Worldbuilding: Creating a Sustainable Classroom Environment for Gamification

Gamification has so many benefits including increased student engagement and willingness to take on new challenges without the fear of failure. We have been using Classcraft, an online gamification platform that transforms our learning into a game, and we are off to an amazing start! Part of what has made us so successful is that my students had been practicing necessary online learning skills since August, and now they are able to apply these skills independently within a blended learning environment.

I think it’s normal for the newness of an experience to wear off after a while, and it’s easy to fall into a predictable pattern of learning and planning, so I’ve taken intentional steps to keep our learning experiences fresh and engaging.

It’s my goal to create a classroom environment- our own gaming world- that makes our gamified blended learning sustainable. Community, story narrative, and engaging content are key aspects to consider when worldbuilding.

Community

Online learning is not synonymous with isolated learning. The community aspect of a classroom should transcend the actual location of learning- whether that is online or face-to-face. Regardless of where and how students are learning, they should have opportunities to interact with the content and their learning community.

Building a positive community within a competitive gaming situation is critical. Friendly competition is great, but what’s even better is a collective community that is genuinely interested in the learning of everyone involved. One way that we build our community is through collaborative battles within our game. Boss battles are formative review challenges within Classcraft where my class work together to defeat a fictional character. When the class is counting on every student to work hard and be prepared, students are motivated to invest in their peers. It’s powerful stuff!

My student groups also compete throughout the day for extra XP. The red team created a goal without any prompting from me, showing me that they are interested in building up our community too. Classcraft also has random events that can award students points, deal damage, or provide a silly way to have fun together. Whatever the outcome, whether good or bad, we are in it together, and it reinforces our community.

Narrative

Each quest within our game includes a fictional story. This narrative follows us from one adventure to another. An interesting story goes a long way toward keeping students interested in completing online tasks. I realized that my struggling readers were sometimes missing the narrative of our game because it was difficult for them to understand.

For that reason, I started creating short “quest trailers” that help students jump right into the story and understand the objective for the quest. It was a big hit with students, and after I started using these videos, my class as a whole was more interested in the story behind our game.

Since the quest trailers are a bit time consuming to create, I’ve also been using Blabberize to help students get excited about quests. It’s a quick and silly way to engage my learners, and they are excited to start making their own blabs in the near future.

Secret missions are also a bit hit for my students. I let them know that I’ve “hidden” an extra task in our quest with a large reward. They can unlock the secret mission when they complete a certain task, but they don’t know what that task is, so they are extra motivated to complete their work.

Engaging Content

Let’s be honest. Boring content is boring content. If I want my students engaged, then I need to find and create resources that they are interested in. Our online lessons include a lot of various media- articles, infographics, visual charts, pictures, Youtube videos, book read alouds, songs, and teaching videos I’ve created.

Here are a few of my favorite tools and sites for finding and creating engaging content. I'd love to hear your favorites too- add a comment below!

• Playposit allows me to make any online video interactive for my students.
• Flipgrid is a great way to allow students to interact in online discussion or demonstrate their understanding for an assessment.
• Wonderopolis is a fantastic site that provides students with interactive images and videos on a variety of topics. It’s a great way to encourage students to explore a topic.
• Thinglink allows you to make any image interactive. There are lots of different pricing plans, but the basic version is enough for me.
• Kidsdiscover has some great infographics for download.
• TheKidShouldSeeThis has short educational videos that are perfect for my learners.

Every Game Needs a Gamemaster

In this journey into gamification, I’ve realized that my students take their cues from me. While my role is to prepare content, give feedback, and provide instruction so each student moves toward mastery, I also have the important role of Gamemaster.

It’s important that I show my excitement and willingness to be silly and play with my students while we learn. I’m both the teacher and the Gamemaster. I set the tone for a positive community and a positive game experience, which means my students need to know that I’m all in!

Setting the Stage: Preparing Students for Gamification

My goal for this quarter is gamifying our blended reading groups. Gamification is incredibly motivating for students, and I am already beginning to see the benefits of using Classcraft with my learners. Before beginning though, there were a number of foundational skills and experiences that my students needed in order to find success while learning independently in a blended model.

Online Learning Skills

I remember learning last year that we read online text much differently than we read print text. It stands to reason that students need specific skills to learn independently online. I applied what I learned about creating online content and then taught my students a few specific skills to prepare them for their online learning.

First, I had to teach students the difference between watching videos for entertainment and engaging in video content for learning. It seems obvious, but students need practice engaging with media by pausing, taking notes, making sketches, asking questions, and finding connections.

Second, I’ve helped my students develop visual literacy skills through graphic novels so that they can effectively learn information from visual sources. Third, we have spent quite a bit of time self-assessing our work this year using rubrics and learning progressions. As a result, students have developed a self-awareness of their learning tendencies and self-monitoring skills needed to learn independently online.

Experience with Tools

I have been intentionally been using a variety of technology tools in class this year. From our district learning hub, student blogs, Storybird, Pixton, Blabberize, Google Classroom and Flipgrid, we have been learning and demonstrating our understanding in a variety of different ways. When creating online learning tasks, I mostly use tools my students are familiar with so that they can successfully complete independent tasks.

When introducing each new tool, I encouraged my students to explore a little bit before I modeled using the tool for our learning. I did this to allow students the opportunity to discover new tools, not just “use an app.” I want my students to know how to learn about a technology tool without me directly by their side. That way they have confidence in their tech skills when learning on their own.

Quest Support

I learned last year that it is critical to have students solving their own technical problems. My goal is to teach small groups while students are learning independently online, so I can’t continually provide tech support. This year, I have identified four students who excel at problem solving. These kiddos are able to help their classmates when they run into problems. My quest support students are also available to explain learning tasks when students are struggling, freeing me up to teach guided reading groups.

A Note on Managing Personalized Blended Learning

Part of what makes using Classcraft so great is that students can work at their own pace to complete tasks and objectives. While this is great for my students, it poses a challenge in managing the learning of my 33 students. For that reason, I created our Classcraft board. It serves as our main form of communication for the tasks were are learning.

Student have a magnets with their picture next to their team shield. When they finish a task that I need to check, they move their picture to the scroll. Once I check their work, I move their picture to the treasure chest or book to show that they have moved on to the next task or need to go back, review the feedback I left for them, and try again. This board also helps limit how many tasks students can finish in one week so that my learners are encouraged to complete work well rather than rushing to try to get ahead.

Classroom Management and Technology Procedures

It’s the beginning of the school year, and that means we spend the first few weeks teaching and reinforcing classroom procedures in order to make the rest of the school year run smoothly. Outlining procedures and norms for using technology devices is a critical factor in successful technology integration.

My personal goals for this year are centered around integrating technology. While there is much I want my students to experience and accomplish, I’ve learned that it’s best to slowly build up to using our Chromebooks. Rather than implementing our daily work plus blended learning environments for reading and math all at once, I plan to give my students time to practice our technology procedures and grow toward more complex uses and increased student responsibility over time. Reinforcing my rules and norms upfront will make all the difference.

Learning Mindset

In my classroom, we operate with the mindset that technology is a tool for learning, not a toy. Can using technology be fun and interesting? Absolutely! It’s my goal to create meaningful and engaging lessons and projects using technology. We use Kahoot to review our content, create beautifully illustrated stories with Storybird, and critique funny short films for their use of story elements.

That being said, we don’t “play” on our devices during school hours, and we don’t have free time in my classroom. Does that seem harsh? I guess I just want to make sure that my students have a learning mindset each time they open their Chromebooks. Our devices are always used for a specific purpose, and knowing that purpose promotes on-task behavior.

My Basic Rules

• Stay on task

I reinforce this rule by using the same management techniques I use when I’m teaching low-tech. I walk around, check student work, and investigate if I notice something fishy, such as frantically closing tabs as I approach. Checking internet history Google Docs revision history are great ways for me to see what my students have been up to.

• Follow safe practices

Internet safety can’t be overlooked. As fourth graders, my students must take on some responsibility to protect themselves. Google’s Be Internet Awesome resource teaches students simple rules for safe and responsible internet use. This free teaching tool allows students to play games to learn five main principles of digital citizenship including evaluating the safety of websites, personal privacy and security, and kind online interactions. It’s also paired with a free curriculum for teachers.

