About a year ago I learned about locked box challenges and I was immediately hooked. They may be THE most engaging activity I have ever done in my classroom. The problem I found was activities with 5 or 6 locks and other clues took me forever to set up and a lot of class time to accomplish. I wanted to do locked boxes more often with my students (and they were always begging me for more!), so I came up with the idea of Reading Rescue Minis. One box. One lock. Still tons of excitement and engagement! There are usually 4 or 5 clues, and all are reading comprehension questions. I think it's best if I give you an example...
SETUP Here's my Reading Rescue Mini for A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon. (The rescue is available for FREE in my TpT store!) There are 5 clues, a hint card, a challenge introduction, and a congratulations page. Simply print these pages and cut them apart. Put the congratulations page (and maybe a prize) in the box. Set the lock and lock the box up. Simple and quick! Set up in as little as 5 minutes, (not the hours I had been spending!). My students like to write on the clues, so I print a new set for each group. If you like to laminate the cards I'd have dry erase markers available. After students read their book, I read the challenge introduction and hand over the box. Their job is to answer the questions and use the answers discover the combination and unlock the box. Sometimes the questions are numbers that add up to the combination, sometimes words are matched with numbers, there are lots of different ways to provide clues, so students never know what to expect! Once students are familiar with the Reading Rescues I DO NOT give them any other help or hints. That is tough for me! We as teachers have been trained to scaffold and help and control the struggle. Part of the point of these challenges IS the struggle. Struggle is important for perseverence. I have found that these challenges are fun and that makes it a bit easier for kids to struggle without getting upset or giving up. The first couple of times my students did these challenges some groups didn't even open up their books. They just tried to answer the clues from memory, then gave up and handed me their hint card. I was floored! Now groups dig in with their books and do the hard work. It's so fun to watch! If you haven't tried a locked box challenge with your students, give it a try! Everyone, including you, has a blast!
1 Comment
|
AuthorI'm a 2nd grade teacher and obsessive crafter who loves to share ideas! Archives
July 2018
TheCategories |