning Badges that indicate an achievement
Using leaderboards to promote healthy competition among the players
Keeping track of Checkpoints and levels that show progress toward a goal
These are all elements that we can take from the gaming world and apply it to a classroom setting.
When we infuse these game-like features in our classroom, students begin to take more ownership of what they are learning. They learn that they have the space they need to fail and try again. They are given opportunities to track and celebrate accomplishments, and they being to feel part of the community within their classroom.
Here’s what’s so nice about gamifying your instruction. Using gamification elements in your classroom doesn’t require an overhaul of your entire curriculum. You can easily add a layer of gamification over top of what you are already doing.
So, let’s break these down. I want you to walk away with some ideas and actionable tips to help you add more gamification to your classroom.
Earning Points & Badges
This is not a new concept. In fact - think about the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts - they’ve been earning badges as part of their programs for a century or more. They work toward a certain accomplishment, which usually requires learning a new skill, applying that skill, and mastering that skill. Once they do, they get a badge to show their accomplishment.
We can do this in the classroom as well! Assign point values for tasks, skills, or activities within a content area that students complete in the classroom. When those points are received, students earn a badge. Put on display for everyone to see to celebrate student success. Earn point and badges can be a unit-long process, a quarter-long process, or even a whole-year process where students have the opportunity to earn their badges throughout the school year. You just need to decide what you want these badges to represent and what makes the most sense for your classroom and objective.
Using Leaderboards For Motivation and Healthy Competition
This leads us right into the concept of a leaderboard. As students earn points and badges, they can move up or down the leaderboard. A leaderboard is essentially a visual that ranks the performance of its participants. This promotes a sense of accomplishment as well as motivation to earn a coveted spot on the leaderboard.
You can have a whole-class leaderboard, or even a small-group leader board. Of course, leaderboards also have the potential to make students “at the bottom” feel bad, so use them with care. You might consider only having a leaderboard that displays the top 5 or 10 performers so that no student has to see their name at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Keeping Track of Learning Progress Through Checkpoints and Levels
One of the most fun and motivating features of a game is the ability to pass through certain check points and levels. As students complete certain objectives (whether that be completing an assignment or tasks, mastering a set of skills, or whatever it may be), allow them to keep track of their progress and give them some sort of incentive to reach that level.
Maybe after completing certain levels they earn a special reward like lunch in the classroom with a friend, or extra recess - whatever might be appealing to your students. Checkpoints and levels can be tracked through a progress bar chart where all the levels are plotted out, like a bar graph, and students can color in their progress bar.
In contrast, the leaderboard is a great visual for helping students see how they stack up against other “players” in the classroom, while the checkpoint and levels progress bar gives a visual of where individual students are in their own journey. Both can be powerful and motivating.
Getting Started with Gamifying your Instruction
Let’s talk some logistics. When you start to use some of these gamification features in your classroom, you want to do so in an intentional way. You don’t need to gamify every single thing in your classroom. That could get confusing and overwhelming for you students.
Instead, look for areas in your classroom where motivation and engagement tends to be lacking. These are the areas where you can use gamification. You can also start simple with just one area that uses gamification elements and add on from there. Take the lead from your students and find out what works and what doesn’t.
You’ll also want to set clear expectations. Just like any game has rule, so should these gamified learning experiences. Make sure students are clear on the process, and outline their pathway to success.
Allow for student choice. Remember: one of the goals for gamifying your classroom is to increase motivation. Your students are motivated in a different ways, so as students progress through levels, offer them choices in the types of incentives and rewards that they might earn.
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Implementing Gamification:
I want to leave you with a few questions to ask yourself to help you take action if you feel like gamification is a good fit for your classroom.
What areas of your instruction and your curriculum do you find a lack of motivation and engagement from your students?
For me it was always math. As a student I struggled in math and as teacher, I always dreaded teaching math - especially the more abstract concepts. For me, this would be a great area to add a layer of gamification.
I recently did this with a brand new LINKtivity® that just came out inside the LINKtivity® Learning membership. A lot of members had been asking me for more math LINKtivities because I think they, too, found that it was an area of their classroom that could use more interactive learning experiences.
So - I went back and forth on how exactly to do this and eventually came up with the idea of a mystery picture style LINKtivity® where students would reveal a small portion of a picture each time they answered a question correctly. As they work through the LINKtivity® - in this case, it was on equivalent fractions - more and more of the picture was revealed. This added a layer of gamification to the learning experience. Answering each question correctly was essentially passing a level that rewarded them with revealing a piece of the picture.
Ask yourself - where in your curriculum do you tend to see low engagement or student motivation. Maybe its a topic or subject you don’t like teaching. Adding that layer of gamification could also motivate, not just your students to want to learn it, but motivate you as the teacher to want to teach it.
How could adding one or more elements of gamification help breath new life into this area, topic, or subject?
Where could earning points or badges fit in? How can you divide the curriculum up into checkpoints and levels that students can progress through?
What tools do you already have access to that would make gamification easier?
Tools like Kahoot and Quizlet are popular apps for gamifying your instruction. Sometimes we forget that we have access to these types of tools that have already done the leg work in making this style of learning possible and we just need to be reminded of them — and start using them!
What do you need to consider about your students before implementing any gamification elements in your classroom?
We talked briefly about how the leaderboard may make students feel, especially those at the bottom. How can you make it work for your students, specifically?
What specifically motivates your students?
Be sure to create an on-going list so that you can draw from that list when incentivizing your students.
What is one thing that you can start doing now in your classroom to begin gamifying your instruction.
Let’s take action together. Start simple and get fancy later. Take one small step in the right direction and build it from there.
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