A Christmas Carol Escape!




The perfect middle school post-reading activity for A Christmas Carol!


It's that time of year when I had to schedule my formal observation.  This year, my deliberate practice involved organizing students for complex tasks.  So what to do to make this a "home run"?

An Escape!

With the help of Nouvelle ELA's fabulous Facebook group, Escape Rooms in ELA, I was able to put together my first one using the play version of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

The standards in our scope and sequence were:

LAFS.7.RL.2.6:  Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

LAFS.7.RL.3.9:  Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place or characters and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history

LAFS.7.RI.3.8:  Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

So I decided to make 3 puzzles - one for each standard - with students starting off making a hypothesis as to how Dickens both used AND altered history.


To begin, I told them they were trapped in the bitter cold of Victorian Times and were subject to either being thrown in prison or into a workhouse except for this one chance to escape - by completing the 3 puzzles!


DIY Classroom Escape Room Ideas and Tips from a Middle School ELA Teacher!  No locks necessary!  #teaching #escape
Each group was given a box with all 3 puzzles.  There were no locks in this one, just puzzles to solve with a worksheet to match.  Each puzzle ended with a "Clue Phrase" to solve that gave them a "Point to Ponder" for their final hypothesis evaluation.

Escape Out of the Room for the Middle School ELA Classroom using "A Christmas Carol".  Paper-based puzzles with high engagement!  #teaching  #escape
Puzzle #1:  Determine which plot events were influenced by history and which were not.  Students could refer to the article we read in class:  "The Real Reason Dickens Wrote 'A Christmas Carol'"  To complete the Clue Phrase, they had to use the letters on the back of the events influenced by history to spell out 2 words.
 (Point to Ponder to Escape:  Why were they influenced by history?)



I Made My Own Escape Out (of the room) for "A Christmas Carol" using paper puzzles!  #engagement
Puzzle #2:  Match the claims and evidence into pairs.  Some were claims from the play, and others were claims from the article.  Students had copies of the play to refer to.  They had to use the letter from the claim and the number from the evidence to look up words on a grid and place them in the clue phrase to escape.
(Point to Ponder to Escape:  What evidence is there to back up what you think from puzzle #1?)



Secret Codes are fun for learning in this DIY Escape Out (of the room)!  Get new ideas and tips for making your own in your Middle School Classroom!  #engagement #escape

Puzzle #3:  How did Dickens change the way we celebrate Christmas?  Students were given a new article to read and decipher.  They had to fill in the blanks using information from the article and then use the grayed-out boxes to form words.
(Point to Ponder to Escape:  How did Dickens alter history?)




Once the students solved all 3 puzzles using their worksheet and other materials,  they had to revise or alter their hypothesis, show it to me and if it was correct, I allowed them to open the "escape briefcase" to earn a reward - a small candy cane.  All students with candy canes escaped Victorian Times!

The students were ALL 100% engaged and loved working on the puzzles.  It literally took all the members of the team to solve them.  Plus, I earned two ratings of "Applying" and two ratings of "Innovating"!

I will admit this was A LOT of work.  But now that I have made one, I can see how to streamline the process of others for the future.  You really do have to work backward with these things.  Start with what the students are to accomplish and then design puzzles that lead them to that conclusion.

It also doesn't hurt to have some ideas of how to create various ciphers.  It took me a lot of searching through the above-mentioned Facebook group and general Googling to really wrap this ELA brain around these logical-minded puzzles!  So let me save you some time:


Here's 8 Secret Codes and Ciphers that I almost bought but didn't need:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/165631063/spy-party-games-secret-agent-party-8 

I didn't buy the ciphers from Etsy because I made my own grid cipher and hidden message cipher with the grayed out boxes.  This way no locks are necessary!

I really enjoyed this lesson and so did my students - they want to know when we can do it again!  I might just have them make the puzzles next time - we'll see!

Good News!
By popular request, I have now made these puzzles available to your to use with your own classes!

The puzzles above are available in printable form by clicking on the image below or by clicking here

But now you also have the option of going ALL DIGITAL!  All the puzzles and "locks" are now available in both paper AND digital - all in the same resource!  If your school is 1:1, then that means NO PREP for you!  

However, if your school is not 1:1 yet, no worries!  Just have students use the paper to work out the puzzles and then use their own devices to enter the codes to "unlock" the doors!   

Enjoy!


After reading "A Christmas Carol" with your middle school students, have them explore how Dickens used and altered history with this printable and digital NO PREP Escape!



Click here to view this Escape resource!


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Don’t spend hours searching for that great idea you found.  Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily come back when you are ready.  You’ll be glad you did!


Thanks for stopping by!