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Breaking Into Breakouts

Designing Digital Breakouts for Learning

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First things first...

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Hi, I’m Holly.

Digital Learning Specialist

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD

About CFBISD

Holly’s

Twitter Acct

The CFBDLS

Team

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Today, we will...

Chat about why breakouts are awesome and how they enhance learning environments�
Explore the process of creating a digital breakout, step-by-step�
Dive into resources and best practices you can use to create a fab digital breakout experience for learners�
Try to “breakout” of this presentation...

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Why Digital Breakouts Are Awesome

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What’s a digital breakout?

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What the kids are saying...

I loved the break out game because you get to use your math skills and also get to solve the problem also I love that at the beginning there is a sound like they are talking like right next to you that is what I imaged in my head. - Monica

I like the break out games that you make because you get to use your math skills and fun combined and that's the best thing ever. - Lauren

I really like how it feels like you are,playing a game but you are learning, at the same time.I also love all the themes, that go along with it.(p.s jumanji was my favorite.) - Ryleigh

I would describe it as a hard working assignment with some common-sense. I would convince them as giving our brains the exercise and make our logic better. - Daniel

My advice is to give more clues so the breakouts wouldn't be so hard, but don't give too many clues to make it too easy. Also, you should try to do breakouts based on real events that can happen, to make it sound realistic. - Graciela

All the breakouts are really fun, Every time we do one the whole classroom loves it! - Axel

I think Ms. Kidson should do a candy store escape room, where a costmer gets lost in the isles of a candy store and has to do math to escape, and each time they solve a puzzle their is a diffrent candy token for the last puzzle. Yes Ms. Kidson you can use my ideas. - Keelin (Thanks, Keelin.)

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What the teachers are saying?

My students love using the breakout boxes to flex their math knowledge and skills! The kids are so engaged and get to use their math skills in situational and story-problem settings. Our DLS always keeps the tasks interesting and new, so the students never get too comfortable and they really have to use their problem-solving skills to think “outside the box”. - Ms. Phillips

Digital breakouts are a great instructional strategy because they allow your students to have fun while learning. You really get to see their competitive nature when working with their groups against other classmates...Overall, digital breakouts in the classroom are effective if put together in a way that achieves your desired goal for your students. - Mr. Clary

Breakout Boxes are set up with different kinds of puzzles (like a 4 digit code or a word code) that speak to different strengths in a group. It gives students the opportunity to look beyond a worksheet and see how things they learn can be used in real life. [Breakouts are] a great way for kids to work together and solve different problems in a safe environment. - Ms. Condie

I just wanted to let you know that I am using this breakout game with my classes today and they are loving it!! I just asked the group I have now if they are liking this game and I got a resounding’ “YES!” in unison. - Ms. Norsworthy

I have been amazed at the level of engagement and collaboration I am seeing among my students. I have really seen some intense review and focus. - Ms. Reed

You get the idea… :)

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Building Skills with Breakouts

Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Persistence

Content Knowledge

Engagement

Partnership

Leadership

Time management

Communication

Creativity

Logic

Analysis

Application

Patience

Grit

Practice

Determination

Vocabulary

Application

Processes

Relationships

Competitive

Collaborative

Self-Paced

Exciting

Cr

Collaboration - Group learners together to encourage partnership, leadership, time management, and communication skills. A default shared goal or challenge - breaking out - inspires collaborative magic (most of the time).

Critical Thinking - Discovering solutions can require thinking outside of the box, identifying and working with relevant information, and applying strategies you are emphasizing in your classes.

Persistence - The game-like experience motivates learners to practice grit, attempt puzzles multiple times, and build patience with themselves as they experiment to find solutions.

Content Knowledge - Learners can apply and explore topics from curriculum; find ways to incorporate this strategy into all parts of the lesson cycle (from intros to reviews).

Engagement - Move beyond compliance and breathe new life into old topics; you can time a game, but individual puzzles can be completed at a pace that suits student needs.

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How to Build a Digital Breakout

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Four things you need...

Content

Theme

Puzzles

Solutions

1

2

3

4

It’s so important to start with content goals. Knowing what skills and standards you want to address with your digital breakout before you begin designing can shape the entire experience. Be specific, too! Identify skills in a particular unit (not just “5th grade math”) that students need to practice.

Theming isn’t 100% necessary, but it does make the experience so much more fun and engaging. Try to create an imaginary scenario in which students NEED to engage with the content knowledge. It can absolutely be silly. No, a secret organization in charge of global security probably wouldn’t reach out to fifth graders for their expertise on adding and subtracting fractions… But if they did, I would totally rather do fraction math for secret agents than to complete a worksheet.

