Motivating Students with Games and Incentives
LevelUp Reader includes LevelUp Land, a fully immersive 3D gaming environment:
It also includes the Game Center, a collection of simpler, arcade-style games:
These gaming platforms are designed to engage and reward students for time spent using the program, as well as maximize engagement without distracting then from learning goals.
Incentives and Rewards
With every assessment, book, or quiz completed, students earn stars, or credits, that they can “spend” in LevelUp Land:
- Completing an in-take or progress monitoring assessment: 25 credits
- Completing a book (self-selected): 5 credits
- Completing a book (assigned by teacher): 10 credits
- Completing a quiz: 5 credits + 1 credit for each correct answer + 1 credit for attempting a constructed response item
- Completing a running record assessment: 25 credits
- Completing a read-aloud recording of a book: 10 credits
These credits can be used to purchase dozens of characters, objects, and vehicles. Students are free to wander and explore the 3D environment, populating it with their purchased items in order to build a personalized world. Items are animated, including life-like animal characters that walk, crawl, scamper, and fly through the environment.
LevelUp Land players can also switch between an array of settings, including an elf town, a wild west landscape, a stately castle, and a tropical pirate cove. Students can unlock new settings based on how many cumulative credits they’ve earned.
In the Game Center, students can use play time they’ve been awarded in any of the featured games. Play time is granted manually by teachers in 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-minute increments; it is not earned by students in the same way as LevelUp Land.
LevelUp Land players can also switch between an array of settings, including an elf town, a wild west landscape, a stately castle, and a tropical pirate cove. Students can unlock new settings based on how many cumulative credits they’ve earned.
In the Game Center, students can use play time they’ve been awarded in any of the featured games. Play time is granted manually by teachers in 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-minute increments; it is not earned by students in the same way as LevelUp Land.
Teachers control access to student gameplay to ensure it doesn’t divert attention from learning. These controls, located in the Gaming tab of My Classroom, allow teachers to set time limits on gameplay during class hours.