Gamification

Everyone loves games.

Albert Einstein himself indicated they are the most elevated form of investigation. He knew games are avenues for something deeper and more meaningful than a childish waste of time. Games promote situated learning, or in other words, learning that occurs in groups of practice during immersive experiences. Oftentimes, playing games are the first method children use to explore higher-order thinking skills associated with creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying new knowledge.

eg: As an ancillary language teacher on Jeju Island in South Korea, gamification helped me increase student talk time by 300%. My 250 students completed over 27,000 “quests,” a.k.a. additional homework assignments they chose to do. My top 10% of participants spent an hour outside of class speaking their target language daily. I was even startled on more than one occasion to arrive early to work and find my students had beaten me there, and were eagerly awaiting my arrival so they could begin their daily quests. 

Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom:

1.Giving points for meeting academic objectives2. Giving points for meeting procedural/non-academic objectives3. Creating playful barriers4. Creating competition within the classroom5. Comparing and reflecting on performance in nuanced ways personalized for each student6. Creating a range of unique rewards desirable for a range of unique students