Here at Rocket Spelling, we believe that students learn best when they are fully engaged in the subject matter they are learning. Our favorite way to get students engaged in learning is by gamifying the content being taught -- in our case, by turning spelling practice into a game.

You'll notice, though, that students' time spent on Rocket Spelling isn't filled with long, distracting game play episodes. Instead, the students are practice spelling all of the time, but that spelling practice occurs within the framework of a game. Students are earning points, badges, and stars as they crush more and more spelling words. This, to us, is ideal gamification: that students are still working on the content nearly all of the time, but within a framework of leveling up and with a clear-cut mission to try to accomplish (for example, conquering all of the words in a particular level, a planet, and even the entire site).

Here's a great example of gamification in math using a game called Fraction Finder. As you will see if you click that link, students playing Fraction Finder spend their entire time placing fractions on a number line. Those exact questions, if placed in a textbook, would bore students to tears. In this game format, however, students will jump out of their seats with joy when they place a fraction in precisely the correct location or qualify to move on to the next level.

Some games and websites mistakenly focus students' attention on the game itself, then sprinkle in content-area questions along the way. It's as if they believe the content itself is no fun, but perhaps the game can, at the very least, distract from it. We disagree.

For more on the gamification of education, check out the graphic below.

*Graphic Credit to Knewton.com