The 2021 Edition marks the 9th year of research and development with this instructional technology. YsUp Education was founded by Najee Jeremiah in 2012 after participating in a Life Coaching Program. He applied principles he learned from Life Coaching and applied it to a setting in a classroom.

1. ¥$Up
Guide Manual
2021 Edition
The Original Guide for
Classroom Gamification
By Najee Jeremiah
Copyright © 2020. YsUp, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

2. Pronounced wise-up.
Designed to be a model for the
successful gamification of a
classroom.

3. for Dana.

4. Purpose
• Increase collaborative learning during the
class period
• Give the opportunity for students to teach
their peers
• Make learning and teaching more fun for
the teacher and student
• Give teachers a behavioral management
system that motivates students to be
cooperative.

5. Background
• Built on the Four Pillars of Success:
Integrity, Relationships, Existence and
Enrollment
• Integrity in your will to be successful
• Relationships that can help you reach
your goal
• Existence that reaching your goals is like
a game
• Enrollment of others into playing the
game with you

6. Goals
• Increase classroom participation
• Increase state assessment grades
• Increase overall quarterly student
grades
• Removing schools from the state failing
list

7. Objective
• Work as a team of students to score
more points than your teacher before
the bell rings.
• Win rewards and avoid all risks that
come when your teacher gains too
many points.

8. 1. How to Play: Ask
• There are three main rules to playing
YsUp: Ask, Assist and No Cheating
• Ask ~ Students are encouraged to ask
questions. Teacher must have 5-10
designated YsUp Questions to ask their
students. Students can ask an unlimited
number of questions.

9. 2. How to Play: Assist
• Assist ~ As soon as any question is asked
that student asking the question must
choose a classmate to help them with
their question.
• If two students can't assist a student to
arrive to the answer the teacher has a
chance to assist for points.

10. 3. How to Play: No Cheating
• No Cheating ~ When students assist
their classmates they must not give
away any answers or else they lose
points. They must help their classmates
arrive to their own answers or figure out
how to complete their own work using
peer guidance.
• Students can use guided questioning,
similes, give examples or use any other
creative method.

11. 4. How to Play: When to Raise Hands
• When the Teacher asks a question only
the students that don’t know the answer
raise their hands.
• The students that don’t know the
answer must be assisted by the other
students.
• If no one raises their hand when a
question is asked the teacher wins 250
¥ Bucks.

12. How to Play: Other Rules
5. YsUp must be applied as an extension of the classroom. And
questions must be prepared by the teacher and students.
6. Score should be kept everyday and the scores from the
previous day should be added to the current day scores
7. Students as a team must be well behaved to gain points or
the whole class will lose points for bad behavior.
8. Students as a team and Teachers must be on time for class
or points will be deducted from their daily score.

13. Scoring: Assisting &
Answering Questions
• One Assist equals 100 ¥ Bucks. If a student gives away the
answer the class loses 100 ¥ Bucks
• Students also gain 100 ¥ Bucks for giving definitions when
they can't give examples, similar words or other creative
methods while assisting students
• Students that arrive to their answer from an assist will gain
50 ¥ Bucks to the class score.
• Students can earn 250 ¥ Bucks if a student asks a teacher a
question that they do not know and the student knows the
correct answer

14. Scoring: Misc. Participation
Teacher can award students based on
participation like for asking a students
opinion on the readings, etc. Teachers
can award up to 50 points per student
for a grand total of 500 points per class
session.

15. Scoring: Behavior
• If a student or teacher breaks any of the
rules they lose 100 ¥ Bucks
• If a student misbehaves like cursing or
leaves their seat the teacher can deduct
is 50 ¥ Bucks per infraction. They may
also reward the class up to 250 ¥ bucks
for good behavior.

16. Scoring: Homework
• 10 ¥ Bucks awarded to the class per
completed homework assignment per
student
• 10 ¥ Bucks awarded to the teacher per
uncompleted homework assignment
per student

17. Scoring: Attendance
• 250 ¥ Bucks for perfect attendance and
being on time for class.

18. Scoring: Tests &
Quizzes
• For every quiz or test that earns 65 to
100+ the class will earn 65 to 100+ ¥
Bucks
• For every failing quiz or test that earns
65 or less the teacher losses 65 or less ¥
Bucks per student.

19. Scoring: Levels
• For every 1,000 ¥ Bucks students will grow to Lv.
1 and beyond
• Every level a class grows the more difficult the
teachers questions will become. The higher in
academic rigor the students reach the better they
will perform on state assessments.
• A progress bar must be drawn on the board along
with the amount of ¥ Bucks the class and teacher
has earned with a percentage of how many ¥
Bucks earned from reaching the next level

20. Scoring: Class Leaderboard
• Students will be able to see how many
total ¥Bucks they have earned in
competition to other classes per month.

21. Rewards & Risks
• For reaching new levels and attaining
vast amounts of ¥ Bucks students
should be rewarded.
• Rewards can be a pizza party, a movie
day, a field trip, etc.
• A risk would be getting a pop quiz if the
teacher gains a certain amount of ¥
Bucks

22. Try using this
question every time
you try teaching
something new.
We have found
students are more
likely to ask a
question by opening
inquiry.
Does that
make sense?
A simple phrase goes a long
way….

23. Gamification
• Gamifying a classroom means
implementing game components by
simply trading out the typical parlance
of pedagogy for that of gaming culture.

24. Gamification: Jargon
• Accomplishing Game Stages - Taking Tests
• Gaining Experience Points - Receiving
Number Grades on Tests/Quizzes.
• Checkpoints - Class lessons
• Boss Battles - State
Assessments/Midterms/Finals
• Training stages - Homework
• Team Quests - Group work / Projects / Group
Quizzes

25. "Gamification can help enrich
educational experiences in a way
that students will recognize and
respond to" -Elizabeth Lawley

26. However, [Lawley] warns that reducing
the complexity of well designed games to
their surface elements (i.e. badges and
experience points) falls short of engaging
students

27. Gamification
Certain underlying dynamics and
concepts are shown to be more
consistently successful than others
when applied to learning environments
these are: Freedom to Fail, Rapid
Feedback, Progression and
Storytelling

28. Gamification: Freedom
to Fail
All Tests and Quizzes should will
allow unlimited attempts with most
questions.
True or False or similar questions will
only receive one attempt.
Highly recommend administering
tests online.

29. Gamification: Rapid
Feedback
• Visual cues (Leaderboards)
• Frequent question and answer activities
• Self-paced exercises
• Progress bar

30. Gamification:
Progression
Leveling of assignments - a higher level
assignment is not available to the
student until it has been 'unlocked' by
completing a lower level assignment

31. Gamification:
Storytelling
For example a teacher may reach a new
checkpoint (lesson) on the Pythagorean
Theorem, the teacher can tell a story
about its inventor Pythagoras.
Adding a flair of entertainment with
storytelling will help engage students.