Class Competitions- Intro to Gamification

If you want to get your classes excited, start a competition. Teaching 8th grade Language Arts for over 10+ years, I had to be the ring master at engagement. Especially when we were dissecting difficult text, I had to develop a large bag of tricks. One of my favorites, though, is my use of gamification.

Brief Background

Don't bother looking this work up in spell check. Some would say it's a new concept but I would say it has been given a make over. Some of my favorite teachers used table points or a marble jar. If you are on Twitter, you will find the gurus (@Gameboydrew, @mrmatera, @MrPowley) and they will all have a different style of gamifying a lesson/ unit from Supermario Bros style to self-paced badges. This style of teaching promotes group community and accountability. It's highly engaging.

How I Use It

My students are arranged in groups of 4-5. They are a team. I encourage them to make a team name, chant, or handshake (like AVID CRT or Kagan) to promote camaraderie. I make a score board and start awarding points.

Why It Works

1. It's free. I am generous with the points because it costs me nothing. Working in a affluent community, there is isn't much my students don't have.

The reward is the point.

2. It's immediate. Students are most likely playing Fornite or some other game when they should be doing your homework. They are used to immediate feedback and rewards.

3. It promotes a positive class culture. If you walked by my room during a competition, it would sound like a football stadium. (More about the competition in a bit). Students standing up cheering, high-fiving. Completely immersed.

4. It's measurable. Students like to see their ranking. The leader board is key. "Oh, we're ahead." "We only need ___ (amount) of points to beat..." As soon as the scoreboard goes up, they want to know where they rank.

5. I use it for everything. Entire group had their assignment completed= points. You worked nicely as a team= points. I used it as classroom management, work completion, PBS, CRT and pretty much any other 3 letter acronym.

6. Most kids are competitive. Chances are a great portion of your class plays a sport. They like to compete.

7. Ranking. Kids want to visually see where the rank. Just like in the arcade, did you make it to the leader board.

Class Competition

Next level -the competitions. For my formative assessments, I use Kahoot! Students answer questions, thinking we are playing so they can rank up and earn points. Secretly, I am checking for understanding. Can they find the main idea/ claim of the article? Do they know what our target vocabulary words mean? Did they get the gist of my lesson on MLA format? Kahoot! has a built in ranking system and if you are first and correct, I award points.

More on Competition

I change the scoreboard once a month when I reset the seating chart. Winners receive a prize package which includes- front of line passes, homework passes, couch pass (basically anything free and monetary to an 8th grader). In another blog post, I will explain more about how I use a reality show Amazing Race to gamify a non-fiction. Stay tuned.

Points Calculator

I use a point calculator in ActivInspire. I like to theme each quarter with various game shows because that's my thing; I'm a self-proclaimed reality show junkie and I LOVE games. First quarter- Deal or No Deal. Second quarter- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and so on. I build in opportunities to earn more points, if they earned the Deal of the Day, where they choose an animal and behind it, it has a point value, or not.

Pick an animal

Gamifying lessons/ units has so many benefits. I encourage you to start a competition today!