Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1491904
A T S O M E P O I N T in their careers, nearly all teachers ask themselves, "How do I get my students to read? All they want to do is play computer games." This overstimulation of technology can prevent students from developing reading stamina and critical thinking skills. However, technology can be used in innovative ways to motivate students as they learn to read. One creative idea is using digital escape books â similar to escape rooms â to get Kâ5 students engaged in read- ing. Escape book stories, missions and riddles can take about two hours to create, but once done can take only minutes to make changes when needed. Benefits of escape books An escape book, or a breakout book, is based on the same principle as escape rooms, where players are locked in a room and can only break out by solving various puzzles in a set amount of time. Using the platform Genially (genial.ly), breakout books challenge students to solve various puzzles and complete missions. Genially offers a variety of easy escape templates you can use to design a breakout book game that resembles scenes from a book. I built an escape room based on the book The Day You Begin, by Jacqueline Woodson, which is about finding the courage to connect even when you feel scared and alone. After students read or listened to the book being read, they participated in a digital escape room to help them process the vocabulary and concepts from the book. Like escape rooms, the breakout book game must begin with a story. The story is the hook that will engage students in the breakout book. I used an example of the first day of school, encouraging students to get to know one another. The story will then lead to the first mission. Each mission has a story, riddle and interactive element that leads to a related activity, hint and choices that students can select or input answers. Mission stories are teacher-created based on events from the book and then con- nected to a literacy skill or strategy that is being reinforced â for example, vocabulary. Riddles are also teacher-created and struc- tured so students can understand. The breakout book game can include interactive websites that enhance students' level of engagement, all the while targeting different parts of the story to create missions. For this game, I used jigsawplanet.com to create a puzzle about a place someone visits in the book and Wordwall (wordwall.net) to create a vocabulary matching game. An escape book can have two to four missions, which can range from easy to complicated. These missions will even- tually lead to the "breakout" of the book. A congratulations Use digital escape rooms to enhance literacy with elementary students By Ivonne Miranda Break Out the Books! "The breakout book game must begin with a story. The story is the hook that will engage students in the breakout book." 43 F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 2 3 T T E C H T I P S