EduCon 2020

In this session, Jared Colley and Nick Dressler, both high school instructors, will share methods and practices they’ve employed to make English class more gameful and more authentic when it comes to inspiring and assessing authentic learning. Come learn how using XP scoring, class battles, game narratives, personalized choice, and mastery-based grading have helped make subjects like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, dystopian fiction, contemporary poetry (like Clint Smith) and the basics of writing composition more engaging because the curricular design is more human-focused as opposed to function-focused. Using a human designed framework that makes a distinction between stressful motivators (fear of loss, unpredictability, etc.) and empowering motivators (a sense of purpose, choice & agency, social influence), we’ll provide examples (that are easily adaptable) of how to make class content more leaner-driven as opposed to curriculum-driven, of how to make grading more affirmation-based as opposed to punitive, and how to make student assessment more equitable by making it as much about process and progress as it is about the product. This is not a show-and-tell session though. The idea is to simulate such strategies by making the session gameful as well. Attendees will be assigned different character classes (such as “the wallflower”; “the skeptic”; “the explorer”; “the inquisitor”; and perhaps our favorite, “the synthesizer”), thereby giving each person a role to play in our focused conversation that dives deep into the waters good curriculum/game design.