Gamification: Learning, Engagement, and Classroom Culture

The excitement and anticipation were tangible and took me by surprise.

In my pursuit of gamifying the classroom, students were working as teams to complete a variety of activities at stations, ranging from sketchnotes, to summaries, to Instagram stories.  Each time they completed an activity, the teams would earn a badge and a certain amount of dice based on the quality of their work.  The roll would be hit points against one of the villains in our year-long class game.

Over the course of the three days of stations, students were engaged with the activities, were working together, and were understanding the information.  They were eager to receive the badge but even more excited to roll the dice.

Teams started cheering for themselves as they scored hit points and weakened the enemy.  Then teams started cheering for one another.

Towards the end of the third period, students knew that the next roll of the dice might finish off the
villain.  As I looked over a team’s work, other teams stopped working.  As I looked up from examining the work, I saw the whole class crowding around us.

I was taken aback.  They were all there waiting to see if this roll would throw them over the top.

There was almost a collective holding of their breathe as the team prepared to roll.  The anticipation was high as they rolled….as I totaled the roll.

When I announced the total, the classroom erupted.  The roll was high enough to defeat their nemesis.

This was the experience I was hoping for through gamification.  Students were engaged and learning, practicing skills and learning important concepts.  They were also collaborating with one another.  What threw this over the top, however, was the camaraderie amongst all the members of the class. 

I was excited to see them all pulling for one another.  I feel there were great gains in developing our classroom culture as well.


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If you have moments when you’ve expereinced the power of gamification or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

An Argument Writing Battle Royale

Students don’t always like to spend a lot of time revising their writing. So, in the midst of creating an argument writing piece, I sought an engaging way for students to be more thoughtful about their revision.

After deciding how I would do this, I put students into groups of three and declared that they were teams.  They needed to help one another improve their writing to prepare what I dubbed the “Battle Royale.”

Students were hooked and took the role of giving and receiving peer feedback to heart.  Over the course of a class period, students read one another’s writing and gave feedback about both structure and content.  Students were listening carefully to one another and making many revisions to their work.

"Writing" by akrabat is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

The next time we met, I gave students 10 more minutes to prepare by giving feedback and revising their writing.  They were then ready for the “Battle Royale.”

Each student was assigned two numbers.  The roll of a die determined which student would take a turn.  In separate turns, the student chose by the die copied the introduction, a body paragraph, or the conclusion of their writing and pasted to a designated spot in shared Google Slides.  Once all were pasted, all students read all examples and selected the one they felt was the strongest.  Whichever team had their paragraph chosen as the strongest overall won the round and rolled a die to determine how many points the round was worth.

We proceeded that way so that multiple examples of each type of paragraph were shared by each team and a winner was declared.

Students not only worked well together by giving feedback in their groups, but they also had multiple exposures to other students’ work.  Seeing so many examples gave them greater insight into how they might revise their work further (which was the next step).

Approaching feedback and revisions in this manner resulted in students improving their writing more than they would have if a peer had given feedback in a more traditional way.  So, I will not hesitate in using this approach again.


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If you have an effective way for peer  writing feedback or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

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.

Story Cubes Promote Student Thinking

Looking for a different way for students to think deeply about what they were learning while being creative, I turned to EDrenaline Rush by John Meehan.

Amongst the myriad of activities, John mentioned Rory’s Story Cubes. The cubes are intended to
inspire creative writing by having different icons that can be randomly put together.  For social studies content, they inspired students to think differently about their understanding.

I put the students into groups of three.  Each group randomly chose three cubes and decided together which icon from each die they would use. The groups had to use the three icons as inspiration to get across important ideas about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).

The students hemmed and hawed about which icons they should choose. Discussion about the Global Goals ensued as a result.  Making my way around the room, I listened to students processing the content I wanted them to process. Through their discussions, they agreed upon statements they could make regarding the Global Goals.

Groups then shared their statements, referencing the icons that they used as inspiration. Wanting to hear what icons the different groups blended into their statements, students were engaged with each group’s sharing.

Seeing the level of engagement, the quality of discussion, and the creativity of the students in using the icons, I am excited to use the story cubes, again, as a way of engaging students in considering what they are learning.

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If you have used story cubes or other methods to engage students in processing information or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Like Magic Students Asked Questions

"What questions do you have about sustainable development?"

I had anticipated the silence.

I asked again, "What questions do you have about sustainable development?"

And I waited.

Finally, a hand.

