Thing 46: BreakoutEDU
Sorry for the delay in getting started! There have been a tremendous amount of changes in my career this year and I'm not as on top of things as I would like.... anyway, I'm excited to be a part of this course again and to see so many new and interesting topics. For my first one I selected the BreakoutEDU thing because I have been very interested in this activity this year. I participated in my first "Breakout" in September at our first SLS joint Communication Coordinators and Council meeting with Molly Clark. She had us participate in an actual breakout as well as a digital one. I remember thinking this was fun but how would I use this in my new building. I then participated in another one at our conference in the fall and again enjoyed doing this but was beginning to see where I might be able to use this. I enjoyed the activity but I actually enjoyed observing the way the groups worked together more- I found that at our conference some didn't want to "share" the materials with people they didn't know - this was extremely interesting since we expect kids to just do this without any discussion of how to do it. It was also interesting the way the group approached the puzzles and who eventually was able to solve the clues for the combinations.
In addition to learning about these through the library world, my district has included this in our PD offerings which I have not had the opportunity to try yet. It was great to be able to talk to other teachers in my building about this new tool and about how we could use them in our classrooms. This year I am in a new building and I'm very fortunate to be working with some great teachers on extension activities in all grade levels.
As I began this lesson, I read through the information provided and visited the BreakoutEDU site to learn more about ways to create these for my elementary classes. I had already set up the free account for myself - our school now has purchased 2 boxes through this website so I do have access to their platform as well. In the free account I was amazed by what is offered - there are even library games and forms to use to help plan your own! I was unaware of the Facebook pages that are available for more ideas so I signed up for all that were recommended in the lesson. I will continue to explore these as I develop lessons using the breakout kits.
I liked how there were links to some breakouts that have already been created. For my first one I looked at the Totally Radical 80's Time Travel Adventure to see what they had included since I'm a 80's child. I thought it was really challenging and fun the way they developed their clues - this is not one I could do in my elementary classes but it did provide some ideas for less intense activities. I also tried the Elf Panic one and found it to be fun but difficult in some areas. I struggled with the 4 letter clue one because all that came up on the screen was a partial alphabet with no clues available. I have to admit that I looked up the answer because I was getting really frustrated. In my experience so far I have found the digital ones to be harder for me than the boxes for whatever reason.
As I mentioned earlier, I am working with a great group of teachers that want to collaborate on many projects. I began the year working only with 3rd grade - I pull 6 to 9 students to work on an extension activity based on the domain they were working on for half an hour each day- our first group did an author study on Kenneth Graham and Roald Dahl. The topic of study for my second group was the Human Body - I immediately thought the BreakoutEDU kit would be perfect for this - the kids would be able to create questions that support what they are learning in the classroom! I explained what a breakout was and showed them some examples from the ones I participated in and they were hooked! We also created a bingo game and a lung activity so that the kids would rotate between three centers.
I helped the students develop their tasks/clues but I found that some were more interested in the locks themselves! For our first lock the kids and I came up with a paragraph that had bold text words - they then had to go to the chart to find the words and the number it corresponded to - this was our 4 digit number lock. Next we had a directional lock that they had to use the pictures to find what direction the lock had to be. Our third clue was for the key - the kids had a question that needed to be answered and then the students had to find the key under the correct cup. If they lost they had to answer another question to get the key. Their 4th lock was a word scramble and the last lock was a question for the 3 digit number lock.
From this experience I learned/observed many things - the boys in my group that designed the game wanted to have control of the locks. Also, the kids that developed this wanted to do the activity for the other students rather than watch and give clues as needed. For the students that were trying to solve this - the first group each of the three days we did this were unsuccessful in opening the box in the time given. The groups that worked together were more successful - again there were some in each group that tried to be the leader and would not share responsibilities or listen to the "quiet" ones. Many times these "leaders" were incorrect in what they were trying to do even after the student in charge told them they were doing it wrong. The students that typically do not participate in answering questions out loud were very good at solving the clues but were often too timid to speak up because they are used to not be listened to by their peers. I also found that the directional lock was the one students struggled with the most which I had thought was the easiest. I also observed that the kids did not want to write down possible combinations as they tried them so that they didn't repeat mistakes.
It was very interesting to discuss my observations with the 3rd grade teachers as well, we were not surprised by the results but it did open my eyes on the different ways people learn or approach problems. The students that excelled at this were often the ones that do not do as well on standard question/answer activities. I hope to be able to use this more in the future to give these types of learners more time to shine! In fact, I'll be working with a new group of 3rd graders after break on their astronomy unit. I hand picked three from one class that I observed excelling in the first breakout and they want to create another one for the class. I did poll the classes to find out what they liked the best and the majority of them loved the breakout - regardless of whether they were able to open all of the boxes in the time allotted.
Two of my 5th grade teachers have also expressed an interest on using the BreakoutEDU kits with their classes. One of them had her class do the turkey one at Thanksgiving without using the kits. She set up her room with the clues and the kids had to write down the combinations and show her - she would tell them if they were correct so they could move on. She noted the same things I had with the third graders about group work, sharing responsibility, etc. Her class was not successful in saving the turkey in their time allotted but it did provide for some really good discussion about how they could have changed their approach. Another 5th grade teacher was going to have her class do a digital breakout and was asking for some feedback from the other ones I had done. I have not had an opportunity to chat with her to see how the class did.
I'm excited to learn more about these and to continue using them with the classes. I do have to try and develop some that would work with my younger students but that may have to be a summer activity. My limited knowledge of this in the beginning of the year was great in opening up discussions with the teachers - some had never heard of it prior to our PD or my talking about it. I think it's a great way to tap in to different learning strategies and a way to help build the confidence of those learners that like to think outside the box. Thank you for providing me more resources to continue learning about this and for allowing me to share them with my colleagues.
