The Gamification of 5th Grade Math

I confess: I haven’t read Mr. Smith’s submission yet, specifically because I don’t want to get his brilliance all over my thought process.

When we started talking about gamifying 5th grade math, my thoughts quickly went to the idea of talent trees, something I have mentioned previously. Here’s an example of a partially completed paladin talent tree, from World of Warcraft.

For a 5th grade math curriculum, each level of the talent tree would consist of a bigger idea (I went with units from our sample scope and sequence), with each block on that level representing a particular skill or lesson from that unit. It looks something like this:


A visual representation is not gamification. Gamification is about how students approach, interact with, and build on this idea. Students play games because games make people happy. This idea needs to provide satisfying work, the experience (or, at least, the hope) of being successful, a social connection, and meaning.

Let’s dive into how gamification makes this idea more than a poorly assembled PowerPoint image.

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The works contained herein are copyrighted, 2012, by Andrew F. Vincent and original authors as noted. All efforts are made to attribute external works to their original authors. My apologies for any mis-attributions!