If you aren’t a video game buff, bear with me! There will be a relevant point, I promise you.
For everyone who’s been living under a rock (or far away from a Nintendo) for the past thirty years, Mario Kart is a video game series where various characters from the Mario Bros. franchise race while battling one another with Koopa shells, banana peels, superstars, and other power-ups. A famous element of this series is its “catch-up mechanic” that gives players who are trailing far behind special items that help them become competitive once again. Why? The game designers knew players will stop trying once they think they have no chance of winning, so with Mario Kart you’re never completely out of the race.
We can apply this same game design philosophy to our classrooms: Students will stop trying when they perceive there is no way for them to succeed. So how do we design our courses to reflect the Mario Kart philosophy?
When I was going through my teacher education program, no one—and I repeat no one—ever taught me how to distribute a course’s points. That is a huge oversight. In essence, our classes are a “game” and the currency of the game is “points.” When students feel they can no longer succeed, they give up. That’s why there should always be a Mario Kart catch-up opportunity baked into your course design. Is there a way for your students to succeed late in the game if they are willing to try their hardest? This does not mean that students who “kick it into high gear” last minute should have the same score as students who have tried hard all year (more on that later), but there should be a way for them to at least finish the race.
My parents once attended a parent-teacher conference for my brother because he was not doing well in his math class. It wasn’t halfway through the year yet, but the teacher told them that even if he started vastly improving, there was no way for him to pass the class. Did you get that? Not halfway through the year, he had already lost enough points that there was no way he could ever recover. And this was coming from a math teacher! The math doesn’t seem to gel. And if this was accurate, the points were extremely lopsided.
What is the Mario Kart effect in my classroom? First, I make sure there are plenty of daily points to balance out the bigger projects and tests. This truly is a balancing act. There are two outcomes I don’t want from my students: A) The daily points counting so much that my students blow off the larger assignments B) The larger assignments counting so much that my students can blow off the daily assignments. Many students struggle with tests, which I understand, so the daily points are there to cushion the blow. Maybe the students are exceptionally bright and can pass a test without doing the daily work. Good for them, but if they want a top grade, they will have to put in the work on daily assignments as well.
Too often, points are not distributed well in a course. A project or exam might count for too much without enough daily points to balance it out. When you design your courses, think about different scenarios: If students don’t do well on this assignment, what will happen to their overall grade? Will they have a chance to recover?
Another Mario Kart effect I have is that I do accept late work—for reduced credit. I will take any daily assignment late, but it can only receive a maximum of 50%. Long ago, when this idea was floated to me, I was against it. My opinion was if students didn’t do the work the first time, they deserve a zero. But a wise mentor asked me this, “Don’t you want them to do the work? Giving them partial credit is a way to make sure they actually do the work (and hopefully learn the concept you designed it for).” Don’t you just hate it when people are right? Ha! Now in my classes, students who slipped a bit can at least recover some of their points. They may pass the class by the skin of their teeth, but they can still finish the race if they are willing to work hard.
Beware the Mario Kart World Effect
My son is a huge Nintendo fan, and around our house this summer, there was no way to miss that Nintendo was releasing a new console called the Switch 2. The flagship game for this console was Mario Kart World, the newest entry in the Mario Kart game series. Mario Kart World has its fans and its detractors, but one of the main criticisms leveled at it is that the game designers have made it “too easy to catch up.” Like I mentioned before, the items you receive in a Mario Kart game are based on your ranking in the race, so if you are further behind, you are more likely to receive those special “catch up” items. Apparently, in Mario Kart World these items come so easily that some players are intentionally hanging around the back of the pack, so they can get a special item to take them right to the front. In fact, (according to some folks) the game actually punishes you for being in the lead. Now this is the opposite of what the game designers wanted. They have made it too lucrative not to try.
There’s an application to our classrooms for this, too: We can’t have so much of a Mario Kart Effect that students stop trying in our classes. Grades, like them or not, are designed to motivate students—and also challenge them.
For example, if I took late work but still took it for full credit, what would prevent a student from not doing any work all semester and then trying to turn it in the last minute? Talk about a grading nightmare! I also suspect the student would be as overwhelmed as the teacher. But this is too much of a catch up mechanic.
There should be a reward for doing it right the first time in a timely manner.
Take the way I grade essays. (They’re all written in class now. I’ll explore this strategy some other time.) I mark up my students’ papers with ways that they can improve. I deduct points if they make grammar errors, don’t include evidence, don’t explain their evidence, don’t meet the other guidelines. I hold them accountable. But I also give them a way to improve their grade. If they go back and correct their errors and type up their paper, I will give them 10% back on their original grade.
Why don’t I allow them to regain all their points? Well, I suspect students would not do their best, wait for me to tell them what was wrong, and then turn it for full credit. Who’s doing the work? I am. Who’s learning anything? No one.
In summary, make sure your classroom has some kind of Mario Kart effect, so students can still succeed late in the game, but make sure that effect isn’t so strong that it encourages laziness or partial effort. Let’s a-go!
If you would like to explore this idea more, give your opinion on the Mario Kart philosophy, or share how you distribute points in your classroom, continue the conversation on our brand new subreddit Creative English Teachers: https://www.reddit.com/r/CreativeEngTeachers/ This is a safe space to share our successes and challenges, and we would love to see you there!