Let the Games Begin
How it all began.
After being in the classroom for nearly seven years, I had learned a great deal about how to get students to participate both in class and outside of class. I had prided myself on the fact that I could get students that wouldn’t work for anyone else, to work for me. After two full years of Standards Based Grading (SBG), however, I noticed that my student participation had declined. SBG is a grading system vastly different than the traditional 90 = A system that most of us grew up with. In SBG, students are graded solely on their mastery of the content and skills required by a set of standards. Also in this system, students are able to attempt a standard multiple times until they can reach mastery and their practice does not count for or against them. Because of the nature of this system, my students didn’t want to do the in class activities when they could just take the test and then retake it if they did poorly on the first try.
At first, I tried to require the practice/in-class formative assessments before I would allow the students to take the test or summative assessment. This worked for some students, the ones that were intrinsically motivated. For others that were not so motivated, I spent a massive amount of time staying after school struggling to help students rush through as many of the formative assessments as possible so that they could take the test.
One day while sitting at home in the recliner rocking my daughter to sleep, I realized that there had to be a better way. There had to be some way for me to get my students motivated to participate in class at a level higher than they ever had before. Once I put my daughter in her crib, I went back to the same recliner and proceeded to turn on my PlayStation 3 so that I could enjoy some time playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. Before starting my game, my quandary with school still on my mind, I thought to myself, “If only I could make my class more like the video games that both my students and I love.” That was when I started to create the Game-Based Classroom Management System.
The Initial Design.
When I first started to create the system, I was focused on Experience Points (XP). I created XP cards and negative XP cards. Each XP card was worth 50, 100 or -100 experience and had a message for the students either encouraging them to keep up the good work or reminding them of the importance of their education. Once I created them, I laminated them so that they could be used over and over again.
Then, I created a leveling system much like ones that would be used in role playing games (RPGs). I wanted this to be simple and easy to keep track of, so I made each level worth 1000XP. This means that in order to level up, a student had to earn 1000XP and then they got the benefits associated with that level. There were a total of 20 possible levels that students could reach with Level 20 being EPIC level and exempting students from the final. In each class, I work with students to determine what the rewards would be for leveling up and these rewards ranged from a piece of candy to a gift card from McDonalds.
To make it a little more interactive, I also created a list of Achievements that students could “unlock.” I created the achievements by looking at the knowledge and skills required by the Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS)/Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and built activities that the students could complete outside of class. To encourage the students to complete the Achievements, I made them worth extra experience.
In order to get the students invested, I had them create alter egos or characters for them to level up. Their characters also had powers and weaknesses based on how they saw themselves as a student. For example if a student felt like they were a strong writer but a weak public speaker, their character’s power and weakness might be written something like this: “Xanthem can destroy his enemies with the power of his written word, but could not scare even a mouse with his voice.”
Finally, I had the students use the learning targets and standards for the course and create a tracking sheet for their character. They looked at the standards and targets and organized them based on what they thought they needed the most and least amount of help with. They also had a place to track what level they were one.
How’d it all turn out?
Overall, the system was a huge hit. The students really got into it and my student participation has never been at the level it was at last term. All of my students enjoyed it, even those that didn’t really like video games. The students liked getting rewarded for their hard work and went the extra step to earn their experience. The classes chose their own rewards for leveling up, which were a little hard to keep up with, but the students were always ready to put me in my place when I misspoke.
I did discover that the 50XP was pretty worthless. I started giving the 50 for acts of kindness and the 100 for acts of academic merit. This seemed to work out better. At first I was giving out mostly 50XPs and no one was leveling up which is the motivation for the students, so I had to change how I was handing out XP so that students could experience success.
I also have some additions that I want to add to the system that were suggested by students. More than anything, the students asked me if there could be boss battles where they challenged either me or other English teachers to win experience. I’m not exactly sure what that is going to look like, but I am definitely going to attempt to make this happen. What could be better than your students feeling so confident in their abilities in your subject that they are willing to challenge you to a content battle?
