One teacher's journey through
Side Quests are exactly what they sound like; they are assignments students complete besides their course work. side quests allow students to voluntarily explore the content they are most interested in and create projects to show their knowledge. Students earn XP and items in return for their efforts. The bigger the challenge the side quest provides, the greater the rewards! Michael Matera introduced the idea of side quests to me in his blog. Now he has a whole section about them in his book, Explore Like a PIRATE, about different side quests he has his students complete. When I first read about side quests I was surprised that students would be willing to complete these amazing projects for absolutely zero credit for their grade. It honestly seemed a little too good to be true. I wondered if students would seriously be willing to do extra work for no credit, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that students not only are willing to do this, but many create absolutely amazing things to earn items and XP! Not all students in your class will complete side quests and that is okay! Focus on how rewarding it is for the students who do complete them! Anything that gets most of your students to spend their free time engaging in your content is a win! Make sure you differentiate the types of side quests you have posted, so you can try to reach as many students as possible! Try to have some lower level side quests like creating bumper stickers for students that want to be involved, but maybe don't have the time to build the whole city of Rome. At the same time, don't forget about students who are high achievers and want a challenge! Hide some secret side quests in your room or on the website for them to find. Have some side quests that require a lot of research and time such as creating a documentary or building an ancient city in Minecraft. Another important tip about side quests is that you should try to reward students quickly for their efforts. I really try to assess student work the day they turn in the side quest if it is possible, otherwise, I always make sure I give student rewards by the end of the week. Rewarding them quickly is important because it reinforces that you appreciate the student taking the time to create this extra project! It also helps if you give the reward to the student at the beginning of the class so other students can see what they earned. If it is a good item, I guarantee you will receive more side quests from other students in the class that week! Here are some pictures of some of my favorite physical side quests I've received! I've also received a lot of digital ones, but unfortunately I'm not able to share those on here. What do you guys like to have students do for side quests in your class? Share your ideas in the comment section!
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For my first post I thought I would start from the very beginning. The most common question I get asked when people find out that I gamify my class is how I got started. The summer after my first year of teaching, I was reflecting on my year. I successfully survived it, however, I had issues with classroom management. During my first year I quickly realized that students will not just sit quietly and listen to me lecture, and they would not always be interested in reading from the textbook and answering questions. I knew that I had to find a way to be better the next year and not just teach my students like I had been taught, because it really doesn't work. That is when a friend recommended I read Teach Like a PIRATE by Dave Burgess she said she thought it was exactly what I was looking for. I bought the Kindle version of this book, I read it in a day, and I never looked back! That book hit on everything on wanted to be as a teacher! I knew I found a kindred spirit, and even better there was a whole online community of like -minded educators at #TLAP. I had never participated in a Twitter chat before, but I figured I had nothing to lose. I jumped in and started talking to teachers from all over the country. During the chat, I found out about #sstlap (Social Studies Teach Like a Pirate). I started reading through this feed and stumbled upon a post by Michael Matera about Gamification. I was intrigued and clicked on his blog. This was the first time I read anything about Gamification in the classroom, and while I read his blog I immediately became inspired! This was exactly what I needed! I nervously tweeted at Michael and told him I loved his blog and asked if he had any advice about gamification for a newbie. Michael was the best and immediately offered to do a Google Hangout with me! (For the record, I will happily pay it forward and Google Hangout with anyone who has questions about Gamification!) We ended up talking for over an hour and he graciously answered every question I had about gamification! I am forever grateful to you Michael! Since then he wrote the book Explore like a PIRATE! If you want a practical field guide to gamification buy his book! Talking with Michael was the boost I needed to get started. During our conversation I wrote down notes about everything from Houses, to guilds, to items. After our conversation I immediately started brainstorming House names for my classes and created my first two items. I realized gamification would be a lot of work, but I was hoping it would be worth it.
Phase One During my first year I literally made things up as I went along. My number one tip if you are planning on starting a year long game don't worry about having literally every detail planned out before you get started. It is nearly impossible, and the key to making your game a success is flexibility and learning what works and what doesn't with your students. During my first year I made up items and badges as I went along. My class game was more of a side project for students, and I had a decent number of students participate, and they all enjoyed it, however, I knew I wanted to get more students involved and excited about the game the next year. I realized in order to do that I had to embed the game more deeply into my class. Phase Two During my third year teaching and my second year gamifying I knew I had to tie the game more closely to the fabric of my classroom. I started having weekly challenges for students to earn XP. I encouraged students to work on side quests if they finished assignments early. I displayed my leaderboard to the class once a week so they could see how their class was progressing. I realized about halfway through the year I didn't need to do this anymore because many students bookmarked my website so that they could constantly check the leaderboard. I always called my classes by their House names instead of Period 1, 2, etc. Doing this made even more students invested in the game. I was so pleased with the way students responded to this! I received a lot more side quests, I had students start coming up with item ideas for me, and I had students coming in during lunches to work on side quests to help their class win. On the end of the year survey I gave students the majority of them said they loved Game of Nobles and that it was their favorite part of my class. Phase Three After the successes of the last two years I continued to build upon my game. This year I added more complicated items such as "cursing" another House to make them lose XP for bad behavior. I started adding a lot more items that involved dice to increase suspense for rewards. I also added Battle Points (BP) to add even more advantages to challenges in my class. Out of all my years of gamification I had the most students participate by turning in side quests. I also loved that it was a really close game and it was not until the very end that a winner could be declared. Once again on my end of the year survey students said that Game of Nobles was their favorite part of my class. Phase Four After 4 years of teaching 7th grade I am switching to 8th grade. This will make the upcoming year particularly challenging because I will have students who played my game before. This summer I am working on a new game and I am working on adding new twists and turns to keep students excited! I am hoping to document and share my experiences with the creation of my new game on here to help teachers get started on their own gamification journeys! |
AuthorI am a passionate teacher from Maryland! I've been teaching social studies for four years, three of which were gamified. I've fully embraced the Teach Like a PIRATE/ Explore Like a PIRATE philosophy in my classroom, and have seen amazing results as far as engagement, excitement, and learning in my classroom. ArchivesCategories |