Lounge Lizard Challenge

Title: Lounge Lizards Challenge! Subject/Course: Language Arts Time: 65 minutes

Level: Grade 6 Taught on March 2, 2017

Lesson Description

Students will be presented with an escape room style challenge to complete as a whole class. Teacher
will need to prepare the room (hiding clues, locking box) before the class enters it. Students have 45
minutes to complete all the challenges to unlock the box. Teacher monitors students and provides hints
when necessary to assist students during this escape room challenge.
Story: The Lounge Lizard attempted to steal the books in the classroom but we have too many to take,
therefore he has taken class time out of the Literature Circles. The Lounge Lizard has locked our Reading
Time in the Breakout EDU box, and if we dont get the box open, we will not have any Reading Time
today! We have to complete the escape room to win our reading time back!
This lesson is meant to be a fun language class that assesses students reading abilities and oral
communication with their peers to solve problems. It is a segway into the students Literature Circle task.
The Google Form that is to be completed after the escape room includes debrief questions that gets
students to reflect on their experience, the puzzles, and critiquing skills for what can be done to improve
the game.

Game: https://games.breakoutedu.com/we-cant-stop-reading-game-1
Language Curriculum: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/sshg18curr2013.pdf

Stage 1: Desired Results

Big Question (link to the real world)

Did you feel like your ideas were heard by your group? Did your group work well together? How do you
think your group could have been more effective?
How can escape room challenges benefit the classroom and society?
Ontario Curriculum Overall Expectation

Language Arts
Strand: Oral Communication
2. Use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a
variety of purposes;
3. Reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and
the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations.
Strand: Reading
1. Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational
texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning

Ontario Curriculum Specific Expectation

Strand Oral Communication

Speaking to Communicate
2.2 demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour
in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small- and large-group
discussions
2.7 use a variety of appropriate visual aids, (e.g., video images, maps, posters, charts, costumes)
to support or enhance oral presentations
- Reflecting on Oral Communication Skills
3.1 identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, what strategies they found most helpful
before,
during, and after listening and speaking and what steps they can take to improve their oral
communication skills

Strand Reading
1.3 identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before,
during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts
1.5 develop interpretations about texts using stated and implied ideas to support their
interpretations
1.6 extend understanding of texts by connecting, comparing, and contrasting the ideas in them to
their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around
them

Key Concepts and/or skills to be Prior Knowledge Activation:

learned/applied:
Collaboration Geography of Canada
Reading skills (inferring, Geography of the United States
comprehending) Inferring meaning
Respectful communication Pokmon
strategies
Organization and leadership
Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Learning Goals: Instructional Strategies:
I can collaborate effectively Teacher monitors students as they work as a class to solve
with the class. their escape room challenge.
I participate during problem Teacher can provide hints if requested by students.
solving.
I can understand the clues and Inquiry process: Students deduct the answers through process
challenges. of elimination or by conducting their own research strategies to
I can identify what we need to find the answers to the puzzles.
do to succeed.

Success criteria:
I solved the challenge with my
class.
I respectfully communicated
with my classmates.
I shared my ideas to the group.
1 Learning Goal: For students
to
2 Why: To observe how
students cooperate with one
another to problem solve.
3 Success Criteria for this
Lesson:
Successfully completing the
escape room challenges and the
Google Form
Materials/Student Groupings
Student groupings: Whole class
Materials: Chromebooks, game
resources, PPT
Differentiation
ADHD: Have student(s) work with kinesthetic learners
to work together with different materials or prepare a
word-picture matching.
ASD: If possible, have student(s) work individually with
an EA or with a peer during discussion or prepare a
word-picture matching.
Learning styles: For visual learners, prepare a slide
deck with different probability situations. For kinesthetic
learners, provide manipulatives. For read/write
learners, prepare a worksheet of questions presented
in the slide deck so they can read at their own pace.
Assessment For Learning, Checking for Understanding & Feedback

Assessment for learning will be done through observation and through reviewing student responses on
the Google Form.
Stage 3: Learning Activity
Motivational Hook (5 MINS.):
Play O Canada, Prayer, and Attendance
O Canada by Walk Off The Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRjZXjgHRs0
Video advertisement about giving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS_EqmoRvns

Open (5 MINS):
Tell the class that there is bad news. The Lounge Lizard has stolen literature lounge time
(meaning no hot chocolate or time to discuss the book/role in their groups). However, he left a
series of clues for us to solve as a class together.
Instruct that students will be working together as a whole class.

Body (modeling, collaborative work, individual = gradual release of responsibility, synthesis) (45
MINS):
Start the timer and monitor students as they solve the puzzles and problems. Assist where
needed and remind students of the time remaining.
Ensure that students are working collaboratively to solve the problem.
Clues use materials such as newspaper clippings, Pokmon wordsearch, and maps

Close (success criteria visited) (10 MINS):

Students go into their Google Drive to find a Google Forms Lounge Lizard file to complete the
debrief questions about the escape room.
Once they have completed the form, they can work on their literature lounge role.
Stage 4: Reflection