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You’re reading Part 1 in our guest series contributed by Classcraft Ambassador Sam Schneider. Read our interview with Sam here.
As a teacher, one of my personal goals has always been getting students to engage with material that would otherwise bore them. It seems like every day there is a new technique to get students involved in their own learning process, but even those methods don’t always grab the student’s interest. Using Classcraft revolutionized my classroom management, and then I realized it could change the way I presented my lessons, too.
Suddenly, I was taking each unit and transforming it into an adventure, or story. By incorporating simple elements you can find in standard video games and board games, you can easily add excitement and suspense to researching topics, completing assignments, and even taking assessments.
Here are some easy ways to sneak popular teaching strategies into your class.
Tip #1: Understanding by Design (UbD) – The concept of building a lesson backward with the goal in sight is quintessential for most dungeons/adventures. Lay out a task and make it the boss or the reward. Then start mapping out the steps leading to the end of the lesson.
An example from my music class: “Attack of the Dust Bunnies,” where students were being swarmed by dust bunnies sent by the Dust Bunny King. In reality, they were completing worksheets and exercises working towards an assessment of their Music Theory knowledge. The concept of “seeing the boss” off in the distance gave purpose to fighting off the swarms and gave a visual sequence to the concepts they were doing to reach the final assessment/goal.
Stay tuned on Monday for tip #2!
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