I've been playing with the idea of gamifying the library since before I got my job at PCHS last January, but I wasn't quite ready to actually plan it until our Tech Facilitator, Jenny Remington proposed setting up the Freshman English class like a game which sounded like a great idea to me! Freshman English teacher Cara Shelton was amenable, but had concerns about our time frame. She suggested we scale back from the whole class to just a portion of it, and free reading seemed like a good first step. We used Lee Shelton's book "The Multiplayer Classroom" for ideas and structural foundations, and came up with a working plan over about a two-week period. PCHS is on a block schedule, so we were able to start with new classes even though it's the middle of the year.
The three of us had a few meetings in real time, but also collaborated via a Google word doc and spreadsheet (which I will share here when we're finished tweaking them) since our schedules were less flexible during exam week. None of us are serious gamers, although I am surrounded by them, both in my family and at the monthly gaming group I run at the library. We all conferred with our favorite gamers as we worked through our planning. I also asked for input from some folks in my Twitter PLN (Jennifer LaGarde, Lucas Gillispie, and Matthew Winner) and got a few helpful resource suggestions from them.
We rolled out the project on Monday, January 27th with Ms Shelton's 3 freshman English classes. We gave them a rough overview of how the game would proceed, emphasizing that they could read whatever they wanted and choose their own projects, or even choose NOT to do projects if they would rather get their points primarily from reading. We also made sure they understood that they could quit reading if a book didn't interest them, redo projects without penalties, and propose their own projects. Ms Shelton (who is a wonderfully engaging teacher) asked for patience from the students as we tweak the project and learn along with them as we go through the semester. It was fun to see the students' responses - from cautiously optimistic to highly motivated. A few were practically on their feet as they realized they would be competing with other classes to accumulate the highest number of points. And not one student asked about prizes.
After we introduced the game, we took the students to the library, where I ran through my library introduction spiel (how to use the catalog, policies, etc) and we talked with the students about how to choose a good book. We were anticipating potential snow days ahead, so encouraged them to take more than one. Between the 3 classes, there are about 70 students with a wide range of reading abilities and interests. Four other classes had been through a similar process (without the gamification - they will keep reading journals) the previous week, so the collection was getting a little picked over. I've been working hard to improve our fiction collection though, so I was pleased that most of the Freshmen found what they were looking for.
We plan to reconvene Friday and start having conferences, filling out One Pagers (From 'Readicide"), beginning projects, and starting the leader boards. This should be a crazy but fun ride! Hopefully it will help the students develop the habit of reading and improve their reading fluency, but our primary goal is for them to discover that they enjoy reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as we implement ReadingQuest - our gamified reading project.
The three of us had a few meetings in real time, but also collaborated via a Google word doc and spreadsheet (which I will share here when we're finished tweaking them) since our schedules were less flexible during exam week. None of us are serious gamers, although I am surrounded by them, both in my family and at the monthly gaming group I run at the library. We all conferred with our favorite gamers as we worked through our planning. I also asked for input from some folks in my Twitter PLN (Jennifer LaGarde, Lucas Gillispie, and Matthew Winner) and got a few helpful resource suggestions from them.
We rolled out the project on Monday, January 27th with Ms Shelton's 3 freshman English classes. We gave them a rough overview of how the game would proceed, emphasizing that they could read whatever they wanted and choose their own projects, or even choose NOT to do projects if they would rather get their points primarily from reading. We also made sure they understood that they could quit reading if a book didn't interest them, redo projects without penalties, and propose their own projects. Ms Shelton (who is a wonderfully engaging teacher) asked for patience from the students as we tweak the project and learn along with them as we go through the semester. It was fun to see the students' responses - from cautiously optimistic to highly motivated. A few were practically on their feet as they realized they would be competing with other classes to accumulate the highest number of points. And not one student asked about prizes.
After we introduced the game, we took the students to the library, where I ran through my library introduction spiel (how to use the catalog, policies, etc) and we talked with the students about how to choose a good book. We were anticipating potential snow days ahead, so encouraged them to take more than one. Between the 3 classes, there are about 70 students with a wide range of reading abilities and interests. Four other classes had been through a similar process (without the gamification - they will keep reading journals) the previous week, so the collection was getting a little picked over. I've been working hard to improve our fiction collection though, so I was pleased that most of the Freshmen found what they were looking for.
We plan to reconvene Friday and start having conferences, filling out One Pagers (From 'Readicide"), beginning projects, and starting the leader boards. This should be a crazy but fun ride! Hopefully it will help the students develop the habit of reading and improve their reading fluency, but our primary goal is for them to discover that they enjoy reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as we implement ReadingQuest - our gamified reading project.
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