Gamification In The Rhetcomp Curriculum

Gamification is an up and coming popular trend in all levels and types of education, including public and private schools, higher education, the military, the private sector, and elsewhere. Gamification introduces aspects of game design like teamwork, competition, rewards and prizes, storytelling, and more into lesson plan units. In many cases, actual games, whether it be Scrabble, Hangman, Candy Crush, Dungeons & Dragons, and many others, are adapted into educational tools. This chapter collection will specifically look at the use of gamification techniques in Freshmen Writing courses and related Composition, Writing and Rhetoric classes. Each chapter will provide sample gamified lessons supported by relevant scholarship in both Gamification Theory and Writing Studies.

This book takes a dive into moving beyond the essay as the only method for teaching and learning content. Authors range from instructors in K-12 to instructors in higher education and look at concepts as varied as using VR technologies to provide immersive experiences to students to use an app to help supplement teaching. Instructors in a variety of fields, both in and out of the writing classroom, may find project and assignment ideas to argue in their own classrooms. Instructors looking to provide a transformative learning experience in a new way will find lots of options here.

"Following on the enormous growth and reach of computer gaming, most recently on mobile devices, and because of faculty members' desire to connect with millennials, online games have made their way into college classrooms. As part of our Tech. EDU series, this book focuses on how games are being used in college and what that might say for higher education today. Kevin Bell has assembled a book made up of a series of case studies, wherein faculty pilot games and game-derived techniques in college and university classes. He uses these examples to ground a practical discussion of gaming and gamification best practices, prefaced by a wide-ranging introduction to the topic in the broader context of computer-mediated teaching and learning"--

Gamification in Higher Education is a user-friendly text for anyone curious about gamification and how it increases student engagement. This book presents actual examples from gamified college courses, furnishing strategies and detailed plans for integrating gamification, regardless of the subject area, discipline, or modality. Moreover, the step-by-step how-to aspects of gamification that do not require expensive, proprietary gaming software set this book apart from others in the field. Gamification in Higher Education explores ways to incorporate real-world simulations and promote critical thinking skill, while focusing on storytelling through which to draw in students and help them get into the game, both literally and figuratively. Additionally, the book examines gamification research and how it can be used to support reluctant learners who normally struggle with complex course content. The authors share their experiences with what has worked and, more importantly, what has not worked in adding gamification to their courses. This key resource offers educators a practical guide that will take instructors step-by-step through the design, development, and implementation of game elements, games, and fully gamified courses without using costly specialized software. Its conversational tone endeavors to put educators, whether novice, mid-career, or veteran, at ease with the process of gamification.

Revolutionize your course design with just two elements. There are two simple reasons your learners aren't engaged or performing well: 1. You don't let them fail, and 2. You don't let them play Combine these two elements and you upend nearly a century of outdated and ineffective teaching conventions. The learning revolution starts with this manifesto...and with you. Fail to Learn is a guidebook for how to bring fail-forward thinking and game-centered course design to any educational setting. You'll find instructional tips, tools, and exercises alongside the latest research in pedagogy and gamification. Whether you're teaching a class on the side or leading a corporate L&D team, Fail to Learn is the only book you'll need to make your next training a success. You will: Compare your ratios of failure and play to world experts and innovators Analyze failure-based courses that quadrupled success rates in just 30 minutes Get a template for designing game-based courses from the ground up Conquer your own fear of failure when it comes to learning something new Written by an award-winning gamification trainer, Fail to Learn is your pocket reference for raising the satisfaction and skills of students everywhere. Join the revolution now.

Next Steps: New Directions for/in Writing about Writing is the first collection of teacher and student voices on a writing pedagogy that puts expert knowledge at the center of the writing classroom. More than forty contributors report on implementations of writing-about-writing pedagogies from the basic writing classroom to the graduate seminar, in two-year and four-year schools, and in small colleges and research universities around the United States and the world. For more than ten years, WAW approaches have been emerging in all these sites and scenes of college writing instruction, and Next Steps offers an original look at the breadth of ways WAW pedagogy has been taken up by writing instructors and into an array of writing courses. Organized by some of the key foci of WAW instruction—writerly identity, process, and engagement—the book takes readers into thick classroom descriptions as well as vignettes offering shorter takes on particular strategies. The classroom descriptions are fleshed out in more personal ways by student vignettes, reflections on encountering writing about writing in college writing classes. As its theoretical basis, Next Steps includes chapters on threshold concepts, transfer of writing-related learning, and the history of WAW pedagogies. As the first extensive look into WAW pedagogies across courses and institutions, Next Steps is ideal for writing instructors looking for new approaches to college composition instruction or curious about what “writing about writing” pedagogy actually is, for graduate students in composition pedagogy and their faculty, and for those researching composition pedagogy, threshold concepts, and learning transfer. Contributors: Linda Adler-Kassner, Olga Aksakalova, Joy Arbor, Matthew Bryan, Shawn Casey, Gabriel Cutrufello, Jennifer deWinter, Kristen di Gennaro, Emma Gaier, Christina Grant, Gwen Hart, Kimberly Hoover, Rebecca Jackson, Frances Johnson, Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Katie Jo LaRiviere, Andrew Lucchesi, Cat Mahaffey, Michael Michaud, Rebecca S. Nowacek, Andrew Ogilvie, Sarah Read, Rebecca Robinson, Kevin Roozen, Mysti Rudd, Christian Smith, Nichole Stack, Samuel Stinson, Hiroki Sugimoto, Lisa Tremain, Valerie Vera, Megan Wallace, Elizabeth Wardle, Christy I. Wenger, Nancy Wilson, Dominique Zino

This book is a field guide on how to implement game-based learning and «gamification» techniques to everyday teaching. It is a survey of best practices aggregated from interviews with experts in the field. Much of the book draws on the author's experiences implementing games with his middle school students.

Literacy and popular culture are intrinsically linked as forms of communication, entertainment, and education. Students are motivated to engage with popular culture through a myriad of mediums for a variety of purposes. Utilizing popular culture to bridge literacy concepts across content areas in K-12 settings offers a level playing field across student groups and grade levels. As concepts around traditional literacy education evolve and become more culturally responsive, the connections between popular culture and disciplinary literacy must be explored. Disciplinary Literacy Connections to Popular Culture in K-12 Settings is an essential publication that explores a conceptual framework around pedagogical connections to popular culture. While highlighting a broad range of topics including academic creativity, interdisciplinary storytelling, and skill development, this book is ideally designed for educators, curriculum developers, instructional designers, administrative officials, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.