Bit of a breakthrough last night, as I sat down with pencil and paper to articulate how the game mechanics would work for my class in Guided Reading. This morning I have set the elements out on my linoit canvas, do have a look.
Here is the idea.
Tasks
- There are a set of tasks for children in the class to choose from independently.
- Tasks are linked to the Assessment Focuses AF1-7 (although I am stripping out AF1 tasks separately for SEN children, given that they deal with decoding and I have a Y5/6 class who are mostly beyond that stage).
- Tasks are set at Levels 2-5 (this meets the needs of my class at present, although I may need to add L6 in future).
- Thus I have a matrix of 6 AFs at each of 4 levels = 24 task sections. (Assuming a number of different tasks for each section, this does mean creating a good number of tasks.)
- Tasks are carefully crafted to provide me, as teacher, with evidence of the child's attainment at the given AF and level (if successfully completed).
- Generic tasks (e.g. drawing a character from a description in the text) can be repeated for different texts. Specific tasks (e.g. set of comprehension questions or online quiz or test) can be repeated multiple times to achieve success. This is a key feature of the system, to replicate the motivational structure of gameplay in computer games.
- Tasks will need to include some novel elements to sustain motivation - e.g. online quizzes, posting pictures online, collaborative tasks etc. I can't yet see a way to build in games, except at AF1. But I'll work on it.
Rewards
- There is an instant reward for choosing a task (and thanks to Andrew Proto in his series on Gamification Co for the low-tech solution of placing tasks in an envelope with some instant reward). In my case this might be a raffle ticket and House Point.
- Completion of a task is rewarded with 10XP, 1HP, further raffle ticket.
- Completion of a task from a new AF is further rewarded with a 'New AF' badge.
- Satisfactory completion of a task at the given level is further rewarded with additional XP etc. and, if for the first time at that level, a badge.
- Badges can also be achieved for reaching XP targets e.g. 500XP and multiples thereof.
Quests
- A number of Quests are defined (e.g. in a Quest booklet or online Wiki).
- Each Quest carries a set of conditions (generally completion of a specified set of tasks) and rewards - e.g. 200XP, 10HP (I may have to adjust these).
- Collaborative Quests require two or more pupils to work together on a given task or two. Both then receive the rewards.
- There is a separate set of AF1 Quests with smaller steps to progress to motivate the children who need to make catch-up progress.
Narrative
- I have considered creating an overarching narrative structure for a 'Reading Quest Land' (see Kate Fanilli's work in edudemic.com). I think it would be hard to add this to a game system at a subsequent point, but nevertheless feel that it is a step too far for me at this point. I fear it would require too much sustained energy to maintain the suspension of disbelief required in class. I do, however, appreciate that this might be the key dividing factor in making the whole system fun, engaging and therefore effective, so will endeavour to return to this idea.
Leader Board
- I know that viewing your position on a Leader Board can be highly motivational to game-players.
- I intend to create a leader board based on XP and also listing badges and Quests, but which does not reference Levels. Thus position on the board is driven by effort, not attainment.
- Not yet sure whether this will be an online board or a physical display in the classroom. It may need to be both and could be the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of teacher workload.
I think that has covered the key elements I want to put in place. As ever, I would love to hear the views of anyone - expert, experimenter or interested reader - on how you think this might all work in practice.
Collo
I read recently that a new blogger should have an initial aim of 10 blog posts - so I still have some way to go to meet even that modest goal.
Today has been a little frustrating in terms of progress towards gamifying my classroom, mainly because I had other jobs that needed doing - maths planning for next week for example. And because maths isn't on my short term gamification plan, I felt a little as though I was short-changing my class by providing them with the same old curriculum process. I did update the class Learning Platform/VLE page, which felt good, and a step in the right direction.
My main game-plan task today has been to gather a set of activities that pupils can do in order to fulfill whatever criteria I set, all linked to the NC Assessment Focuses. If you want to have a look, or even make a suggestion or two, see my linoit canvas at
http://linoit.com/users/collosopede/canvases/Gamifying%20Guided%20Reading
The next task is to really sort out how to marry up 'school' and 'game' reward structures. For example, we have a House Point system, intended to reward good work, and a system of 'raffle tickets', awarded for good behaviour (an resulting in a weekly chance in the raffle ticket draw for a prize), amongst other things. I need to tap into any residual motivational impact these sytems have, and reinforce these if at all possible - I don't want to reduce them to worthless anachronisms. I need to find a place for them in the overall scheme - as well as badges, XP, game levels, NC levels, quests and an ongoing narrative.
Should be quite straightforward...
Collo
I have spent an hour this morning - that extra one, the clocks have just gone forward - using linoit to organise my initial thoughts on how gamification might work for Guided Reading. (Gamifying Guided Reading)
I am planning to use the National Curriculum Assessment Focuses (do we not say 'Foci' any more?) as the basis for work in and out of class, and am considering using badges and XP for completion of tasks linked to the AFs.
Needless to say, this first phase raises many more questions than solutions:
- Should accumulation of badges and/or XP result in tangible rewards?
- How can Levelling Up work? Given that we already have NC levels associated with Reading, must game levels be linked to these to avoid confusion?
- If so, completion of tasks does not necessarily equate to achievement of a given level. Would there need to be another set of badges that indicated achievement of the level in a given AF?
- How should badges, XP and Level information be stored and displayed (if at all)?
- Should we have a class Leader Board?
- What role should the VLE play in this?
- Should we use an online 3rd party provider for badge collection and display, as well as creation?
- Who will be responsible for collection of data? (Me...)
- What would a Quest look like for Reading - and how would it relate to badges, XP and Levels?
- Is questing a step too far at this stage? I.e. should I start with one reward system at a time and then add layers of complexity? Or does it need to be 'big bang' to have sufficient impact?
Well, I shall be wrangling with these questions over the next few days. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Collo
Taking the big leap into the edublogosphere. Herewith my first post. No idea what I'm doing really, but needing somewhere to whitter on and organise thoughts on gamifying my classroom.
So here goes.
My focus for this blog, and the Personal Learning Environment I'm building, is on gamification of the classroom. By which I mean treating the whole classroom as a gaming experience, not simply the use of games in learning.
Gamification appeals to me because I know how well it works for me and my own children. We are prepared to work at seemingly inane tasks in order to proceed to the next level. How much more powerful could that be in children are playing to improve skills they might believe they need for real life? Great games design provides the right tools at just the right time for the player to advance - sounds like Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development to me.
I am looking for intrinsic motivation in my pupils, but I also recognise that a little help wouldn't do any harm.
I'd like to tie all this in with cross-curricular links, 'slow education', self-directed learning and edutech - making use of the great tools out there to improve learning.
However, to begin with, I'm planning to start small. As a Primary teacher, I cover most curriculum areas and I don't think I can cope with changing everything - particularly not midway through the year. Reading is a whole-school focus for us anyway, and my first step is to investigate how I could use gamification principles to improve reading in my Year 5/6 classroom.
One of the attractions is that I have not yet solved the problem of evidencing my assessment of reading - aside from giving reading comprehension tests. So I'm hoping to persuade my class to challenge themselves to provide that evidence in a self-directed way, in return for some form of game-like rewards.
Which is about as far as I've got this morning. All ideas gratefully accepted.
Collo
