How to create teaching assignments using Digital Escape Rooms

An escape room is a game in which a group of players work together as a team to uncover clues and solve puzzles in one or more physical rooms with the purpose of reaching a specific goal. They have a limited amount of time to work through different tasks.

A digital escape room is by and large the same, but the rooms are not physical. They are digital or more accurately digital texts. 

Digital escape rooms can be a great pedagogical tool to create variety in your teaching practices. We often talk about varying assessment practices, but in my experience most learners want teachers to create variation in how different subjects are taught as well.

I learnt about this concept when I attended a seminar hosted by Bro AOF which was taught by Eric Torsøe.

Fagfornyelsen or the new curriculum is based on certain policy documents and research that led to the conclusion that future learners need certain skills for success. Of these Critical thinking · Creativity · Collaboration · Communication  are called the four C's of the 21st century. 

Digital Escape Rooms is a pedagogical tool which can help stimulate and hone these four C's.

The idea is that learners will learn/read/ work with different texts but in order to get access to the text they need to solve a puzzle to get a password. They use this password to open the next text/room and so on. They have to be creative, think critically, collaborate and communicate with each other to navigate their way through different rooms.

In order to create a digital escape room you need to able to lock a pdf file. Click here to learn how to protect a file using a password.

In this powerpoint you will find a lesson plan using the concept of digital escape rooms. I have created 4 documents which the learners use as digital rooms. Room 5 is a quizlet, and room 0 is a short text in the textbook book Citizens. We used 45 min x 2  in two different groups of vocational learners and we had enough time.

Here are the different documents that the learners will open using passwords. You will find the passwords on the last slide of the above powerpoint, and clues to figure out the password are also in the powerpoint. 

Tips to create passwords:

1. The passwords shouldn't be too complicated.

2. You can use passwords that lead to interdisciplinary work - for example ask the mathematics teacher what the class has been working with and the password can be a mathematics task that the learners have to solve.

3. Make the learners create their own digital rooms.

4. The password can be revealed a short video that you have uploaded somewhere. If you are comfortable doing that, you can record a video of yourself teaching a certain theme and hide the password in the video. 

Good luck :-)

How to Analyse a Political Speech

Here is a power point which can be used to teach the topic "How to Analyse a Political Speech". Link.

You can find some tips/pointers on what to look for when analysing a poltical speech. 

Some of these are: 
1)Most speeches are a reaction to something.

•So, it is important to understand the historical context about why the speech was made

2) Most speeches are arguments for a point of view.

• If you can find out what the speaker is arguing for, then the rest of the content is easier to follow

3) Most speeches use rhetorical devices to influence opinion

         •Look for the use of logos, pathos and ethos

4) Most speeches use stylistic features

         •Look for repeitition, slogans, imagery, alliteration, antithesis

I have also included some links to videos where you can see political speeches being analysed. You fill also find a link to worksheet that learners can use to analyse speeches. I have posted the document as a pdf file. Send me an email at jaspreetgloppen@gmail.com if you need it as a power point which you can edit. 

Best,
Jaspreet

Becoming a critical consumer - Advertisement Analysis/Reklameanalyse

How do companies persuade you to buy their products? Learn how to reveal the manipulations at work.

It is important for the youth of today to understand how advertising manipulates their choices and their spending. This can help them develop their powers of critical observation and reflection, and help them eventually become a more aware consumer.

Check out this article I wrote for Cappelen Damm about how to be a critical consumer. 

You can also read it on the website for the book Tracks here. 

Here is a task related to the article and images learners can analyze. Here is an assessment form which can be used by the teachers to assess the analysis. It can also be used by the learners for self-evaluation.

