With colleague +Jebb Chagan and his four sections of 7th grade social studies, we played BreakoutEDU's Shot Heard Round the World, (you'll need to create an account to view the link) created by Micah Shippee incorporating BREAKOUT's materials.
Micah cleverly includes two common codes of Massachusetts Minutemen into his iteration of Breakout. He also requires students to do reading about Lexington and Concord. The game took two 40 minute periods to play. It probably took about 15 minutes to explain the game on the first day and though most groups completed the task midway through the second day, we used the remaining time to discuss lessons learned and we asked the students to examine their individual and their groups' performances. Game play itself took about 45 minutes.
Most students had a blast. A few grew frustrated with their lack of progress on the first day and needed prompting to stay focused and not give up. Once on the scent, the excitement in each group was palpable.
I loved watching these moments of genuine excitement. They were so thrilled when their deductive reasoning and research paid off. The game incorporated invisible ink and some clues hidden in plain site. Students liked this level of sophistication. The cloak and dagger aspect of the game made it fun.
Cooperative learning is central to the Breakout games as well. I like this. As I told the students, these "soft" skills of communication and cooperation are important for a happy and successful life.
I am glad we included time for formal reflection. Students were able to identify areas where they had difficulty.
If you are looking for a fun, exciting, learning activity I highly encourage you to give Breakout a look. Here are their current games. It will cost you about $90 to but the necessary materials. It will cost about $100 to buy the materials through Breakout and even more to get the handsome Breakout Box.
I'm a big, big fan. Check it out.
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