GAME 2 TEACH
HOW TO GAMIFY YOUR CLASSROOM
Gamifiying classrooms is the future of inspiring children and young people. For years companies around the globe having been making use of gamification to increase productivity. Now its time to schools and colleges to catch up.
For gamification to work well in a classroom it should be embraced by the teacher and the students. The changes that are made should be sutble and should directly impact on the children.
Any changes made should improve one or more of the 3 F's of Gamification;
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FUN
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FRIENDS
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FEEDBACK
Below is a resource that I have used with huge success in my classroom. It is easy to use and has made a dramatic difference to the enthusiasm of my students in all of their lessons.
THE GAME 2 TEACH GAMIFICATION SYSTEM
UK
US
Above you can see an example of a child's Gamified tracking sheet.
I have recently developed an easy to use system to turn all lessons into Gamified lessons. To do this I have created a special Google Doc sheet (though an Excel version is in development) to make every lesson feel more like playing a game.
The 3 F's of Gamification are Fun, Friends and Feedback and this system totally embraces all of these. It is fun because it allows children to compete directly against one another for points to show off their successes school. It is incredibly social and allows for fantastic oppotunities to extend cooperation and competition in school and it shows instant feedback that is quicl and easy for the children to receive yet meaningful to them. This is how it works...
During or directly after every lesson I fill in the form below.
This form is filled in by simply allocating a number (usually between 1-10) for each lesson so for example if someone has really given a lesson all they've got I will award them with 8-10 POINTS whereas if I feel that someone has more to give and was at times off task they only receive 1-4 POINTS. I give points for each lesson and bonus points can be earnt for extra tasks, homework in early etc.
Very importantly this takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute to do and can be done on the Interactive White Board (IWB) so that children instantly know how hard they have worked in a lesson.
The children all have their own Tracking page as shown at the top of this page. The points that I give are automatically pushed onto the children's pages and a running total over days, weeks and months is collected.
All the children choose an Avatar (picture to use as their gamified personna, these will are going to produce in Art Class and upload) and then can see how many points they have earnt on their screen, here is another example.
As well as showing the pupil how many POINTS they have earnt so far it also shows them what level they currently are (top left) and it has a progress bar to show them how many more points they have to earn until they reach the next level (blue and red section). We are going to decide as a class what reward you receive for LEVELLING UP.
Also note that the orange section tells each student the class average number of POINTS so that they can see if they need to push to improve or push to stay in front!
The ACHIEVEMENTsection is another one I am going to create with the pupils to choose extra rewards for example; finishing a book and reviewing it, tidying away mess without being asked or creating some truely outstanding work. These ACHIEVEMENTSwill be displayed in the green section.
As the class teacher I have also created an overview page so that I can easily track everyone's POINTS and LEVELS. The page lists the pupil's name down the left hand side of the screen and shows what LEVEL they currently are and how many POINTS they have earnt/won on which day. It looks like this...
This then provides an easy overview of how the whole class is getting on with their POINTS and LEVEL progression. It also shows averages to allow easy comparisons for the teacher and the children.
This Overview screen is really useful to share with the class to make them aware of where they are in comparison to their friends and to help keep them focused on earning POINTS by working hard and gaining LEVELS.
This Gamification system is avaliable to buy for just £30. Simply click Buy Now and I'll e-mail you the system
for you to begin setting up and using with your class. Alternatively if you would like some changes to be made
or for me to set it up for you send me an e-mail and I'll be in contact about getting you started.