Student Teaching Reflection: Week Eight

This week in reading, we finished the book Freak the Mighty. Instead of jumping right

into a test on the book, I decided to plan an escape room to help the students review the book in a

fun way. The escape room took a lot of preparation in order to run smoothly. I prepared by

picking out my 5 stations, printing and laminating all of my materials, creating pre-set groups for

each class, and I reserved a bigger classroom to set up and run the room in. My materials

included: answer booklets for the students, a welcome sign, station signs, instructions for each

station, baggies for the materials, the items needed for each station (plot, characters, and

vocabulary cards) and reflection sheets. There is another teacher in the building whose class has

just finished reading Freak the Mighty as well, so I ran the escape room for her class (period 7)

in addition to my two reading classes (periods 2 and 3).

The first station was centered on the plot of the book. The students task was to put 12

different plot cards in order of how they occurred in the story. After they had all 12 events in the

correct order, a secret number code was revealed. Once they had the correct number code, they

could move on to the next station. Station two dealt with the characters from the book. There

were 10 different quotes from the book on cards. Using a word bank, the students had to

determine which quotes were said by which character. After they correctly were able to complete

this station, the word “syndrome” was spelled out. Station three was all about comprehension of

the story. There were 8 questions that tested the student’s comprehension of the book. After

correctly answered the word “shoulder” was spelled out. Station four reinforced the vocabulary

that was used in the book. At this station, the students were given 10 sentences from the book.

The sentences each had one word in red. Their job was to match the word in red to the correct
definition. After all of the words were paired with the correct definition, the word “friendship”

was revealed, indicating that they could move on to the next station.

After circling through the first four stations, the students moved onto the fifth, and final,

station. At this station, the students used codes that they have collected from the previous four

stations to solve an encrypted code. The code was “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” This

connected to the story because it was the theme of Freak the Mighty. Once the students “escaped

the room” by finishing all five stations, they completed a reflection sheet. The reflection sheet

asked the students some questions about their opinion on the quote “you can’t judge a book by

its cover.”

Originally, I planned to have four groups of four or five students circling through each

station. After the first class I decided to switch up my groups and have three groups of four to six

students at each station. I made this change so that I would have an open station at all times. This

was helpful because then if a group finished before the other groups they could just move on to

the next station instead of waiting for the next group to be finished. I also planned for this lesson

to take one 42-minute class period, but we ended up needing two days to complete everything.

This escape room was very effective with my students! I had many students who

normally do not like to participate in discussions really shine during this activity. It was very

hands-on and minds-on. I did not have students show any behavior problems during this activity.

I think this is because they were actively engaged and interested in the tasks that they were

completing. I will be planning more escape rooms in the future!