Working on this topic fulfills the following competene aims for Vg1 and Vg2 (both vocational and general studies):

• discuss and elaborate on English language films and other forms of cultural expressions from different media
• evaluate different sources and use contents from sources in an independent, critical and verifiable manner
• evaluate different digital resources and other aids critically and independently, and use them in own language learning

In International English, it fulfills the following criteria:

• analyse and assess the role of some English-language media in international society ( How do advertisements in English affect our daily choices.)
• analyse linguistic tools in different kinds of texts (rhetorical tools like logos, pathos and ethos)
• give an account of fundamental principles for constructing texts in a variety of genres (princilpes for creating an advertisement)

In Literature and Culture, the following competence aims are fulfilled:

• analyse and assess a film and a selection of other artistic forms of expression within English-language culture 
• elaborate on and discuss the relationship between form, content and stylistic register in sentences and texts

Task: Short story about communication breakdown due to challenges related to intercultural communication

Pupils taking general studies at my school have been writing a short story about the communication breakdown to challenges related to intercultural communication. Here is a document where you will find the task along with the assessment criteria. Here is the assessment form we used to correct the short stories. A big thanks to my colleagues Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem for collaboration, and critical input in development of this task. 

These are the texts that we worked with:

1)  The movie Outsourced. You can find the study guide for outsourced here.  

2)  This brilliant text about Intercultural Communication on NDLA here. Explains in a wonderful way the difference between deal focused cultures and relationship-focused cultures. It also includes a text that outlines a Mr. Halliwell’s business trip and the intercultural challenges he encounters in Mexica, Japan, Saudi Arabia and France.

3) A very professionally put-together video here about certain American habits that are offensive in other countries.

4) A video here that shows habits from all over the world that can be considered offensive by different cultures. 

5) A text about tips for doing business in Japan here.

6) How culture imapcts the way we think and speak here. 

Teaching Assignment on the topic "The American Dream."

Here is a teaching assignment on the topic: The American Dream - is it dead or still alive?

The learners read an article and watch a movie which supports the view that the American Dream is still alive.

They also watch videos and read an article which claims that the American Dream is no longer a reality.

After reading and watching these texts the learners write an essay where they write their opinion on this topic. They HAVE to incorporate information from all these texts in the essay they are writing. This way we can teach them how to refer to sources and show arguments from both perspectives. I think this is a great assignment to work with at the beginning of the school year. 

Here is an action plan for the task. This includes the articles and videos the learners will work with. The competence aims are also included. In order to practice the concept of "tilpasset læring" or "adapted eductaion", I have included some extra texts that learners who need extra challenges can work with.
Here is the task and it includes assessment criteria as well. 

Thank you Hanne Vasshaug and Linn Therese Jostem for helping me develop this task. 

Indigenous Peoples -Native Americans: A news report about Standing Rock, the Dakota Pipeline and discussion questions.

Picture source: Inhabitat.com <http://inhabitat.com/dakota-access-pipeline-operators-to-forge-ahead-in-defiance-of-obama/>

The curriculum for Vg1 and Vg2 specifies that students need to:

1) discuss and elaborate on texts by and about indigenous peoples in English-speaking countries 

and

2) present and discuss current news items from English language sources

On NRK TV, there is an excellent news report about the Dakota Pipeline in the US. The documentary provides a short historical context and also an interview with Dallas Goldtooth from the Sioux tribe in South Dakota. There is also an interview with Sandra Márjá West, the parliamentary representative for the Sami, the indigenous Peoples of Norway. She was at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. 

Here is the link to the news report. 

The students can listen to the report fro the beginning to 14 minutes and answer questions about segment 3, which is the interview with Dallas Goldtooth.

Segment 3 is from 4.59 minutes until 9:27 minutes.

I have written down the questions that the interviwer asks Dallas Goldtooth. The students are supposed to write down answers to these questions and then they can be discussed in class.

Discussion Questions

1)  When the interviewer asks Dallas Goldtooth with the Sioux tribe in North Dakota, what they will do now as the work on the pipeline continues, what does Dallas Goldtooth answer?

2) The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has said that Trump’s decision to continue work on the pipeline is a violation of treaty rights. In what ways is his actions illegal? (include terms like consultation, planning process, disregarding the process, study on the environmental effects in your answer)

3) What positive impact will this pipeline have on America’s economy according to Trump?