• Respect others

I expect my students to show common courtesy when interacting with others virtually and face-to-face. That means we practice digital citizenship at school and at home. I also continually prompt my students to partially close their screens (I call this “screens at 45 degrees”), remove headphones or earbuds, and make eye contact when someone is speaking to them.

• Bring your Chromebook to school fully charged every day

As we increase our use of technology on a daily basis, it’s critical for students to come prepared to school each day. With a full classroom, it is unrealistic to allow students to move seats and sit where they can plug in. There just isn’t enough space or outlets to accommodate.

Natural Consequences

In general, I try to make consequences as natural as possible, and I try to avoid taking away a student’s Chromebook because it is an essential learning tool in my class. Here are a few examples of some natural consequences I used last year.

Off task- If students are continually off task and not completing their work, they may have to sit at a desktop computer where I can more easily see their screen, share a computer with a responsible peer for a while, or finish incomplete work as homework. If the assignment we are working on isn’t completely tech dependent, then I may have students work with paper and pencil instead.

Inappropriate actions- This kind of behavior usually involves a call home. These students have to work at a desktop computer where I can see their screen or move to my front table with their Chromebook so I can more easily monitor their work. We also have a series of tutorials focused around our acceptable use policy that students may be required to complete before being allowed to use their Chromebook again.

Low battery- Our Chromebooks have great battery life, so the only reason a student’s battery would run low during the day is if they didn’t charge it the night before. For this reason, my students have to leave their chromebooks in the classroom during our specials class if it is not charged for the day. If Chromebooks are needed in specials that day, that means they have to use a desktop computer or share with a friend.

Incomplete homework- Believe it or not, some students may be tempted to use their Chromebook at home to play games rather than complete their homework. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with using devices to play at home, but not while ignoring homework. Last year I spoke with a few parents and we decided to have their students leave their Chromebooks at school overnight until they could complete their missing assignments. It didn’t take them long to pull it together!

Promoting Problem Solving

Is there anyone more impatient than someone wanting to use technology? Seriously. What was your reaction the last time your internet was slow or you couldn’t figure out how to use a new app? My least favorite part about incorporating technology in my class is providing tech support for 32 students while also teaching a lesson. It’s the worst situation. The last thing I want to do is run around my class showing students where they should click and restating directions. To manage this situation, there are a few things I do to promote independence and tech problem solving.

First, I expect my students to try to solve their problem in at least 3 ways before they ask for my help. They can refresh, logout, reboot, ask a few neighbors, or reread directions. My first question for a student asking for help is “What have you done to try to solve your problem?”  If I notice that many students are having the same problem, then I address the issue with my whole class by having a student use my computer and projector to show the problem and solution.

During my blended learning stations later in the year, students learn online independently while I teach small groups (see Implementing Blended Learning, Blended Learning Explained, or The Student Experience: Blended Learning for more info). I assign a few tech savvy students to be the designated tech support so that I can teach my reading groups without interruption. Having student tech support was a life saver for me!

Also, when I introduce a new app web tool that we will be using, I always give a general overview, demonstrate how we will use the tool, and then I give my students time to explore for a bit. This allows them to have time to try things out before having to apply the tool for a specific purpose. It also increases the expectation that students can navigate on their own, without needing my constant help.


I want to empower my students as much as possible! Persevering and problem solving are skills they will need for life, and they are motivated to practice these skills while using technology because they want it to work. Now is a great time to start! I hope this glance into my classroom helps you as you start your school year!

Planning for Success

Tech Camp was really great! I am so pleased with how the students responded to blended learning (see my posts So Much More Than Screen Time and The Student Experience for specifics). My next step is implementing blended learning for the last 9 weeks of school with my whole class. Like Tech camp, I will use the station rotation model of blended learning during our guided reading groups.

A large part of our success implementing blended learning during Tech Camp is that we had one teacher for each of our stations. That means that there was always a teacher available to assist students with their online learning. When students didn’t have the hang of navigating our online lessons or they had trouble with internet connectivity, there was a very knowledgeable teacher available to troubleshoot and teach students how to solve their problem independently in the future. At the same time, I was able to teach face-to-face guided reading groups with little or no interruption.

