Gamifying Argument Writing

Many opportunities to strengthen their ability to support claims with evidence and reasoning, to revise, to speak, and to listen - all while engaging in a game.

Through my desire to add gaming elements to my classroom, I came across an argument writing activity over the summer. The procedure was simple, too. (I thought I noted from where I found the activity but cannot find that now. I will update the post when I do find that again.)

After students had spent time finding evidence to support a claim and had crafted their reasoning/explanations to connect the evidence to the claim (We were focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.), students were ready to receive some peer feedback and strengthen their ability to support a claim.

Students were put into groups of three.  The goal was to move up the ladder - so to speak - and earn your way to the top by having strong reasoning to explain the evidence.

After the two students on the side each presented a claim supported by one piece of evidence with their reasoning, the middle student evaluated the strength of the others’ work based on a set of criteria.  The evaluator gave feedback to both students and declared whose they felt was stronger. 
Students then revised their reasoning based on the feedback.

The stronger work would move forward to be the evaluator at the next table, the weaker work would move down a table to compete again, and the evaluator would slide into one of the side chairs to compete at the same table.

I was able to give feedback to students as well, both after they presented and while they were revising.  When I noted students dropped a couple of places, I gave more feedback so that they could try to strengthen their work.

I had initially placed the students at tables so that students who had a greater command of supporting a claim had to move forward more tables to get to the top. Students who struggled more with this skill started closest to the top.  I reasoned that this gave all more of a fair chance to get to the top.

The results were great.  Students were very engaged and received much feedback.  Most students remained within one or two tables of where they started, except for those whose skills were the strongest.  They advanced forward the most.  The students seemed to appreciate both the competition and the feedback, which encouraged them to revise their work and improve.

I will certainly do this activity again, as I saw great benefits.  It may be able to be used in other ways with different skills or content.

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If you have gamify writing or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.