Escape room activities or breakout challenges are a fun and interactive way to get students to work on certain skills. Whether it’s practicing or reviewing skills that students are required to work on, escape room activities provide that level of engagement that makes learning fun. Students can put together puzzles, complete worksheets, decipher messages, complete word searches or crossword puzzles, color by number, complete task cards etc. There are an infinite number of opportunities.
Six Reasons Why Escape Room Activities Work in Special Education
(1). CRITICAL THINKING– Escape rooms activities force students to think critically, consult with each other, and figure out ways to overcome obstacles and challenges throughout the activities, or make the best of what materials they have. You can choose to create an escape style activity where one challenge will lead to another, in which case you’ll have to make sure that the code from one challenge somehow leads students to the next, or you can create activities that do not have linking challenges, in which case they can be completed in any random order.
(2). ENGAGEMENT – This type of activities provides a way for students to explore what they’ve learned in an exciting and engaging way. When students think that they are playing games, they are focused and they will do everything they can to win!
(3). PERSEVERANCE– Escape rooms teach students grit and accountability as they cannot move on to a new activity unless they find the correct answer. Usually students work hard to move on to the next level and uncover the next clue.
(4). TEAM WORK– Special need students are capable of cooperation and teamwork! For those who struggle, breakout challenges are a great way to encourage students to work together for a common goal. NOTE: if the results will be used as data for progress monitoring, you will need to make sure students complete the academic tasks independently, and only work together with their team mates to find or unlock clues, solve riddles, and breakout. This is will endure your collection of accurate data.
(5). DIFFERENTIATION– Escape room tasks can be tailored to fit the needs of diverse learners (think, for example, math problems at different levels of complexity). Information and instructions can be presented both visually- in the form of visuals displayed on students’ desk, and in a combination of visual and oral directions- in the form of power point or video presentations. The tasks can be presented in Google forms, or they can be traditional tasks.
(6). ADAPTABILITY– Once you introduce the activity format to your students, you can use the same basic materials (locks, lock boxes, UV light pens, black light flashlights, instructions, and displays) to set up escape rooms for any type of content, including IEP data collection. This makes escape room activities one of the most versatile types of activities for special education. Once you get your students used to the tool and you’ve created or purchased an escape activity in an editable format, you can use this type of activities (a) with any content (b) with very little prep time, and (c) without having to explain the rules to your students over and over again.
Breakout Challenge Activities with Special Needs Students
Types of Sentences Breakout Challenge
Practicing correct punctuation and identifying and constructing types of sentences with a breakout challenge can eliminate a lot of the boredom that comes from repetitive tasks!
Math Progress Monitoring Breakout Challenge
Collecting IEP data has never been so fun! Engage your students in a breakout challenge and they’ll work so much harder for you than if presented with a boring worksheet full of facts and problem sets!