Puzzles are the meat of the breakout. You can make them complex or simple. They could serve as an introduction to material, an application of learning, or a review of content before an assessment. Ideally, you’ll want at least three of these. Usually I’d recommend 5 or 6, especially if you introduce a time limit of 45 - 50 minutes.

Utilizing Google Forms response validation, you can set up your breakout to automatically check student solutions. Because this is a somewhat limited system - i.e. Forms isn’t going to check short answer responses for broad contexts or evaluate image-based solutions - you want to be mindful of your solution options as you craft your puzzles. Puzzles need to lead students to some form of alphanumeric solution.

We’re going to take a deeper look at each of these elements and I’ll offer some tips and resources for you as we go.

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Diving Deeper

Content

1

Know your audience�
Choose a content area�
Know your goal�
Identify standards

5th Grade Students

Math - Unit 2

Unit Review

2D Geometry & Measurement:

Types of quadrilaterals and triangles
Area and Perimeter

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Diving Deeper

Theme

2

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Diving Deeper

Puzzles

3

How will learners access your puzzles?

Will they need to manipulate content in your puzzles?

What kind of solution will they need to find?

How do your puzzles fit your theme?

How many steps will learners need to complete to arrive at their final answer?

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Diving Deeper

Puzzles

3

There are endless ways to organize your puzzles, but here are the three most common that we’ve used.

Everything on one page: Basically, all of your clues, your text, your images… everything, including your form, is embedded on a single page in Google Sites (or another platform)

Pros: Could be built in anything, really… you could even put all your content in a Google Doc, no ten million tabs to keep track of, Cons: Can look and feel very chaotic, sometimes detracts from the story-telling aspect

Multiple pages, one form: You embed your form or include a link to it on the first page in your site. Learners have to click through multiple pages to access all of your clues and puzzles, but keep the form page open in a separate tab to enter answers

Pros: Can be great for theming (each page can be a separate location, category, time period, etc.), Looks and feels more organized, Cons: Keeping that darn first tab open

Multiple pages, multiple forms: You can create a separate form for each puzzle in your breakout, and include them on separate pages of the breakout site. For added challenge, force learners to complete puzzles sequentially by hiding pages from your Sites navigation and sharing the link to the next puzzle page only when they submit the correct response (in the confirmation message). Pros: Feels very secretive, more immersive, especially when telling a story; Cons: So. Many. Tabs.

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Diving Deeper

Solutions

4

Numbers

Identify an important year in history
Enter the solution to a math problem
Count items in a specific category
Distance between two points
Sequence of events�

Letters

Key words or phrases
Code from a cipher
Directional letters (North, Left, Up…)
Color letters (Blue, Red, Yellow…)
True/False (T or F) or MC (A, B, C, D)

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Planning & Reflection

We ask our teachers to submit this document with their game designs to guide others through facilitation.

You can use this template from Breakout EDU to help you design your breakout.

Yo

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Puzzle Examples

Just a few to inspire you...

Puzzles highlighted in green are ones I created - you can click on them to explore the puzzles yourself!

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Language Arts

Typed directly into Google Sites, this puzzle involves matching literary devices to examples. Using the sequence of the examples, students put the emphasized letters in each device in order to spell a keyword.

This example was created by Megan Purcell, one of our CFBDLS gals! �Follow her! @Ms_MeganEDU

Using conditional formatting in Google Sheets, this puzzle asks students to identify characters from a book based on their descriptions. If a character’s name is typed in correctly, the cell changes color. Colors are used to create a letter-based code.

ur

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Math

Using Google Sheets and conditional formatting, students had to enter data from a chart on the right into a stem and leaf plot on the left.

If they entered the correct numbers in each cell, the cells would change color. Questions prompt students to identify the most frequently appearing color for the form.

An interactive clue created with Thinglink provides multiple hotspots with information in this puzzle. One links to a map with data, another to a formula, and a third to a site where learners enter their solution.

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Math

This decoder puzzle created in Google Drawings has a hidden math problem that is revealed when you move the transparent red circle over the numbers. The answer to the math problem is a password for a Thinfi link with the clue for the form.

These algebra questions typed into a Google Slide and embedded in Google Sites were turned into a puzzle by color-coding the solutions.

This example was created by Amy Bramhall, one of our CFBDLS gals! �Follow her! @TexasAggieAmy

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Science

A fake blog with data about fish in a local lake was created in Google Docs and published to the web. Students had to identify the difference in population between two dates in the journal to complete the form.

A series of food webs created in Google Slides spells out a clue using the links in the ecosystem that are incorrect. Learners click through several webs to find letters that spell the keyword.

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Social Studies

Using Google Drawings, create a timeline and have students arrange events in chronological order. In this example, certain letters have been emphasized in each event, and when correctly sequenced, they spell a keyword.