The student asked the question, and I offered an answer.

Students watched as I tossed the student a poker chip.

Slowly, a few more hands raised, and after answering their questions, I tossed them a chip.

More and more hands raised.  Nearly every student in the class searched for a question (or several) to ask.

They had no idea what the chips were about, but they captured the students' attention. 

The result was that they were thinking and listening.

Making a simple ask and answer session a little game-like by earning the chips for asking questions (They earned a red one if they answered a question.) engaged the students in a meaningful way, getting them more personally involved and heightening their understanding in a meaningful way.

Magical little poker chips.....I'm going to use them more often.


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

SideQuests: Introducing Geography of the Week

As part of gamifying my classroom, I decided to include sidequests.

My understanding of sidequests is that they are an optional part of the game that are not directly connected or necessary for the main part of the game.  These give students opportunities to advance in the game while advancing their learning.

I’m not sure I know exactly how sidequests will take shape in my classroom.  I did determine, however, that I wanted some to be standing sidequests.  They would not be extensions of a particular lesson. Instead, they would be able to remain throughout the year.

The first sidequest I have put into my course is a Geography of the Week challenge.  Students do it as homework, but it is optional.  They earn experience points for our game which will help them advance in the game and on the leaderboard.  This sidequest, however, also expands their general knowledge of the world.  They get multiple chances over the week to answer the challenge question correctly.

If they don’t get it correct, their understanding of the standards won’t suffer.  They enhance their knowledge and make gains within the game. It's a simple, engaging way to keep the students immersed in the game outside of class while tugging a bit at their curiosity.

Soon, I plan to incorporate another standing sidequest, along with another that is directly related to the content that students are working within the class.  I also hope to develop some hidden sidequests that students will uncover, giving the game a dose of chance and excitement.

As we build the game throughout the year, I envision that both the students and I will get more and more excited to discover sidequests.

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If you have good stategies for sidequests in a gamified classroom or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

GeoQuest: Taking Steps Toward Gamification

I did a lot of prep work this summer around making my curriculum more gamified by looking at the work of John Meehan (@meehanedu) and Michael Matera (@mrmatera).  I was reluctant, however, to jump right in. (see Gamification in the Classroom: Big "G" or little "g"?)

Perhaps I wanted to get a sense of my students to see how they might roll with it.  Maybe I needed to gauge whether or not I could handle it.

Yesterday, I took the plunge.

After we tied up a few loose ends from last week, I turned the students’ attention to the screen at one end of the room.  I played this trailer to introduce the class game we would be participating in for the rest of the year:

After viewing, an unexpected thing happened: applause. To my astonishment, in each class, students spontaneously gave positive feedback. Comments I heard:

“That was awesome.”
“That got me pumped up.”
“I’d love to see that movie.”

And I hadn’t even explained the game yet.

I then shared that it was the game that they would play for the rest of the year. “In fact,” I said. “You’ve already been playing it.”  There were a few knowing looks amongst the faces as I could tell they were picking up on some of the things I had said which subtly referenced the game.

The students read a brief game guide document I put together. And they asked questions.  We talked about XP, competing as individuals, competing as a class against the others, competing as a variety of teams, earning advantages, and sidequests.

When some students asked very specific questions about levels and advantages and I responded that the game was a work in progress and would evolve throughout the year, one student piped up, “Cool! We’re beta testers!”

Clearly, the students bought in.  They were excited, intrigued, and eager.  They proceeded into the next activity which they knew was related to the game with great exuberance.

And I am excited, too, as I think this can help enhance their engagement, provide opportunities for collaboration, and increase their learning.

My first big step into gamification was a success.  Now, I just need to maintain the momentum and craft learning challenges that will keep that tenor of enthusiasm lingering in the air.


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

Gamification in the Classroom: Big "G" or little "g"?

There’s one week left before I begin learning about my new students. As part of my preparation this summer, I have explored reasons and techniques to gamify my classroom.

“Rpg, Game, Play, Dice, Dungeons.” Rpg Game Play -
Free Photo on Pixabay, pixabay.com/photos/rpg-game-play-dice-
dungeons-468917/.

My eyes have been opened to the fact that gamification exists in multiple ways in our lives: businesses use badging and credentials in training, stores and restaurants offer rewards cards, businesses offering free trials, fitness apps offering badges and recognition, etc. They are all ways to motivate people to come back for more and/or to excel. In addition to engagement, gamifying the classroom can offer great opportunities for student choice and collaboration.  Done appropriately
students can become better learners.