After being in the classroom for nearly seven years, I had learned a great deal about how to get students to participate both in class and outside of class. I had prided myself on the fact that I could get students that wouldn’t work for anyone else, to work for me. After two full years of Standards Based Grading (SBG), however, I noticed that my student participation had declined. SBG is a grading system vastly different than the traditional 90 = A system that most of us grew up with. In SBG, students are graded solely on their mastery of the content and skills required by a set of standards. Also in this system, students are able to attempt a standard multiple times until they can reach mastery and their practice does not count for or against them. Because of the nature of this system, my students didn’t want to do the in class activities when they could just take the test and then retake it if they did poorly on the first try.
At first, I tried to require the practice/in-class formative assessments before I would allow the students to take the test or summative assessment. This worked for some students, the ones that were intrinsically motivated. For others that were not so motivated, I spent a massive amount of time staying after school struggling to help students rush through as many of the formative assessments as possible so that they could take the test.
One day while sitting at home in the recliner rocking my daughter to sleep, I realized that there had to be a better way. There had to be some way for me to get my students motivated to participate in class at a level higher than they ever had before. Once I put my daughter in her crib, I went back to the same recliner and proceeded to turn on my PlayStation 3 so that I could enjoy some time playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. Before starting my game, my quandary with school still on my mind, I thought to myself, “If only I could make my class more like the video games that both my students and I love.” That was when I started to create the Game-Based Classroom Management System.
The Initial Design.
When I first started to create the system, I was focused on Experience Points (XP). I created XP cards and negative XP cards. Each XP card was worth 50, 100 or -100 experience and had a message for the students either encouraging them to keep up the good work or reminding them of the importance of their education. Once I created them, I laminated them so that they could be used over and over again.
Then, I created a leveling system much like ones that would be used in role playing games (RPGs). I wanted this to be simple and easy to keep track of, so I made each level worth 1000XP. This means that in order to level up, a student had to earn 1000XP and then they got the benefits associated with that level. There were a total of 20 possible levels that students could reach with Level 20 being EPIC level and exempting students from the final. In each class, I work with students to determine what the rewards would be for leveling up and these rewards ranged from a piece of candy to a gift card from McDonalds.
To make it a little more interactive, I also created a list of Achievements that students could “unlock.” I created the achievements by looking at the knowledge and skills required by the Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS)/Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and built activities that the students could complete outside of class. To encourage the students to complete the Achievements, I made them worth extra experience.
In order to get the students invested, I had them create alter egos or characters for them to level up. Their characters also had powers and weaknesses based on how they saw themselves as a student. For example if a student felt like they were a strong writer but a weak public speaker, their character’s power and weakness might be written something like this: “Xanthem can destroy his enemies with the power of his written word, but could not scare even a mouse with his voice.”
Finally, I had the students use the learning targets and standards for the course and create a tracking sheet for their character. They looked at the standards and targets and organized them based on what they thought they needed the most and least amount of help with. They also had a place to track what level they were one.
How’d it all turn out?
Overall, the system was a huge hit. The students really got into it and my student participation has never been at the level it was at last term. All of my students enjoyed it, even those that didn’t really like video games. The students liked getting rewarded for their hard work and went the extra step to earn their experience. The classes chose their own rewards for leveling up, which were a little hard to keep up with, but the students were always ready to put me in my place when I misspoke.
I did discover that the 50XP was pretty worthless. I started giving the 50 for acts of kindness and the 100 for acts of academic merit. This seemed to work out better. At first I was giving out mostly 50XPs and no one was leveling up which is the motivation for the students, so I had to change how I was handing out XP so that students could experience success.
I also have some additions that I want to add to the system that were suggested by students. More than anything, the students asked me if there could be boss battles where they challenged either me or other English teachers to win experience. I’m not exactly sure what that is going to look like, but I am definitely going to attempt to make this happen. What could be better than your students feeling so confident in their abilities in your subject that they are willing to challenge you to a content battle?