The Classcraft Academic group at Chisholm Trail Middle School focuses on improving grades through an innovative online game that rewards academic success.
Classcraft (www.classcraft.com) is a class management system based on a role-playing game. Students create a character and customize it by selecting a class, armor, and pets. I use it mainly as a way to reward success in the classroom through grades. Every week I check the grades of all the students in Classcraft and average them out–if a student’s average is above 70, they earn a set amount of experience points (or “XP”) which increases the character’s level.
When a student levels up, they earn a reward such as a snack or other incentives. If the average is lower than 70, they lose health–when health hits 0, there is a consequence. The consequence can be anything from tutoring with me to dancing in front of the group—my personal favorite.
All of this is handled by the website– it can even set up daily events that change things up every group session or choose random teams or individual players for actions. Students are able to log in and monitor their standings compared to others.
I like Classcraft because I can use it at the beginning of group, and then move onto the group topic and use it as a way to keep students on track (Sit down or you’ll lose xp!)
Isabella is the only female participant in the Classcraft group, and she has been doing extremely well by raising her grades and turning in her assignments on time. Being new to the district, Isabella was concerned about making friends at school. I had a gut feeling that she would be a perfect fit for the group based on her interests. I introduced her to several students in the group and we talked about ways for her to become more confident.
This culminated in Isabella taking part in the school wide spelling bee in December. Dozens of students participated and were eliminated one by one, except Isabella and one other student. I was there cheering her on, and she would often smile at me when she spelled the word correctly.
It got very dramatic and tense near the end–with both students spelling each word incorrectly one after the other. Finally, Isabella was able to spell two words in a row correctly, winning the spelling bee! The word she won on was “Anklet.” I was so proud of her for getting up there in front of everyone and winning.
