Blog 13 Gamification in my classes

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will reflect about the role that gamified elements have in my classes at the CCA for the motivation of my students and my creativity as an English Teacher. For this entry, first I will write a short definition of what gamification is and what are its adavantages when teaching kids and teens. Then, I mention some activities and stretagies I made based on gamification in my classes at the CCA. Finally, I will reflect on the importance that gamification has at the CCA and how could I implemented in future class escenarios.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

How has the use of gamified elements (such as points, challenges, or badges) influenced your students’ motivation and engagement during lessons?

What aspects of your current teaching practice could be further enhanced through gamification to promote deeper learning and participation?

Gamification

In simple words, gamification referes to the implementation of elements of video games, such as progression, challenges or rewards, in the development of non-game contexts, like classes in this case. Its main purpose, in the area of teaching, its to make lessons more attractive and engaging by catching the attention of students and motivate them to participate for a reward. This definition is important as it differs from game-based learning, which refers to the use of actual games as part of the learning process to teach specific content or skills.

Some integrations of gamification in a class include the use of points when a student complets a task or the creation of challenges to make classes more engaging. One example, can be the use of apps, like ClassDojo, in which students are given points when following instructions or completing specific task, like participating or being the first ones to finish an activity.

In my classes:

In the case of my classes, I normally tend to implement more game-based learning as I like students to be activtive and play. I like to make role plays, play with flascards and use some games like pictionary or Taboo to teach vocabulary and/or grammar. Nonetheless, from time to time, I like to implement stategies like giving points to groups when their finish fast or when evaluating an activity. However, I must be careful as there can be students who are really competitive or that can be upset when implementing gamification.

For example, in TB1 1.1 for the free practice, students created their stores and tryed to sell and buy products. While participating the students would gather points for each thing the buy and the money they earned. When the activity finished, the groups with the most sells and most adquisitions would win.

Reflection:

Gamification is a pretty interesting strategy when trying to grab students attention by making classes more challenging and competitive. By nature, us humans, we like competing and, as I have been able to see, teachers could really profit from this to make classes interesting and motivating for students. I plan to continue implementing this strategies as the can be really helpful for students. For example, I could create a progression bar during the semester and if a student complets the bar they will win a prize. Gamification can be a good ally when done correctly. As our supervisors let us knew, gamification is a must have at the CCA if we want to improve or profesional development.