Learn Lead Grow: Gamifying the Beginning of the Year: Using Wordwall to Gamify Class Expectations (Part 1)

With the beginning of the school year upon us, many teachers are trying to find creative and engaging ways to go over class introductions and expectations. Have you ever thought about gamifying your approach? Gamification refers to converting a task into a game-like format. This approach could be a helpful way to make those beginning of the year discussions, fun, painless, and hard to forget!

The following series will explore tools for gamifying the beginning of the school year. Part 1 will look at a free tool called Wordwall.

What is Wordwall?

Wordwall is a free website that you can use to create a question bank and convert it into an electronic game of your choice, such as a quiz, gameshow, open the box, and so much more! It provides low-tech classrooms with a flexible tool for printing paper versions of the activities too!

How am I using it?

I created the following iPad expectations presentation for new students in our school.

How does it work?

I created the following tutorial for using Wordwall a few months ago. Essentially, teachers put together a series of questions in a question bank on Wordwall. Teachers choose which activity that they would like to have students play and display the game on a projector screen. Unlike Kahoot and other interactive games, students do not input their answers on devices. Instead, it creates a great opportunity to discuss questions and answers. Teachers can also share a link to the activity for students to study and complete on their own or print out a paper copy of the activity.

Check out my video tutorial: