Digital Games Foster Inclusion

My friend Ivan Kaltman is back again to share the amazing work he has been doing around game-based learning and the success he’s having with his new video game for struggling readers called The Majesti!

One of the most prominent trends in education today is inclusion, yet students
are often pulled from their regular classrooms for ELA instruction because they
are unable to fluently read and comprehend grade-leveled texts. Digital games
can provide supports that enable these students to read aloud together with their
mainstream peers without sacrificing the challenging text needed to engage
stronger readers.

We piloted The Majesti in a fifth-grade class one period each week for about
half the year. Students who were usually pulled for ELA instruction were included.
The Majesti is a true game (available on Steam) developed for a higher purpose:
an instructional material that enables all fifth-grade students to comprehend and
read aloud fluently.

The Majesti was one of twelve games selected by Serious Play Conference 2021
to be presented at their Learning Game Showcase on June 26th . Along with a
demo of the game and explaining the supports, I shared student feedback, a
crucial (yet often neglected) assessment of instructional materials. All students–
regardless of reading level–said they liked the Majesti more than other books
they read in class this year. Reasons included the expected (“it’s a video game,
battles, you get to move the characters, explore, choices”, etc.) but supports were
also listed (“the text is split-up, sentences instead of long paragraphs, we get to
know what the hard words meant”, etc.).

The class had an eight level Fountas and Pinnell range, from M-T. All students
were able to read aloud together due to the supports. Two of the most important
supports were visual presentation of text, and by the text itself being
differentiated instead of leveled (students were matched with character text at
their reading level).

Our more reluctant readers all volunteered to read each time because they
knew exactly when they were supposed to read (there is always a picture of the
character next to the text), and the text was easier to visually perceive and track
(than paragraphs in regular books). Though these students did not read the more
challenging text aloud, they were able to follow along while their advanced peers
read. This enabled them to comprehend the more advanced text and robust
vocabulary.

Another area of inclusiveness involved the main characters themselves: since
they’re animals, all students were able to role-play and identify with them
equally, regardless of race or gender.

Though The Majesti will be available commercially on Steam, digital copies via
Steam keys will be given freely to any educator who wishes to check it out and/or
use with their students. Just mention Teched up Teacher!