Unfortunately, I won’t have the same support during our guided reading groups for the last 9 weeks of school. I’ve given considerable thought to how I am going to support my whole class as we begin blended learning.

Taking Stock

Up to this point, my class has had limited practice using our learning management system (LMS) because I have been delivering most of our content through Google Classroom. I’ve created our blended learning content in our LMS because it has better features for what I am wanting to do. So one challenge I will face is my students' lack of experience with our LMS. Another challenge will be that I won’t be able to constantly see what my students are working on because, ideally, I’ll be teaching a small group.

At the same time, I have quite a few factors in my favor. Since this is the spring semester, my students have a clear understanding of my expectations for Chromebook use. Moreover, they are proficient in using Google docs. They are also extremely motivated to use their Chromebooks for learning tasks. Most importantly, 8 of my students attended Tech Camp, meaning I have 8 students capable of helping others to be successful.

Photo credit: Michele Eaton

Model, Reinforce, Repeat

In order to set up my students for success, I plan to provide direct support during our reading groups for the full first week of blended learning. This means that I won’t actually be teaching a small group. Instead, I’ll be modeling how to navigate our online lessons and teaching students the difference between online learning and online playing.

I also plan to give daily feedback for online work submissions in order to reinforce quality work. I also plan to project exemplary work submitted by students to motivate students to do their best. Toward the end of the week, I hope to be able to release my students to be independent while I conference with individuals or small groups of students and ask for their feedback for our online learning material. I’ll use this feedback for future content development.  

Help Wanted: Tech Support

During the second week, I plan to start teaching my guided reading groups again. I really want to protect my teaching time with my groups, but I know that independent students will eventually run into technical issues and need support during this time. This is why it is ideal to have another adult, such as a paraprofessional, available when implementing blended learning. Since all of our paraprofessionals are teaching small groups during this time, I will just have to problem solve in other ways.  

Photo credit: Michele Eaton

I have two ideas that I’m considering for this issue. First, if I have two or three students who have really found success in online problem solving, I may give them the class job of being tech support. Students with online issues would be required to check in with one tech support student before requesting my help.

There is also a chat feature within our LMS. I’m considering using that as my second line of defense. If the help desk student is unable to solve a problem, students can message me and I can attempt to help them while still teaching my group. If I get multiple messages with the same issue, I know that further intervention is needed.

The Problem of Off Task Behavior

Sooner or later, I know that I will run into the problem of finding a student who is using their Chromebook to play a game rather than complete their online learning lessons. It happened once during Tech Camp, and we were only together for a week, so I know to expect it with my whole class. During Tech Camp, we simply moved that student so we could always see his screen and our problem was solved.

If this issue arises, my first step will be having that student use one of two Chromebox stations I have set up. The larger screens face my reading table, so it will be easy for me to see what they are working on. When that student is ready to use their Chromebook again, I will partner them with a reliable student who can notify me of any problems. I’ve also thought about creating an online lesson specifically for reinforcing my Chromebook expectations. I could require students to complete the lesson before they were allowed to work independently again.

One consequence I won’t be using is completely taking away a student’s Chromebook or online access. It just doesn’t make much sense to me, especially when that is how a student will access our lesson content. Instead, I plan to take steps to reinforce positive digital citizenship and responsibility, because my students will need these skills for the rest of their lives.

Plan B

Sometimes Plan A falls apart. Five students forget to charge their Chromebooks the night before. The Internet won’t work. State testing affects our guided reading time. My baby is sick and I can’t be there to support my students. These things are going to happen, no doubt. There will always be challenges.

The best solution is to plan ahead, have realistic expectations, and be as flexible as possible. I’ll just have my students plug in and sit in a different spot when their Chromebooks aren’t charged. We will have to go back to our read and respond system from before if we can’t get connected to the internet. We will adjust our reading group time as much as possible during our testing window. When my kiddo is sick, I’ll just have my substitute choose what they are most comfortable with, either monitoring online learning or teaching small groups. I will cultivate a classroom culture of flexibility and problem solving. Any day that we can make it work will be a success, and I’ll celebrate those days.