What’s a Gamer Brain and How Can We Harness It in Class?

What’s a Gamer Brain and How Can We Harness It in Class?
Leverage your students’ favorite video and board games to unlock what engages them.
By Andrew Miller
February 7, 2017

In the past, I’ve written on ideas for gamification—using games in the classroom—but lately I’ve been reflecting on some of the bigger ideas that games open up in terms of pedagogy and the classroom experience. While we can use games as tools and perhaps build units that are gamified, we might also adopt some basic ideas from the experience of playing games.

 Here are four takeaways from games that we can instill in our classrooms.

1. Leverage the Gamer Brain
People like different kinds of games. You may love a game that your friends don’t like. This is only natural, as different games have different motivations, mechanics, and other design elements. However, these games access different parts of the “gamer brain,” a concept developed by Rob Beeson, a game marketer and producer. Perhaps you’re a Socializer who likes to talk and support other people while you game. People play World of Warcraft for this reason. Or maybe you’re an Achiever who enjoys the process of collecting objects and completing every available goal. Obviously, Pokémon—the card game and the mobile app—aligns well here. Games may leverage one or more gamer types in their design, and our lessons can too.

How can you use this in your classroom?
- Have students self-assess what type of gamer brain they might be.
- Have students discuss their favorite games to uncover how they like to engage in their gaming time.
- Playing games with students and have them reflect on why they like the games. Use that information as feedback for lesson and unit design.
- Create a lesson with different types of activities for different gamer types to pick from—perhaps a collection-based activity or a more social one, for example.

TPEP Criteria Connection: 3.3: Strategies that capitalize on learning needs of students; 3.4: Differentiated Instruction


2. Embrace Failure

This is not a new idea, but it’s still an important one. Games can be played over and over, and we can fail and make mistakes and try again. Can you imagine what it would be like to play a game like Super Mario Brothers and only have one shot to get it right? Crazy! Unfortunately, much of the school system and our classroom structures are set up that way. While it is challenging, we need to find ways to allow students to redo work and try again. Games give the just-in-time feedback that shows us what we need to do better, and we teachers can do the same to make failure simply part of the process, not an end. Watch Edutopia’s “5-Minute Film Festival: Freedom to Fail Forward” for more inspiration.

How can you use this in your classroom?- Assess your grading practices to ensure they allow for multiple tries and redos.
- Don’t grade practice—grade students at their best.
- Embed reflection throughout your lessons to help students learn from their failures and mistakes.
- Share famous failures and inspirational quotes to help reframe failure into a more positive experience.

TPEP Criteria Connection: 2.2: Expectation, support and opportunity for participation and meaning making; 5.3: Use of learning time; 6.2: Demonstration of Learning; 

3. Celebrate Epic Wins
Have you played a game and had a moment when you won and were so excited that you blurted out “Yes!” in celebration? That’s the epic win or “fiero,” as Jane McGonigal explains in her book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World: “Fiero is what we feel after we triumph over adversity. You know it when you feel it—and when you see it. That’s because we almost all express fiero in exactly the same way: We throw our arms over our head and yell.” To me, this means that learning should be challenging, but appropriately so. We should create challenging learning experiences so that students are given enough support to triumph and feel the epic win. We should also celebrate ourselves and each other when we get those wins in the classroom.

How can you use this in your classroom?
- Have students celebrate everyday wins regularly as a discussion or journal activity.
- Record reactions of students being successful and share them with the class.
- Share your successes and wins as a teacher with your colleagues.

TPEP Criteria Connections: 3.1: Teaching point(s) are based on students' learning needs; 3.2: Ownership of Learning

4. Foster Voluntary Learning
We don’t—or at least we shouldn’t—play games because we have to. We do it because we choose to. When we pick up a controller or a chess piece, we’re volunteering into that experience. Games would not be as powerful if we had to play. We can stop when we want, which creates a feeling of safety. When we step into a game, we accept “the goals, the rules, and the feedback” of the game. This is probably the hardest aspect of games to instill in education. Students are required to go to school, and what they learn is mandated. However, we can do our best to create invitations to learn and to create spaces where students volunteer to learn.

How can you use this in your classroom?- Focus on engaging strategies like project-based learning to open the door to learning, instead of forcing students through it.
-- Provide as much choice as possible for students, from grouping to product and topics.
- Give a student a pass if they don’t want to engage, and seek to understand why that is. Then follow up and invite them back to the task.
- Ask students what they want to learn about, and do your best to leverage this in lesson and unit design.

TPEP Criteria Connection: 2.5: Gradual release of responsibility; 3.2: Ownership of learning.

Sticking the Landing: Closure in the Classroom

Sticking the landing. This phrase is typically used when referring to gymnasts as they finish their routine with a perfect landing. 

This phrase also applies to closure in the classroom.

Tyler Reese, an educational blogger, writes: “How a lesson ends can affect a learner's ability to organize, evaluate, and store information presented in class. Although we give emphasis to hooking students' interest at the start of instruction, the end is often hurried and overlooked. These emergency landings leave students struggling to absorb newly acquired knowledge as they rush out the door to the drone of homework reminders and announcements. Teachers tend to subconsciously undervalue closure; as a result, they don't plan for it and miss out on the opportunity to collect rich learner feedback.”

One take-away from this article that many teachers found comforting was that closure doesn’t have to be at the end of the lesson. It can, in fact, happen during a transition in the middle of class or even at the beginning of the period the next day! Providing enough time for kids to reflect on the days learning is just as important as what they are reflecting about.