4) What are the negative consequences of this pipeline according to Dallas Goldtooth? (include terms like a leaking pipeline, drinking water, routing of pipeline through sacred sites)

5) This protest is not just about Standing Rock. What else is it about? What does Dallas Goldtooth answer?

Working with a CV and an Application Letter

Students need to learn how to write a good CV and an application letter to potentially secure a professional job. 

I have created a task which can be found here. 

I find that NDLA has excellent resources about how to write a CV as well as an application letter.
Here is a link to the resouces about CV on NDLA and here is a link to resouces on application letter on NDLA. 
I find that the CV on NDLA does not require the applicants to talk about their technical skills which I consider to be quite important piece of information escpecially for vocational students, so I ask my students to include that in the CV.

Vocational students are encouraged to use technical vocabulary and here is a link to technical vocabulary at the book Tracks website.

I also upload a sample text for the students which they can use as a template. The sample text can be found here. 

I can be reached at jaspreetgloppen@gmail.com or you can write to the Correcto Ergo Sum page on Facebook, if you have any quesions.

First English Lesson

Here is a Prezi I created for the very first class with my Vg1 English students. The prezi allows for interaction and is intended to be both humorous and informative.

Mock Exam - Oral /Muntlig presentasjon + samtale

Her er en oppgave som kan brukes til muntlig vurdering. Oppgaven er basert på den nye modellen for muntlig eksamen fastsatt for engelskfag. På muntlig eksamen skal elevene først presentere et tema i 10 minutter. Deretter skal de ha en samtale med eksaminator/sensor i inntil 20 minutter. Oppgaven jeg har laget er begrenset til 15 minutter pga praktiske årsaker. Elevene skal presentere et fordypningsemne i 7 minutter og ha en samtale der læreren stiller oppfølgingsspørsmål fra presentasjonen samt spørsmål fra andre kompetansemål.

Here is an oral assignment that I have successfully used in my classes. The task is created keeping in mind  the new oral examination model suggested by UDIR where the learners present a topic first and then have a conversation with the examiner/teacher about different topics they have worked with in the course of the year. The exam is supposed to last 30 minutes where the learners present a topic for 10 minutes and then have a conversation up to 20 minutes.
This task, however, is intended to last 15 minutes due to practical reasons.  

Task: News and Current Events

I have posted earlier about a task here related to news and current events which is a group task and quite time consuming. Even though the students love it as it allows them to get creative, sometimes we need a simpler version. Here is a task that the learners are supposed to work on individually. The competence aims fulfilled, and the criteria required to assess this task are also included. 

Discussing accents

Here are three videos I show my pupils when we disuss different accents. Enjoy! / Her er noen morsomme videoer jeg viser til elevene når vi diskuterer forskjellige aksenter. Enjoy!

1) Video 1: Pink Panther going to America

The Kite Runner - Discussion Questions

My students are reading The Kite Runner. They will shortly have a conversation with me about the book. Here are the discussion questions for the task and the criteria. 

Argumentative task, assessment- criteria and form / Oppgave om en argumenterende tekst, vurderingskriterier og vurderingsskjema

Here is a task that can be used to write an argumentative text about The Civil Rights Movement. The assessment criteria are included in the task.

To work with this task, the students taking general studies (studiespesialiserende), worked with the theme the Civil Rights Movement. Here is an action plan that shows what the learners were expected to learn about this theme and the texts that were of interest.
Here is a power point I used to teach about argumentative texts and how to develop thesis statements.

To make sure that the learners understood how to argue, we worked with the theme: Should gun ownership be legal? The learners wrote down both pro and cons and then had to work with this draft here. It was made very clear to the learners that the paragraph structure that is written in the draft is just ONE way of writing a discussion paragraph for an argumentative text. Another way could be that after the introduction, the learners present all the pro arguments in the first part of the text, and then present the arguments against their point of view/thesis statement in the next part. Then, the learners would have to write another discussion paragraph which shows why they feel that their point of view is better followed by a conclusion of course.

