View Content #27720

This activity was created for teachers who wish to use complex learning scenarios (CLSs) in their classrooms. It provides support for discovering the puzzles embedded in the languges that are taught.

Outcomes:

Teachers will be able to:

• Indentify three puzzles that they want to use to help learners understand the language targets.

• Prototype three puzzles and make updates.

Mode(s): N/A

Materials: N/A

Procedure:

1. Begin by experiencing an escape room or breakout box. Upon leaving the room, note the different ways that the experience aligned with your experience as a langauge learner. Think specifically about the extent to which play provoked and can provoke learning.

2. Next, observe the world around you. What patterns and structures exist that would facilitate creating a puzzle designed to address a specific learning target? For example, you may note different patterns within words themselves, a perscribed order in specific texts or genres, and even the puzzle of comprehension itself (knowing what to pay attention to and what to filter when communicating in the wild is a puzzle in and of itself).

3. Keeping these patterns in mind, begin thinking of possible puzzle mechanics that would help learners discover information about the learning target at hand. Some examples and potential outcomes are below:

• Use a cipher to help learners engage in reading for detail.

• Hide parts of a text in different areas. Have learners discover them and put them in order to explore target genre conventions.

• Highlight salient examples of a speech strategy to help learners discover how certain utterances are typically formed in the target langauge.

• Use pictograms and other iconography to help learners discover critical vocabulary.

• Incorporate audio and text to help learners discover a specifc pattern. For example, you may have learners listening to a message in Morse code to uncover a critical formula.

4. Articulate your lesson. Think about one language function and what critical information you want learners to unpack with puzzles. Then, make a quick prototype of the puzzles you want to use.

5. Test your puzzles with someone else before working with your students. Make necessary refinements.