Week 9: Gamification




Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. For instance, rewarding students with stickers, stars and stamps after completing their tasks.  

 This is an important tool that can be used in classrooms in order to call student's attention and make them participate. In this case, for instance, Kahoot was used to asses students after the lesson. Kahoot has been a interesting and entertaining tool to work with, because it gives score in every question, so students will play and thinks fast in order to think. 

The limitation has to do with the use of internet and the need of having students focus on the activity, otherwise it won´t work, no matter how interesting it is. 

The following is a lesson plan made to work with Kahoot.



Unit 2: Customs and traditions
Lesson plan
Context: Class of 22 students from the Third grade of high school in a private school in Valparaíso
Objectives: Students will review vocabulary related to cities of the world, currency, and nationalities in order to complete a game to assess their learning. 
Materials:
  • Computer 
  • Speakers 
  • Cellphones 
  • Projector 
  • Book.
Time:  90 minutes
Activity:


Introduction:
As a warm up the teacher will recall previous knowledge about the grammar aspect Present Simple by showing a powerpoint presentation and asking them some question related to the topic (appendix 1). Then, to relate the content to the theme unit, the teacher will refer to other cultures by asking learners:

What are some other cultures you find interesting? and why?
Did you have the chance to meet those different cultures?
Students will answer these questions randomly.
 
Development:


The teacher will present a video called “Where are you from” and ask the students to pay attention to the Present Simple structures and the nationalities of the people from the video. The video will be watched twice, first to interiorize, then to write the nationalities of the people presented on the video and to write facts about what they say. When they finish watching the video, the teacher can clarify doubts related to unknown vocabulary that may have created problems for the learners.

Then, the teacher will project images of important city landmarks, giving some hints in case no one knows, and students will have to identify saying the name of the cities, countries, nationalities, and currency.

Closing:

Students will play in an activity created with Kahoot in order to demonstrate their learning about the grammar concept Present simple and new vocabulary. To do so, the teacher will explain to the class how they are going to enter the website and what the game is about.

Students will gather in pairs and will use their mobile phones to answer in the game. In the end, students will be able to see their score and to review their mistakes as feedback. 

Appendix 1:  






Comentarios

  1. Anónimo23 de octubre de 2018 a las 8:57

    I found really interesting using gamification in education since this term has been used in the market industry.
    I have used Kahoot with second graders of a high school and it was really entertaining for them however one of the main drawbacks is that students chose names that were not appropriate to the class; fortunately, the website allows to delete those names hahaha.

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