Digital Breakout, Round 2

After a successful digital breakout last fall (you can read about it HERE), it was time to design another breakout for Literacy Studies students. And thanks to Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook and guest contributor Mandi Tolen, tips and hints were available to help shape a new breakout for students. (You can read the blog post HERE.)

Photo by John Sting on Unsplash

With students more than one quarter into the school year, some find themselves in a bit of a reading slump. One of the goals of the breakout was to share book ideas with students, along with more traditional breakout goals like problem solving, team work, critical thinking, and communication.

The title of the breakout was "Let's Talk About Reading," and students merely scrolled the Home page of the Google Site to find two photographs of our own library. 

Clicking on the "obvious" elements in the photos, students accessed a variety of clues to help them determine the combinations to four different locks. (One of the elements was a dummy clue that took students to a humorous video related to books.) A Google Form embedded in the Site on a second page allowed students to enter a response, and they immediately received feedback from the Form to know if their response was correct.

So what kind of clues did the students access? One was a Google Slides presentation that included six of the most popular series in the library; another was a Google Doc that included the YALSA Top 10 titles from 2019. Students read a blog post related to five historical fiction titles, as well as a poem related to books. Working in small groups, students worked to determine as many lock combinations as they were able.

Later in the year, Literacy Studies students will work through a combination breakout--one that incorporates the physical locks and box that they used for an earlier breakout *and* the digital components they used for this breakout. Stay tuned for more problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking!

Breaking in a New Year with Breakout Activities!

Like last year, students in Literacy Studies class welcomed a new year in the library with a Breakout activity that got them up and moving around, working together in teams to solve library- and reading-related riddles to open locks.

Sixth grade students used the same Library Orientation Breakout from last year--you can read about it here. With five different locks to open, students were problem solving to riddles related to finding books on shelves, to recognizing checkout procedures, and to locating the different sections in the library.

Seventh graders worked through a new library breakout, unofficially called "Get Reacquainted with the Library." Because (presumably) these students were already familiar with the library orientation elements from the sixth grade Breakout, this work--and opening four locks--focused on specific pieces of the library, such as state award nominees and winners and Public Lists on Destiny Quest. Students needed to spend time in the shelves to think through their clues and determine the combinations to their different locks.

So, were students successful? Yes! Both grade levels had groups that were able to break out, and many groups had just one lock remaining as the class period ended. 

As the year progresses, look for more breakout activities, both digital and blended. Students enjoy the process and solving the riddles, and in the process, they learn some valuable teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills!

ABCs of DCGMS Library: L is for Library Orientation Breakout

Today's ABCs of DCGMS Library post is brought to you by the letter L for Library Orientation Breakout.

As a former elementary librarian, I recognized the need for a library orientation activity, especially for our sixth graders, who are new to our building. What better way to get students up and moving around and looking at various sections of the library space than with a physical breakout! 

Over the course of two class periods, students read through an introductory letter (that also had clues and combinations included), as well as worked through solving all of the locks. You can read about students' work on an earlier library blog post. After a lot of problem solving, teamwork, and critical thinking, many groups were indeed able to break out.

Over the course of the school year, students participated in two additional breakouts--a completely digital breakout related to book series and MG/YA literature, and a poetry breakout that was a combination of physical and digital work. 

After successful breakouts last year, it's certain that 2019 - 2020 Literacy Studies students will be participating in more of them--stay tuned!

Poetry Breakout Time

One of the activities in which literacy studies students participated during National Poetry Month was a poetry-themed breakout. Our breakout was a combination of materials from Second Nature Teaching from Teachers Pay Teachers, and items created specifically for DCG students.

Like our library orientation breakout (click the link to read about students' first literacy studies breakout), groups began with an introduction letter. This time, though, the letter was actually a group of limericks, in staying with the poetry theme! The first two limericks appear below:

Students had to locate poetry books on shelves, solve particular items in a poetry-themed crossword puzzle, use their grammar skills to earn codes, and evaluate the limericks for answers all to determine combinations to locks. A digital component accompanied the breakout as students had to scan QR codes and enter information in Google Forms.

Like other breakouts students have completed throughout the year, they often had to struggle, fail, and rethink their work to determine combinations. Collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity all played a part in students' efforts!

Library Breakout--Digital Style

With the success of our first ever physical breakout at the start of the school year (you can read about it here), it's time to try a digital breakout!

Students in the Literacy Studies classes worked in small groups to problem solve their way through four clues to decipher the locks for a color lock, direction lock, 4-digit lock, and 4-letter lock. The premise had students imagine that they were part of a panel to determine the best series books for middle school readers. Their work wasn't accurately represented, however, so they need to go back through their work to find the missing titles.

Each scenario used different resources: Common Sense Media's Best Book Series list, an EdPuzzle video, YALSA's Teen's Top Ten list, and a Slides presentation relating to recent Iowa Teen Award nominees. Working together, students used different strategies to determine lock combinations and solve each of the locks.

Now that students have tried both a physical and digital breakout, our next step is to blend the two types! More breakouts to follow!