We can have the most amazing lesson with student talk, engaged students, and critical thinking. We could be on fire with our teacher moves, questioning strategies and checks for understanding. But, if we don’t give kids enough time to reflect and connect to that new learning we would expect the same results a gymnast would if they didn’t stick the landing-- a less than perfect lesson.

Start sticking the landing in your classroom by reading about Reese’s strategies to plan routine closure in your classroom! Need strategies for a closure activity? Visit our formative assessment blogs for ideas!

FUN Formative Assessment Strategies

As we swiftly move through September, we are all coming to a point where kids’ understanding of our content’s standards should be our focus. Providing formative assessments helps us not only know where kids are, but they are also tell kids where they are as they navigate through their own understanding of the content and standards.

This week’s instructional tip is a few new and exciting (and dare I say, even fun) formative assessments to shake things up in your classroom.

Here are some strategies compiled by K. Lambert of OCPS Curriculum Services. Note, most of these strategies make for a great closure activity! Bonus!


Onion Ring: Students form an inner circle and an outer circle facing a partner. The teacher asks a question and the students are given time to respond to their partner. Next, the inner circle rotates to one person to the left. The teacher asks another question and the cycle repeats itself.


Analogy Prompt: Present student with an analogy prompt. Example: (A designated concept, principle, or process) is like ___________________ because_________________.


ABC Summaries: Each student in the class is assigned a different letter of the alphabet and they must select a word starting with that letter that is related to the topic being studied.


Fill in Your Thoughts: Written check for understanding strategy where students fill in the blank. Example: Another term for rate of change is ___________or ___________. (This is a good reading formative assessment for ALL content areas)


Idea Spinner: The teacher creates a spinner marked into 4 quadrants and labeled “Predict,” “Explain,” “Summarize,” and “Evaluate.” After a new material is presented, the teacher spins the spinner and asks students to answer a question based on the location of the spinner. Example: If the spinner lands on the “Summarize” quadrant the teacher might say, “List the key concepts just presented.”


One Word Summary: Ask students to select (or invent) one word that best summarizes the topic. You can have them share this word in a variety of ways: to you at the door, on a sticky note or note card…


Have fun trying out a variety of these engaging formative assessment strategies!

And as always, we’d love to hear from you and are glad to take any suggestions for our instructional tips.


Bridget and Brooke

Increasing Student Engagement and Rigor with Student Talk

Teachers often feel as though they need to debrief any student talk (pairs, small groups) with the entire class. Consider this for keeping the momentum up in your class.

Rather than calling on students after a pair share or small group discussion, circulate around the room during that discussion time and note the BEST THINKING that you hear.  

You could write on a small whiteboard, and then you could hold it up to show students your notes, or you could write notes on a clipboard and display them using the document camera. When you bring the class back together, share the BEST THINKING and use student names.  

Advantages:

• Everyone hears the BEST THINKING.
• BEST THINKING provides a model for rigorous work for the entire class.
• You elevate student status by naming students who demonstrated good thinking.
• It’s quick—you can share what you heard in a minute or less, and keep the momentum of the class going toward the next activity.
• Listening to pairs/groups provides you with a formative assessment opportunity, and gives you the opportunity to address any misconceptions students may have.
• Shy or introverted students will be less intimidated sharing in a pair or small group, and elevated when you share their good thinking.

Students talk in pairs = 100% of students participate

Teacher calls on 5 students in a class of 32 = 16% of students participate

Strategies to keep audience learning during peer presentations

Many teachers incorporate student presentations as an essential part of their classes. The challenge is to ensure that the listeners in the room continue to learn during the presentations.  Giving students a specific assignment to do in relation to the presentation will raise the level of audience thinking and engagement.

First, ask students, “What does it mean to be a good audience member during presentations? How might you maximize your learning from these presentations?” You might want to co-create the success criteria with students on the white board.

For a content-based presentation, you might also ask students to:

1.      1.  Be a critic on the content presented. Students could list strengths/weaknesses of the presented content.
2.       Create a list of questions about the content of the presentations. Teacher could cold-call on 2-3 students after each presentation to share their questions with the presenter. OR, the teacher could ask students in pairs or small groups to record three questions raised by the presentation. They could then choose the best one to add to a Google Doc or place on a Post-It for sharing.
3.       Take notes on the speaker’s presentation.
4.       Write a summary of the presenter’s information.
5.       Develop an argument on the opposing side if the student is trying to argue or persuade the audience.
6.       Think of themselves as researchers needing to develop the next research question, listing the next steps.
7.       Pause between presentations to give students a chance to ask questions, clarify and consolidate their notes with others.
8.       Insert brief demonstrations, short ungraded exercises, and/or simulation exercises between presentations to apply the learning.
9.       Use clickers or electronic programs such as Socrative, Plickers, or Kahoot to find out if students are understanding the material.
10.   Give specific feedback based on the rubric for the presentations

For a presentation evaluated on performance or presentation skills, you might also ask students to:

1.      1.         Complete a rubric on the presenter.
2.      Offer the presenter “Two Stars” (positive feedback) and a “Wish” (suggestion to improve their presentation).

Please share with us any other ideas that you have used in the classroom!

Some of the ideas above came from http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/spal.shtml and   https://www.sdstate.edu/engr/upload/Engaging-Students-ASEE-CoE-3-24-11.pdf