The original plan, after my initial Genius Hour class test, was to create a Breakout Box session for the second-grade class. However, there were several factors that led to this not happening.
After I scraped that plan, one of my Genius Hour students got the idea to create a whole school game. From there, the idea evolved into an End-of-Year Breakout. With the help of two students, we worked together to create a game that incorporated several teachers in our building. The students would have to solve eight different clues, in eight different teacher's rooms, in order to unlock the box.
Here are some of the materials we created for the game:
After I scraped that plan, one of my Genius Hour students got the idea to create a whole school game. From there, the idea evolved into an End-of-Year Breakout. With the help of two students, we worked together to create a game that incorporated several teachers in our building. The students would have to solve eight different clues, in eight different teacher's rooms, in order to unlock the box.
Here are some of the materials we created for the game:
- Kick-off video which got emailed out to all students to build interest (make sure your volume is turned down!).
- Accountability sheet Before they could approach the 'big' box, the team needed to solve (or at least attempt) all of the clues.
- Example clues Each teacher came up with the clues for their room. For the most part, those clues were related to content areas. In my room, for example, students had to find a number hidden on pages from a book, they had to complete a crossword puzzle, and read a cryptic letter. Each of these clues resulted in a number that helped unlock the box.
The morning of, students met in my classroom, I showed the kick-off video for those who may not have seen it, and let them know some basic rules. I felt like it was important to communicate the expectation to respect gamesmanship (let teams figure it out on their own, no altering clues or sabotages, solve don't guess, etc.). With a few minor exceptions, they exceeded my expectations for behavior during the game. I let them pick teams, and then sent them all to different teachers' classrooms to start in. Then, the fun of solving the clues began.
One of the students, who worked on the game with me, walked around and took pictures. She also reported back to me on where kids were stuck or ran into problems we didn't think of. That was great because then we could quickly adapt to fix the kinks in the system. She said it was fun to be able to watch people try to figure out the clues. Once students unlocked the box, they were given a ticket to bring to me for their prize (a candy bar and some bubbles).
There are a few things I would do differently next time. For one, I'd make sure that I communicated with the other teachers more clearly about what I was doing and why. I also needed to keep track of which kids were participating and have a protocol for when kids dropped out of participating.
On that note, there were a few students who gave up, some within the first few minutes, and some when they were almost there. When I did my first test run, I also had a student who opted out once it was discovered that there would be some thinking and math skills involved. I wonder how to keep those kids engaged, but part of the beauty of the activity was that students could opt in. But what if I wanted to use it as a classroom activity? How can I make all students feel confident enough that they can solve the puzzles?
Another conundrum...the reward. I want to explore what other teachers put inside the Breakout box? It feels a little cheap to always put some kind of reward in there, especially a candy reward. I want to research other ways to 'reward' students at the end.
Hints were another issue. In my room, I had to do a lot of prompting because there were groups waiting outside. So to hurry it along, I gave more hints than I planned. So next time, I would make separate materials for each team. Because I didn't know how many students would be participating ahead of time, it was difficult to prepare in some aspects. Each teacher had to 'reset' their clues and could only allow one group in their room at a time. If each team got their own set of clues in each room, it would have been more fluid.
Overall, it was a great activity to engage students in thinking and collaborating on the last day of school. Some kids recognized that they'd been "tricked into learning" on the last day. I'm excited to investigate how I can incorporate it into my English classes and collaborate with elementary classes next year. I'm grateful I was able to receive a grant to try out this engaging teaching tool.
Here are some pictures from the activity:
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