Welcome Judges

NEW WORD CITY

Nomination Description

Gamification adds adventure to learning. When students enjoy the learning process, they are more likely to stay engaged, motivated, and inspired to achieve their full potential, especially when presented with abstract ideas.

Students embark on an incredible language journey through New Word City. Traditional grammar instruction often isolates grammar rules, teaching them unit by unit. New Word City by Alexandra Bitzas emphasizes the interdependence of these rules by transforming them into a metaphorical city where linguistic concepts are mapped into physical spaces.

The TENSE Building: This idea began with a visual that has been used in the classroom for many years. It is a building where the past, present, and future tenses are represented as different floors. An elevator symbolizes the present perfect. Stairs represent the present perfect continuous, emphasizing actions that show duration. The past perfect is the basement. By providing these physical representations, students can understand the relationship between different tenses and use them interchangeably. Cognitive research supports that metaphors improve memory retention. Associating grammar rules with the building layout helps concepts stick and connect, enabling learners of all levels to discover the building blocks of language elements naturally.

Engagement through Competitions: Students love the TENSE building. This year, students participated in a drawing competition to draw their TENSE building. The building became the first building of their New Word City. Students, acting as city planners, took part in the “Build Your New Word City” challenge, organizing and designing how their part of the city would develop. Teams brainstormed, sketched and presented their new neighborhood, which was then added to the classroom map.

Learner Outcomes:

• Creative Roles/Group Challenges: Students design areas of the city related to their role, integrating grammar rules into their project. In the group challenges, students worked together to build parts of the city, reinforcing creativity, collaboration and communication skills.

• Development of Critical Skills

Gamified learning often involves problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making activities. These tasks not only reinforce academic content, but also help students develop important life skills that are transferable beyond the classroom.

Results and Impact: For teachers, New Word City offers a creative and visual approach to teaching abstract grammar concepts. It is an incredible language quest where grammar rules and vocabulary, typically taught in isolation, are interconnected and grow. This project emphasizes the interdependence of these linguistic structures. For learners, they experience a fresh approach to grammar, improving their understanding through engaging activities. This project illustrates the power of gamification by turning language learning into an adventure. It inspires students of various ages and levels to engage with grammar creatively and transforms traditional grammar instruction into an immersive, student-driven experience.

The city can expand each year, incorporating new “districts” for advanced grammar topics. The project is also adaptable to digital platforms, with potential for online city maps, and interactive grammar quests.

In short, the innovative New Word City project exemplifies how gamification can enhance learning outcomes of abstract grammar concepts and inspire students to achieve their full potential.