Tip #4: Start Small

Up until this point, my tips have been pretty basic in that most of you could probably figure them out by yourselves or watch the amazing how to videos located on the site. The tips have focused on the steps that everyone has to do to get started, I just explained the way I did them to make setting up more efficient.

From now on, I will give practical tips that aren't found on the site (well maybe on the community forums) that have helped me implement Classcraft into my after school ESL program in Korea. My first tip would be to Start Small.

Classcraft is a very advanced system with health points, magic powers, random events, boss battles and much more. For students who are learning the basics of English, it's a lot to take in. That's why I'd like to recommend starting small and only introducing a couple elements of the program at a time. Here is a the schedule I plan to follow when I start my new classes in March:

1st and 2nd month: Only focus on XP

For the first couple of months, don't use HP or AP. If the students participate in class, give them 10 XP every time they do. If they are bad, take away 10 XP. The students should realize that XP is good without even explaining it to them.

Now here is the key and where some people starting Classcraft may get confused. I would recommend not using Classcraft during the PPP of your lesson. If you have a white board, write the names grouped with whatever team the students are on. Then add tick marks to the right of their name every time the student participates. Add a red tick mark to the left of their name every time they do something bad. Take the red tick marks away from the good tick marks on the right at the end of class and then add the remainder to their Classcraft character. Here is an example of how the point allocation may look at the end of one of your classes.

Using numbers instead of tick marks makes it easier to count!

I'll explain this in more detail in my next tip about not using Classcraft during class.

3rd month: Use HP and AP (will be covered in depth in a later tip)

Once the students are familiar with the interface and that XP is means their learning and doing good in class, then introduce HP and AP. Tell them that a red mark now takes away HP and that if you get 0 HP, you lose a lot of XP. 

Basically run the class the same way, except at the end, instead of taking the red marks away from the XP, tell the students it's 'Damage Time' and take away HP. I'll go into this more on a later tip, but for now just know that my punishments for falling in battle are minus 100XP, minus 500XP, or minus 1000XP (level down). For students who have been diligently collecting XP for 2 months, this should come as a big blow to them and hopefully preventing any negative behavior.

As far as AP goes, go ahead and assign each student a power that will help another person on their team. Warriors get Protect. Healers get Heal. If anyone gets damage, ask if other students would like to help.

4th month: Give them their login information (will be covered in depth in a later tip)

At this point, hopefully your students are into the Craft and you should reward them by giving them their Usernames and Passwords. Explain Equipment, Pets, and the benefits of Gold and let them go wild. I have a great tip for sharing this information with them and will post it in a later tip.

5th month onward: Keep leveling up your students

Unless the lovely people at Classcraft introduce some new gamechanger, I don't think there is much to add to the experience. Keep awarding XP and Gold and keep emphasizing the more XP the better. Though if it's anything like the classes I've used Classcraft in, they will remain interested by themselves. 

I have students coming in daily asking me to look at their new clothes and wanting to use their powers. If you want your students to keep their interest throughout the entire year, I'd recommend starting small and getting your students familiar with Classcraft, and then open their world to all the capabilities it has to offer after a couple of months.