Classcraft and world languages

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Share your ideas here!

- Mélysa Fréchette, Community Manager, melysa@classcraft.com

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First!

German teacher here. I love using Classcraft to reward students for behaviors that I cannot quantify and put into gradebook, and for foreign language, we have a lot of those. These behaviors are often extremely valuable to their learning, but many students don't connect the action to the reward/consequence unless they are given points. Enter Classcraft.

Here are things I use Classcraft for that I found to show improvement in their fluency. 

  1. +10XP Asking a question/responding to a comment in the target language. I usually work up to giving a prompt or intro talking point at the beginning of class. This could be just to practice a grammar structure to actually prompting them to share their opinions in the TL if you have upper levels. I tell them that I don't care what happens as long as they stay in the TL. Then I walk around and tally up points on a clipboard to put in at the end of the day. 

  2. -5HP for speaking unnecessary English. When we are doing our warm-up for 1-2 minutes, I flip my flag to German and they know to stay in German. If they crack and revert to English, they lose a little HP. This makes it a sort of challenge they have to carry out for a couple minutes. They also learn KEIN ENGLISCH relatively quickly and start telling it to each other. During the course of the year, I'll also remove it if they ask classroom commands (Can I go to the bathroom?) in English instead of German. 

  3. +XP for trading and correcting a partner's assignment. After they work on a worksheet, I usually create an answer key that they can grab to correct a partner's assignment in red pen for XP. This is a good learning experience for them, but also saves me a ton of work...which is mainly why I like it to be honest. If they do a good job correcting it, they get full XP for the assignment and a bonus 50. If they don't correct, then I'll remove appropriate XP for incorrect answers. However, as long as they try, then they get full points in the official gradebook. 

  4. +5XP for looking up a word and adding it to their vocab lists. Every chapter I give a colorful vocabulary list. But obviously I give out way more vocabulary in conversation and on warm-up slides. If they find a new word, look it up, and add it to the bonus section at the bottom, then at the end of the chapter I'll add +5XP per word. This is good for the quiet types that like to find things. 

  5. +XP for studying their vocab. If you use a vocab website (I use Memrise), then this allows me to reward the students that put in the extra time to really study their vocabulary. I assign it as weekly homework, but I always have students that go above and beyond, so they get a ton of XP. I also give them a bonus if they beat their whole class and an additional bonus if they beat me on it. 

  6. Power- Watching a Movie. Something I do with them anyway, but this makes them feel they have a choice in the matter. All the healers need to earn the power and use it at the same time. 

  7. Power- Playing a Mini-Game. The mages have this one. If two mages use it, they can grab a card out of my basket and I'll prepare the mini-game for the next day. Usable once per week. All are language based and good for practice. Again, allows a little choice on their part. I had a really good website with mini-games, but sadly the guy deleted it. 

Well, that's all I can think of right now! Post your ideas and let's represent WL!

German Teacher here from Arkansas.  I also teach Social Studies.  I just jumped into trying to gamify my classroom and I'm hoping to get this up and running soon.  I'd love to talk to you more about how the game works during the lesson.  Do you actually have the premium plan or what?

Thanks

Frau Sabir

Little Rock, Arkansas

Sure! I do have the Premium Account.

What questions do you have? 

Thanks for your post. The 2017-18 will be my first year trying out classcraft in my Spanish classes. 

 

In my classroom, I also added 

+75 XP Helping the class as a leader

-10 HP Distract the class or game master with an electronic device

-15 AP Team Teleport The mage's team can trade places with any other team.

-15 AP Time Jump The mage chooses to present first, last or anytime in between during a project presentation. 

-40 AP Mage Circle of Friends All team members share the same grade on a quiz. The Mage will choose which team member to share.

-30 AP Frontal Assault All team members can hand in an assignment one day later (code blue) with no penalty.

I am looking for  any tips or other ideas to add

 

Chris

 

 

 

Hi Chris,

Teachers have shared a lot of ideas for presets here. 🙂

Have fun in Classcraft! Don't hesitate to reach out if you ever need assistance.

Anyone else using Classcraft with Languages?  I'm a middle school German teacher, and I'm hoping to add some energy into my classes.

@Frau WIlkinson

 

Absolutely! Since my original post, I have since moved to middle school and I adore using Classcraft with them. They find it to be so much fun and it's great as a reinforcement tool for middle school behaviors. I introduce it to them (get them pumped about it!) on the first day and form their teams. For middle school, I have many of the same kids all three years and decided to form their teams myself to keep them balanced skill-wise. They can always move seats throughout the year, but their teammates will remain the same. 

After the first week of letting them get to know the interface, I will switch Classcraft to German. Then the random event becomes a pronunciation/interpretation exercise every morning. I'll use the the Wheel of Destiny (Rad des Schicksals) to select a student or we'll read as a whole class, and then decipher what it means.

It also helps because every time we do an activity, I always ask them how they can maximize their XP. That way, it's not about getting an A, it's about learning the most. All students could receive full gradebook points on an activity, but their XP will still vary depending on how much effort they put in and German they produced.

The biggest thing is using it to encourage speaking. I give students participation XP for speaking in German casually with me or each other. Classcraft helps reinforce how important that skill is without me needing to attach a grade to it. 

Then there are the negative consequences. I had the consequence that they lose HP if they are in the hall without protection (of their mage or another teacher's hall pass) between bells. We made up that there are bears roaming the halls, and the bears get mad if they don't use Invisibility as well as bring their planner pass. It also makes it funny if we have to move somewhere during class (to the library or whatnot), and they as a class need to not attract the bears.

I could share so much more! But I don't want to ramble on. Let me know how you like it! 

I'm a Spanish teacher in Oregon who is using Classcraft for the first time with my students. I would love to hear from other language teachers who are using Classcraft to share online content with students. What platforms are you using? My two favorites at the moment are Edpuzzle and Flipgrid. Also, how do your students provide evidence that they completed an activity using an outside platform? Screenshots?

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