In addition to learning about these through the library world, my district has included this in our PD offerings which I have not had the opportunity to try yet. It was great to be able to talk to other teachers in my building about this new tool and about how we could use them in our classrooms. This year I am in a new building and I'm very fortunate to be working with some great teachers on extension activities in all grade levels.
As I began this lesson, I read through the information provided and visited the BreakoutEDU site to learn more about ways to create these for my elementary classes. I had already set up the free account for myself - our school now has purchased 2 boxes through this website so I do have access to their platform as well. In the free account I was amazed by what is offered - there are even library games and forms to use to help plan your own! I was unaware of the Facebook pages that are available for more ideas so I signed up for all that were recommended in the lesson. I will continue to explore these as I develop lessons using the breakout kits.
I liked how there were links to some breakouts that have already been created. For my first one I looked at the Totally Radical 80's Time Travel Adventure to see what they had included since I'm a 80's child. I thought it was really challenging and fun the way they developed their clues - this is not one I could do in my elementary classes but it did provide some ideas for less intense activities. I also tried the Elf Panic one and found it to be fun but difficult in some areas. I struggled with the 4 letter clue one because all that came up on the screen was a partial alphabet with no clues available. I have to admit that I looked up the answer because I was getting really frustrated. In my experience so far I have found the digital ones to be harder for me than the boxes for whatever reason.
As I mentioned earlier, I am working with a great group of teachers that want to collaborate on many projects. I began the year working only with 3rd grade - I pull 6 to 9 students to work on an extension activity based on the domain they were working on for half an hour each day- our first group did an author study on Kenneth Graham and Roald Dahl. The topic of study for my second group was the Human Body - I immediately thought the BreakoutEDU kit would be perfect for this - the kids would be able to create questions that support what they are learning in the classroom! I explained what a breakout was and showed them some examples from the ones I participated in and they were hooked! We also created a bingo game and a lung activity so that the kids would rotate between three centers.
I helped the students develop their tasks/clues but I found that some were more interested in the locks themselves! For our first lock the kids and I came up with a paragraph that had bold text words - they then had to go to the chart to find the words and the number it corresponded to - this was our 4 digit number lock. Next we had a directional lock that they had to use the pictures to find what direction the lock had to be. Our third clue was for the key - the kids had a question that needed to be answered and then the students had to find the key under the correct cup. If they lost they had to answer another question to get the key. Their 4th lock was a word scramble and the last lock was a question for the 3 digit number lock.
From this experience I learned/observed many things - the boys in my group that designed the game wanted to have control of the locks. Also, the kids that developed this wanted to do the activity for the other students rather than watch and give clues as needed. For the students that were trying to solve this - the first group each of the three days we did this were unsuccessful in opening the box in the time given. The groups that worked together were more successful - again there were some in each group that tried to be the leader and would not share responsibilities or listen to the "quiet" ones. Many times these "leaders" were incorrect in what they were trying to do even after the student in charge told them they were doing it wrong. The students that typically do not participate in answering questions out loud were very good at solving the clues but were often too timid to speak up because they are used to not be listened to by their peers. I also found that the directional lock was the one students struggled with the most which I had thought was the easiest. I also observed that the kids did not want to write down possible combinations as they tried them so that they didn't repeat mistakes.
It was very interesting to discuss my observations with the 3rd grade teachers as well, we were not surprised by the results but it did open my eyes on the different ways people learn or approach problems. The students that excelled at this were often the ones that do not do as well on standard question/answer activities. I hope to be able to use this more in the future to give these types of learners more time to shine! In fact, I'll be working with a new group of 3rd graders after break on their astronomy unit. I hand picked three from one class that I observed excelling in the first breakout and they want to create another one for the class. I did poll the classes to find out what they liked the best and the majority of them loved the breakout - regardless of whether they were able to open all of the boxes in the time allotted.
Two of my 5th grade teachers have also expressed an interest on using the BreakoutEDU kits with their classes. One of them had her class do the turkey one at Thanksgiving without using the kits. She set up her room with the clues and the kids had to write down the combinations and show her - she would tell them if they were correct so they could move on. She noted the same things I had with the third graders about group work, sharing responsibility, etc. Her class was not successful in saving the turkey in their time allotted but it did provide for some really good discussion about how they could have changed their approach. Another 5th grade teacher was going to have her class do a digital breakout and was asking for some feedback from the other ones I had done. I have not had an opportunity to chat with her to see how the class did.
I'm excited to learn more about these and to continue using them with the classes. I do have to try and develop some that would work with my younger students but that may have to be a summer activity. My limited knowledge of this in the beginning of the year was great in opening up discussions with the teachers - some had never heard of it prior to our PD or my talking about it. I think it's a great way to tap in to different learning strategies and a way to help build the confidence of those learners that like to think outside the box. Thank you for providing me more resources to continue learning about this and for allowing me to share them with my colleagues.
"The students that excelled at this were often the ones that do not do as well on standard question/answer activities." This statement says so much, doesn't it. Fascinating observations here. Thank you SO much for sharing the details about how you had the students create and do the breakouts. I've only participated in a few, and found the same sort of experiences. Bossy leaders, collaborators, quiet ones, so interesting to watch the dynamics.
ReplyDelete"The students that excelled at this were often the ones that do not do as well on standard question/answer activities." - This has been my experience with every single breakout I've facilitated. For me, that's magic of breakout. It gives those students a chance to excel. I'm so glad your building has two on site! Don't forget SLS has 6 kits for loaning if you ever find that you want to work with smaller groups. And I'd love to come out and be an extra set of hands. :-)
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