Gamification Plan in a PreK Classroom

One of the objectives of PreK is that by the end of the year, students should be able to
name at least 20 upper case and 20 lower case letters; as well as to recognize at least 20 distinct
letter sounds. It is essential that PreK teachers make relevant connections to the real-world when
teaching letters, and not teaching them as isolated concepts, in order for students to be motivated
to learn them.
Nicholson (2014) discusses the elements to develop meaningful gamification: play,
exposition, choice, information, engagement, and reflection. To make sure that I consider these
elements in my plan, I will answer the questions he suggests designers need to think about.
• What are the core Play elements in the gamification system?
The name of my game is “Letter Monster”. The goal of the game is that students will help their
Class Dojo monster learn the letters by using different types of technology to reach the goal of
three activities (three different letters) per week. These will not be mandatory activities, but
students will want to participate since these activities allow for student-decision making and
exploration.

• How can Exposition be used to help players connect the game activities to the real world?
This game will be based on evoked narrative, which is the one that embed the game in a pre-
existing world. Students will be using different type of technology to help their Class Dojo
monster learn the letters. Students will be familiar with Class Dojo, because it is used in the
classroom for group making, attendance, keeping track of their work in their portfolio, noise
meter, etc.

▪ They will be making connections to the real world by looking for objects,
pictures, even their classmates, to represent the letter they are working on. They
will explore for objects in the room, as well as objects in the playground, when
we go outside, they can also make drawings of objects they have at home.

• How are the players given a Choice of activities?

▪ Students can decide if they want to start with the vowels, consonants, uppercase
or lowercase letters.
▪ Students decide if they want to work individually or in pairs.
▪ Students will choose the objects to represent the letter.
▪ Students choose what type of technology they will use to record their answers
(crayons, markers, paint, play-doh, chatter pix in students’ iPads, cuttings from
newspapers/magazines, recording themselves with iPads, or voice recorder)
• What ways can the players be provided with Information about their actions?

What I have noticed as a PreK teacher, is that starting to learn the letters, develops in students an
eagerness to keep learning more and more. They express their feeling of wanting to be able to
read, they start to decode their names, last names, and their best friends’ names. Students will be
able to access information by asking the teacher to show them their progress in the “Monster
Tracker”.

▪ Teacher will have a Monster Tracker, which is Word document shown in

Appendix A to keep track of each student’s progress.
▪ Students will also have access to their Class Dojo portfolio, which is where they
will keep pictures/videos of the activities they have done.

• How can the players become Engaged with each other?

Students will be able to cooperate with each other. Students will be encouraged to turn to their
classmates for help, or they can create one activity in groups of two or three, as long as each one
of them takes a picture for record in their Class Dojo portfolio.

• How do players Reflect upon what they have done?

At the end of each week, students will be able to share in the closing circle, the letters that they
chose that week, the objects they found to represent that letter, and their activity with the rest of
the class. Additionally, teacher will have ready cut and laminated ABC cards that will be used to
play “HeadBandz”. Each student will have a turn to get a card with an upper case or lower case
letter, they will go to the center of the class and the rest of the students will offer hints about the
letter, such as “it’s the first letter of apple”, “it makes the sound /a/”, or “that’s the first letter of
Alex’s name”. This will be a great way to assess students’ knowledge growth.
 Appendix A
Monster Tracker
Student: Last name, First name

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg

Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn

Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu

Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
References:

Nicholson, Scott. (2015). A RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification. 10.1007/978-3-319-10208-

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