I am, however, still up in the air for my classroom. Big “G” Gamification or little “g” gamification. 

Two different approaches to gamifying the classroom. I understand the former as a full-fledged, year-long commitment to Gamification: storyline, XP, items, badges, levels, leaderboards, side quests, etc.  These are elements of video games and other role-playing games. In a nutshell, little “g” gamification would be using those same elements within an activity or employing games to elicit engagement, student choice, and collaboration and enhance students’ learning.

Still wrapping my head around Gamification, I have to make my choice within this week. But recently, as I have had this debate in my head, I’ve thought of another possibility.  Perhaps I could lay Gamification out to the students and give them the choice:  Is this something we should try together? 

I could then ask for ideas (within certain parameters) as to what our game should entail. They would help design the game which could encourage even greater engagement in the game but could also, and more importantly, a evoke greater desire to learn.

We will see where this Gamification/gamification adventure leads me.


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

Enlivening Vocabulary Review with Vocabulary Gladiators

I wanted students to review vocabulary and was trying to determine the right way to engage them, so they wouldn’t view it as the same-old-same-old.

What started as a one-class activity, transformed into two. Students started in groups of three and wrote contextual sentences with the terms.  After sharing out, individuals wrote several more sentences. Each student then chose the best one whether it was created by the group or the individual student.

A tournament bracket was rolled out, and students’ attention was aroused. I placed each student in the bracket. Each would face off head-to-head with another. The winner was determined by an anonymous vote. (Students were reminded of what they should look/listen for in a quality contextual sentence.)  Students worked through the bracket until we had a class champ. Students who were eliminated were still exposed to the vocabulary and spent time evaluating the quality of their peers’ work. High energy permeated each class as they competed.

I spun the energy into day two. 

No one questioned the desks arranged in a circle but quite a few eyebrows were raised at the props in the middle of the circle.

They started class by adding more contextual sentences to their list from the previous day. Again, I had them mark the best one, whether from this or the previous class.

We celebrated the champion from the previous class, and I announced vocabulary gladiators.  Donning the fake shields and swords and helmets, any challengers could face the champ in a one-to-one showdown. Each student’s sentence would be shared, and again, there would be an anonymous vote.

There was a moment of hesitation as the students processed what I said.  Then, students quickly looked over their sentences and shot their hands up.

Between being a gladiator dressed in battle gear, competing with their peers, and watching their bolder peers take to the center ring, all students were engaged. Even those who did not enter the ring to challenge as a gladiator were evaluating and considering their sentences.  Some who did not volunteer to challenge toward the beginning did so by the end. They had listened to the others’ sentences, evaluated their own, and gained enough confidence in their revisions that they took the risk to stand before their peers.

The activity was simple but fun. Students were engaged, processed the information, and gained from the experience. One change I might make is for the sentences to be presented anonymously, especially during the bracket. I felt, at times, some students would through their support behind a weaker sentence to support a friend.

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If you have strategies to engage students with vocabulary or to use play for learning, or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Using a Simple Game To Engage Students

Always looking for ways to engage my students, I have been trying to incorporate more games in my teaching. I stumbled across Boom Blast Stix on Twitter via John Meehan. They are a quirky, simple game in which players stack the triangular-shaped pieces. If the pieces don’t quite stack right they explode scattering through the air.

To spice up a review activity, students were put into teams. Individuals from each team were mixed into different groups. In these groups, they took turns answering the review questions. If someone answered the question incorrectly, they had to approach Boom Blast Stix and place a piece. The team whose member placed the piece that caused the stix to explode earned a point for their team. (The goal was to have the least points - like golf.)

Students’ anticipation was high and there was a collective catch of breath once several stix were placed and someone was about to place the next one. The slight twist on reviewing made it more enjoyable for the students. There was a positive energy in the room.

As I circulated the room, their engagement with the task seemed heightened, too. Part of that, I think, was the structure of the game. By giving the point to whoever caused the stix to explode, those students who might not fare as well were more at ease. Someone who put only one piece on to the stack could be the one to cause the explosion. This resulted in an even distribution of students who caused their team to get a point. The students who might get the most items incorrect didn’t cause any more points for their teams than those who got the fewest incorrect.

Everyone had a chance in this game.  No individual was put into a situation feeling so far behind that quitting seemed an option.

As I continue to look for ways to incorporate games into the classroom, I’ll keep this structure in mind.

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If you have used games to help engage students, or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.