Digital Breakouts
What is a Digital Breakout?
Digital breakouts are activities where students work to break a code or solve problems to fix a problem or escape from a situation. These are quite similar to physical breakouts, except there is no need for equipment, though physical manipulatives may be used. The teacher can include any sort of puzzles that he or she would like to. Digital breakouts are wonderful learning tools because any type of content can be tied into a digital breakout. Not only do digital breakouts further learning by deepening thinking and encouraging problem solving skills, but they also engage students.
Where does this fit in the Danielson Framework?
Digital breakouts fit right under Domain 1 of the Danielson Framework because it requires much planning and preparation from the teacher. For a digital breakout to be a success, the students must have understood the material. Therefore, it is imperative that the teacher knows how to design effective instruction that follows the Universal Design (1e and 1a). To be able to make the digital breakout as engaging as possible, the teacher must know what resources are available and how to use those resources (1d). A teacher must be able to guide a digital breakout, rather than solve it for the students, so it is important that the teacher knows how to get each student thinking on a deeper level (1b). The digital breakout always has a goal in sight, so the teacher can easily set expected outcomes for the students (1c). A digital breakout can be used as a type of formative assessment, as well as a fun activity (1f).
How would I use Digital Breakouts in my classroom?
In my current classroom, digital breakouts are not instructionally appropriate for my students. However, if it were instructionally appropriate, I would like to use digital breakouts in my classroom to engage my students in the content. I would like to design digital breakouts that require my students to think deeply and struggle productively with the material. Digital breakouts are such a fun tool!
D. (n.d.). The Framework. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from http://www.danielsongroup.org/