Classroom Gamification: Three Gaming Options For Educational Purposes
In the last couple of years, the world fell hard on cyberspace in order to keep a type of contact that was no longer viable to be physical.
The educational system, for instance, was adapted to work online, and classes took a special place in virtual meetings.
A funny way to ease this new form of communication was gamification.
The term refers to the practice of using games’ dynamics in non-gaming environments, like in the classroom.
Teachers started to look for tools to keep their students engaged in classes or practice what has been taught, and games became the perfect way to fuse education and fun.
That’s why I decided to suggest four games for educational purposes in addition to some pro tips to boost your gaming experience in the classroom.
StopotS — The Online Categories Game
StopotS is a great option to develop the student’s lexis and memory agility. Every player must fill a specific category with a word that starts with a randomized letter in the game.
For example, imagine that the round’s letter is A. One must fill the food category with a word with A, like Avocado.
Every answer can be evaluated when the time is over. 10 points are added to original answers, 5 for repeated ones, and none for invalid answers.
The game supports rooms for 30 players, which is perfect for medium-size classes. If you want to know more about StopotS, please read our dedicated article by clicking here!
Pro tip: The room’s creator can personalize the themes so the teacher can customize them to specific topics.
For instance, a grammar teacher can include categories such as word classes (adjectives, verbs, and nouns). A geography teacher can include cities and countries.
StopotS is available in 8 different languages.
Gartic Phone — The Telephone Game
The popular online “Telephone game” is ideal for stimulating creativity and grammar practice.
There are several possible ways to play Gartic Phone. You can check how you can customize and play the game at this link.
I would recommend a special mode for language and grammar teachers: The inverted Icebreaker.
In summary, everyone starts drawing a scene, then the remaining turns are dedicated to describing these drawings. That’s a good way to practice a language’s syntax, morphology, and other grammar properties.
The Inverted Icebreaker is a specific custom setting, but you can play it by clicking here!
Gartic Phone is available in 41 different languages.
Party Mode on Words On Stream (WOS)
WOS is the perfect online find-the-anagram game for large audiences, for there are no player limits for WOS! Language and grammar teachers should definitely try it.
Enter the party mode website here!
Share the screen and ask for the participants to scan the QR code.
Done! Now you can start the game, and everyone must type the words on their cell phones while they watch your sharing screen.
WOS helps to exercise the students’ lexis and logical abilities, and it also helps to expand their vocabulary.
WOS is available both in English and Portuguese.
Gartic.io—The drawing-and-guessing game
The last option is Gartic.io, the drawing-and-guessing game. The dynamic is quite simple:
The round’s artist receives a word to draw, and the remaining players try to guess what the drawing is. Those who guess it right first earn more points.
The advantage of Gartic.io is the possibility of creating a theme. You can personalize the theme for a specific subject, adapting it to different subjects in your classroom.
You might include historical characters if you are a history teacher or chemical elements if you are a chemistry teacher.
The possibilities are numerous with Gartic.io!
Gartic.io is available in 26 different languages.
As a teacher, now you can gamify your classes, bringing a little bit of fun to them. Share with us in the comments your experience with your class’s gamification!
