by Liam Bourret-Nyffeler
I realise I have been absent and quieter these last few weeks. We have something a little more focused. I decided to try my hand at implementing a promotions system in the classes.
After a particularly unruly day with one class, I was decided to implement something similar to what was mentioned in the first 2 posts about gamification.
The idea was to create a reward system to foment the intrinsic benefits of working together as a class or team and using English.
The system is not too complicated.
In this post I would like to cover the resource systems.
There are two main resources in the game. Experience points (XP) and money ($) (hey, it's a Mexican laptop; I don't have a pound sign).
Students gain XP by completing the day's exercises and successfully showing they understand the concept and structure. The teacher (T) can adjust the totals
I.e. If the work is a little easier 2 pages are needed to gain the points.
In my test classes further points are given (around 50% of those awarded for class work to promote homework (Hwk) as, in fact, page for page, designated Hwk page(s) (is) are worth more.
I have let them do such exercises in class if they want to but at the expense of games time, activities etc.
An additional similar amount for extra things they do. E.g. Read and report on a chapter of a book. or write a Synopsis. Points for this depend highly on the work they do. A well structured (for their level) report could reap 100% of an average class.
(For reasons I will explain later this is being kept in at an average of 100..ish XP per class.. semi-arbitrary but bear with me.)
$ is earned by an achievement system. Punctuality for 4 consecutive classes. Using English as much as possible. Helping each other. Autonomous learning, I believe, should be regarded with the high..est...... regard.
Critique: So far, things have worked well.
The children although generally not that bad. Got straight down to... what's that charming expression in English... brass tacks? Either way they started work.... BEFORE class had officially began and with passive supervision. In the second class during ice breaker activities. There was some cheekiness ... in buena onda... I could tell it was just for a laugh I played along and we got down to work.
A few moments crept up where blatant disregard for my instructions was met.
I chose to ignore such behaviour and focus on the others making a show of the points they were getting. Soon enough the student in question came back over asking for a hand with the next question. After a time the behaviour got worse and two of them began to use the cork board for darts practice. I explained that it could be dangerous and was ignored. The threat of 5 points being removed was far more effective than predicted. Yet again I found myself in the same situation... I took of 5 points and threatened another 20 ....
What started as a reluctant handing pins over turned into a flurry of... well .. like ..... this
http://www.bestofgooglevideo.com/video.php?video=160
albeit sans lethal weapons... but a pin in the eye is no laughing matter. In short, he handed a good deal of them over very quickly.
I can only speculate but once the others gain further points a little something called the Chain of Command will come into play and he will work hard to catch up.
On the negative side, no one seems to be taking the initiative and doing extra work. Perhaps more points are needed or some other form of incentive.
Summary
2 resources: XP and $
XP: gained for work in class.
Homework with a bit of a boost as an incentive.
Extra, voluntary activities.
$: rewarded for something a little "beyond the call of duty" the idea being that it can be spent on "special abilities" which I will cover in the next update.
