All the good stuff on one page! FREE downloadables from my books to help level up learning in every space.
Meet your students where they are by asking them about the games THEY play, with WHOM, and how those games make student FEEL
Who’s got game? Play IS learning. Take a moment to think about how your kids (students, children, or maybe even you) like to play each day. What games are played, what do those games say about who we are and what we love?
Use these questions to achieve superboss level XP with your learners. Ask these questions to develop a birds eye view into what your learners care about most and together you’ll design a learning community tailored to the humans right in front of you.
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Map the dynamic experiences of play to the dynamic experiences of learners with SEVEN key questions
What’s the goal? “Asking students to define the goal of their play is more than the question of how you win; it’s the question of what matters to each player.”
Moving beyond why to why not, we level up living and learning by seeing how game rules change the way we play. What’s more, we see how rules mirror and often define the ways we engage each day.
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Drawing from the games your students play, discuss the affordances of each player including how heroes succeed and fail
A Hero’s Journey. Like learning new content or taking on new responsibilities, game play can make us feel more like heroes while other times games show us clearly the barriers we must still overcome. The motivation to learn, like the motivation to play, is what we call the hero’s journey.
Use this sketchnote to guide conversations with your learners about the affordances of their gaming experiences, how they move forward if they fail during play, and how they explain their successes in play.
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Celebrate the learning that accompanies failure by calling it out, not shying away from showing GROWTH
Failure is success in progress. In Chapter 4 we reframe setbacks (ahem, failure) as success in progress. The reality is as long as we’re alive we’re learning, and we all have an easter egg to share with the world!
Use this tool to learn more about the players in your class or in your home? What challenges have they recently mastered? What are they currently working on? And what can they share?
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Gain a better understanding of the students in your class AND support learners in branching out to collaborate with others
Learning through collaboration. Chapter 5 makes clear that play is a collaborative sport. The learning that transpires during play is exponentially increased because it is done with others.
Knowing together means growing together, which is why connections are enhanced through collaborative play. Use this tool as inspiration to sow the seeds of empathy through play in your learning space and then celebrate how your learners move from me-centered to we-centered in their learning and lives.
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Ask your students these questions about learning during play, their responses will surprise and inspire you
Deepening connections through collaborative play. Perhaps the most magical aspect of games is that there is no need for a standalone assessment: the game IS the assessment. That is, if you know what you’re looking for.
Chapter 6 highlights the way learning, practice, failure, and feedback are fuel for working memory and a gift to thoughtful educators and parents. Think of Level Up 16 from #GameOnBrainOn as just a few of the many questions you might ask your kids during play.
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Explore the roles, representation, and assumptions embedded in play and start real conversations about whose roles and whose rules
Roles, representations, and assumptions in play. What happens when you can’t quite pick to play as a character that feels like you? In Level Up 20 of #GameOnBrainOn we ask some tough questions about the roles, representations, and assumptions of play.
Keep the below sketchnote in sight so you can ask your kids during play: whose roles, whose rules?
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If you’ve played along this far, level up by using these prompts and challenge students to create a game to show their learning
Boss level. The research is clear, learning through play is a win for everyone. So now that you’re in, how can YOU invite more play into each day? It’s time to enter boss level territory. Let your students be your guide as you bravely embark on a new way of learning through purposeful play.
Use these prompts as you set out on your own journey of game design and development, breaking content free from the textbooks and worksheets and into the hands and hearts of our learners through play.
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Use HEARTS before heads to learn about unique humans in your learning space and set the stage for more empowered learning
Hearts before heads. Using the acronym HEARTS, I share my method for understanding our learners hearts before we can begin educating their heads.
Use this sketchnote as a prompt when asking learners about lived experiences and to connect each dynamic individual to the exciting learning in your space.
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Explore the dynamic and shared roles of students and teachers in design to learn classrooms
Educator and student roles in design thinking. Chapter 2 includes a step by step process for translating existing content into co-created design thinking experiences. I’ll ask you to dig deeper and consider how your students become stewards of their own learning.
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Use these prompts as guides for students to use during peer-feedback to highlight areas of strength and opportunities for growth
Feedback for growth. Design thinking emphasizes feedback for growth. This image is ideal for sharing with learners to scaffold the way they give and receive the most specific and useful feedback. It’s a difficult start as many students have just been given the wheel to a car they’ve only ever seen from the backseat.
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Ask students to explore metacognitive thinking, self-regulated learning skills, and epistemic beliefs during designed to learn
Feedback for future. Feedback is what fuels learning. In the book we explore the feedback we give through three cognitive processes: self-regulation, metacognition, and epistemic beliefs. Self-regulation is planning, monitoring, and assessing your learning. Metacognition is knowing when you ‘know’ the content you are learning. And epistemic beliefs are each individual’s beliefs about knowledge and knowing specific to a content area or even a way of learning. These questions are a great primer to get started in your learning space.
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Use this Logic Model for Designed to Learn Classrooms to strengthen alignment between students’ goals, actions, and iteration over time
A logic model for design thinking classrooms. Creating a prototype and testing your creation is another exciting aspect of the design thinking process and is even more powerful when driven by a logic model. Woven within each element of my Designed to Learn framework are countless formative tools that drive continuous feedback to learners. Use this logic model for a concrete way to show how elements are continuously scaffolded throughout the design thinking process.
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Ask students to use this Designed to Learn Flowchart for identifying successes and opportunities for iteration
Design thinking flowchart. Iteration and reflection are baked into each aspect of my Designed to Learn framework for applying design thinking in learning spaces. These questions are a simple and powerful guide that will help your learners reflect during each element of the design thinking experience.
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Use my Application-Process-Future model with students to help them follow a single line of inquiry and prepare for future learning
Application process future model. Communication is one of our greatest gifts and common challenges as humans. I believe that one reason for this is that we don’t follow a single line of inquiry but often compound our questions, concerns, and confusions. I created the Application Process Future Model to help you and your learners follow one single line of inquiry from the application, to the process you used in implementation, and lastly to the future where the power of self-regulation invites you to plan, monitor, and assess thinking towards the future.
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