Esteban Gaspar Silva
3. Gamification in Education
- Transforming learning into immersive experiences where students level up through creative challenges, collaborative quests, and meaningful engagement with complex ideas.
Brooklyn Prep has offered several avenues for having flexibility with the ways in which teachers approach their craft. One of my most valuable experiences and contributions has been my ability to incorporate my love for games, music, art, and identity into a variety of experimental culturally responsive lessons and units.
SETSS - Literacy and RPGs
A particular unit that stands out is when I taught a SETSS class specifically tailored to improve the literacy skills of English language learners. It was a small class of 9 students, which really lent to a multitude of possibilities. The most interesting result was when the entire class began to operate like an RPG (Role Playing Game) where students were engaged for an entire unit in a form of gamified interactive storytelling. Every student created a fictional character to play as and had to work collaboratively in order to solve mysteries. Actions in the story had an element of chance, in which students took turns rolling dice in order to find out if their proposed actions would be successful. They would have to be resourceful and use high-level critical thinking skills in order to solve problems, which could range anywhere from having to disarm a killer robot to having to comfort each other after
finding out some unfortunate news.
Typical world-building slides would be treated almost like a standard reading lesson, where students would take turns reading lengthy paragraphs out loud, describing the fictional town.
Each student got to create their own character with individual characteristics, motivations, and problems. Often, these characters would be very different from the student who created the character.
Students would sometimes get prompts, and as a class, we would write the story collaboratively, where everyone’s actions are important and considered.
Other times, students had to answer prompts together simultaneously and individually, denoting their character differences. Overall, students really learned to value and look forward to this unit in which they felt like they were not only reading a story but creating it together. There were elements of chance, and sometimes students would not be able to achieve certain goals, but part of the game is understanding that, just like real life, there are often various ways to do things, and we can’t always go back and change our actions.
Furthermore, the unit incorporated a multitude of access points and interactive elements that involved using computers, writing physically in individual booklets, creating playlists to listen to while playing, watching videos, and even experimenting with seating arrangements in conjunction with the story. When they were in class, students were fully immersed in learning. Feeling like they could explore and experiment without fear of failure. The exact nature of the class is difficult to recreate with a class size larger than 9 students, but many elements have been permanently incorporated into my teaching philosophy. Having opportunities to try different approaches and methods is really what drives much of my relationship with the school. One where the students are not the only ones learning, where everyone takes control of their own character, and ultimately understands the importance of collaboration.