Gamify Reading with Little Effort

As a middle school English teacher, I found myself getting stuck in the read-answer questions-review answers cycle. If I was bored, what were my poor students feeling? A great alternative to this predictable lesson sequence comes in the form of game-based learning, during which student learning occurs through the playing of games. In other words, it is the game that is the learning activity and “by playing the game, students reach the instructional objectives” (Blass & Tolnai, 2019)*.

Traditionally, gamification has always sounded more feasible to me, which is the processes of inserting game dynamics and/or mechanics in a non-game setting (like the classroom). This often occurs through the use of digital badges, leaderboards, etc. Game-based learning always seemed daunting, and I imagined turning my classroom into one big video game in order to accomplish it–talk about overwhelming for someone who can count on one hand how many computer games she has played!

Then a good friend of mine, social studies teacher and instructional coach Emily Nance, showed me how she implemented game-based learning to “spice up” an article about Henry Knox’s role in the Revolutionary War. Our discussion resulted in the following: A generic game board that can be used with any reading in any grade level or content area.

Materials needed:

• An article, short story, poem, novel chapter, etc.
• Game board (digital or printed)
• 2 Player pieces (digital or printed)
• Dice (digital, paper cube, or actual dice)
• Set of text-dependent questions for Player 1
• Different set of text-depended questions for Player 2

Instructions:
In preparation for the game, all students read the associated article, short story, etc.

1. Players each roll the dice. Whoever rolls the highest number goes first (Player 1).
2. Player 2 reads a text-dependent question.
3. If Player 1 gets the answer right, (s)he rolls the dice & advances on the game board. If Player 1 gets the answer wrong, it is Player 2’s turn.
4. Player 1 reads a text-dependent question.
5. If Player 2 gets the answer right, (s)he rolls the dice & advances on the game board. If Player 2 gets the answer wrong, it is Player 1’s turn.

First player to the end wins!

Here is a generic template (pictured above) that you can use to customize the game for the text you choose. If you choose to keep it all digital, share a Google “force copy link” with students, and one of the players can open it for the pair. Digital player pieces and a link to digital dice are included.

Try gradually increasing the depth of knowledge of the questions, or the level of inference needed to answer. For the English Language Arts classroom, consider asking questions about content, structure, author’s purpose, and more!

Level up by having students create their own text dependent questions for the game. If you have your students take Cornell Notes, they could pull their questions from the left-hand column of their notes where they record questions, key words, big ideas, etc.!

* Power Up Your Classroom by Lindsey Blass and Cate Tolnai (2019).