I teach mythology as an elective and one of the things I have tried this year has been a lot of work, but at the same time, a lot of fun. The structure can be tweaked to be used in any class, but since it was mythology, I've called it The Amythic Race because, well, because why not?
I love creating games for the class to play long-term because I have found motivated students enjoy them and non-motivated students will work for something like game-points where they wouldn't for a grade incentive.
The basic format is this:
- Break the semester into 5 legs, each approximately 3 weeks (though some adjustments need to be made for breaks, snowy weather, etc.).
- Students change partners each leg.
- Each leg corresponds to something we are learning in class (for mythology, I have based it on the stages of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey)
- Each leg has four tasks, each worth up to 50 points.
- Each leg also has a side quest for students who choose to do it to boost their individual score.
For my own enjoyment, I bought a bunch of yellow envelopes to make it more show-authentic.
I keep all the scores on a Google spreadsheet. Top student gets his/her name on my wall as The Chosen One for all students to see for years to come (this is a huge draw for students). The top ten are exempted from the final exam (since this is an elective, I can offer this incentive).
If you want to see the notes I use to keep it together, check it out here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tGDMyNQC0LWFZZZeXvjsn0PtQ6PONFX0XM_TyZd6cv8/edit?tab=t.0
If you want to see the web page that students use to check their progress, you can see it here: https://www.lordalford.com/mythology/A-Mythic%20Race/a-m-race.htm
You are free to steal any idea or concept from these resources if you decide to make your own. Many of these are designed specifically for my school building, so this isn't a ready-to-go activity for you. It took a lot of work to set up, so maybe I can save you some time.
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