These examples were created by Mary Reed, one of our awesome teachers at Perry Middle School. Follow her! @reedma3

This collection of fake text messages in Google Drawings includes key information about 8 historical figures. Students had to identify which person would have sent the messages and put them in order.

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Let’s Build!

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Your Mission...

You’ve been tasked with creating a puzzle for a breakout of your choice.

You can remix one of the puzzle examples here or create your own
You can work by yourself or with a team
You choose the content, theme, audience, and purpose
Holly can totally help if you need it. :)

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Resources

bit.ly/r10breakout

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Holly’s Breakout Site

Guides to creating your own breakout, thinking through puzzle creation, a database of resources you can put to use, and more!

(Note that application forms and some shared games from other staff members may only be accessible to CFB staff.)

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70 Tools to Help You Build

Also included in the site, this Awesome Table contains 70 tools you can use to create better breakouts. Sort by function (graphics, media, interactive, planning), search, or just click through and explore.

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Holly’s Breakouts

Population Complication - 5th Grade Science

BB-8’s Multiplication BB-Breakout - 4th Grade Math

Jungle Adventure - 5th Grade Math

Just the Game

All Materials

Just the Game

All Materials

Puzzle Guide

Just the Game

All Materials

Puzzle Guide

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Holly’s Breakouts

Mystery on the Nile - 5th Grade Math

Finding the Worldly Burglar - 5th Grade Math

Just the Game

All Materials

Just the Game

All Materials

Puzzle Guide

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Other People’s Breakouts

50 States Breakouts

This teacher is creating a breakout game for all 50 states! She has created over 30 games already and continues to make more.

EJD Digital Breakouts

Another teacher has created middle school social studies games on a wide variety of topics listed here.

Elementary Breakouts

This is a collection of cross-curricular breakouts for K-5 grades and holidays. It has answer keys too!

Tom’s Digital Breakouts

Tom Mullaney's Digital Breakout site, with middle school examples from all contents.

Breakout EDU Digital Sandbox

Pages and pages of teacher-created digital breakouts for every subject and grade level; searchable!

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Clever Google Tricks

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Force a Copy

What it does: �Create a link for a Google App file that forces others to create their own copy of the file to manipulate

How it works:�Grab the shareable link for the file you want others to copy. At the end of the link, where you see the word “edit” (and sometimes additional characters), replace “edit” and anything following “edit” with the word “copy”. Copy the new link and share.

When to use it: �If you need students to match, fill-in, draw on, sequence, or sort content in a puzzle, use Force a Copy to keep your original puzzle file in tact.

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Response Validation

What it does: �Requires students to enter a specific value in a short-answer question in Google Forms before they can continue

How it works:�Create required short-answer questions in your Google Form. Then, using the three-dot menu beneath the question, choose the option for response validation. Adjust the drop-downs to match the solution for your puzzle, add your solution, and optionally, add a message to guide students to correct errors.

When to use it: �For all your digital breakouts! This is the backbone of the Google Forms “locks” system. This is the way in which Google Forms provides instant feedback to students about their success with each puzzle.

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Conditional Formatting

What it does: �Changes the appearance of a cell (or range of cells) in a spreadsheet based on specific criteria

How it works:�Go to: Format → Conditional formatting to open the formatting window. �Choose the range of cells to be altered, identify the values to check for �([if cell A3 is equal to 3.14] or [if B5 contains the text “cats”...]). Choose �the color and text formatting that will appear if criteria are met and �choose “Done”. You can do this for multiple cells or ranges in a sheet.

When to use it: �If you want to unveil a color code or pattern as students enter �information into a Google Sheet, this is the way to go.

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If Statements in Sheets

What it does: �Changes the contents of a cell in a spreadsheet based on specific criteria

How it works:�This is easier to explain via this image.�For a more in-depth tutorial about�If statements in Sheets, visit this website�or check out the Google support article on �using If statements.

��When to use it: �If you want to reveal a link, message (If Statements) or unveil a color code or pattern (Conditional Formatting), this is the way to go.

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Locked Backgrounds

What it does: �Prevent editing of your background images in Google Slides by “locking” your background

How it works:�After you create a template, scene, graphic organizer, etc. on a Google �Slide that you would like to keep in place, save the slide as an image file �(File → Download as→ PNG). In a blank slide, you can upload your new �image as the background and it will not be able to be moved or modified. �Then, you can add elements to your slide for students to manipulate as �needed. (Don’t forget to delete the template slide.)

When to use it: �Great when used with Force a Copy for sorting, sequencing, and completing charts/tables in puzzles.

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Thank you, friends!