Before the learners turned in their texts, they had to go through this self-evaluation checklist. 

Here is an assessment form that can be used to give assessment. Before I use this form, I write comments in the text using "se gjennom/view" and then "spor endringer/track changes". I also mark some grammatical errors (NOT ALL) using macros. 

Argumentative texts vs. Persuasive texts / Argumenterende tekster / Thesis Statement

Here's a power point that explains the difference between an argumentative text and a persuasive text. I have also explained the characteristics of good thesis statements for argumentative texts. 

Her er en powerpoint som viser forskjeller mellom en argumenterende og en persuasive tekst. Jeg har også forklart hvordan vi kan skriver gode "påstander" eller "thesis statements" når vi skriver argumenterende tekster. 

Creating a News Broadcast Digitally: Group task

Her kommer en oppgave som vurderer kommunikativ og digital kompetanse for elevene på Vg1. Elevene lager en nyhetssending som de leverer som en video. Vurderingskriterier er også inkludert i oppgaven. Takk til Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes og Rosy Arnesen for at jeg fikk lov å dele videoen deres slik at andre kan se hvordan de løste oppgaven. Jeg takker også min tidligere kollege Anne Marit Nielsen som delte idéen til oppgaven med kollegaen Richard Minde, som videre delte idéen med meg. En stor takk til Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for samarbeidet med å utvikle vurderingskriterier til oppgaven.  

Oppgaven har absolutt overføringsverdi og kan lett brukes i andre språkfag både på Vg1, Vg2 og Vg3. Du kan se videoen her:  

Here is brilliant task which assesses the communicative and digital competence of the learners of the English Language. Learners create a news broadcast which they hand in as a video file. The assessment criteria are also included in the document. I also have the permission of four of my students to upload their work/video as a sample video that shows how they answered this task. Thank you Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes and Rosy Arnesen. I must also thank my colleague Anne Marit Nielsen who shared this task with another colleague Richard Minde who further shared it with me. And a big shout out to Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for her input in developing the assessment criteria. You can see the video here: 

Task about Global English (in accordance with the new competence aims) / Oppgave om global engelsk (i samsvar med den nye læreplan i engelsk)

Here is a task that fulfills the following competence aims. Assessment criteria are included:

1 1) to discuss the growth of the English language as a universal world language 

 2)   write different types of texts with good writing structure and coherence that are adapted to a specific purpose and situation.

 3)   use standard forms of grammatical structures, spellings, conjugation patterns, varied sentence structure and varied cohesive devices.

4)   assess various sources and use content from these sources independently, critically and in a way that the content can be verified.

The above aims have been translated to English by me from the Norwegian version since Udir has still to upload the English version of the new curriculum. 

Her er en oppgave som oppfyller følgende kompetansemål. Vurderingskriterier er inkludert: 

   1)  drøfte framveksten av engelsk som et verdensspråk

·         2) skrive ulike typer tekster med struktur og sammenheng, tilpasset formål og situasjon

·         3) bruke mønstre for rettskriving, ordbøying og variert setnings- og tekstbygging i produksjon av tekst

·         4) vurdere forskjellige kilder og bruke innhold fra kildene på en selvstendig, kritisk og etterprøvbar måte

Assessment Form, Task and Assessment Criteria for a Short Story about Indigenous Peoples / Vurderingsskjema samt Oppgave og Kriterier til en Novelle om Urfolk

Elevene våre på Studisepesialiserende Vg1 har skrevet en novelle om urfolk.
Her finner dere oppgaven samt kriteriene og her finner dere vurderingskjema. Kriteriene for innholdet er laget i samarbeid med mine kollegaer Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Her finner dere et annent skjema med vurderingskriterier som jeg utviklet tidligere om å skrive en novelle som ikke har med urfolk å gjøre.

Pupils taking general studies at my school have been writing a short story about the Indigenous Peoples. Here is a document where you will find the task along with the assessment criteria. Here is the assessment form we used to correct the short stories. The assessment criteria for the content of the task have been developed with critical input from my colleagues Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Here you can see another form with assessment criteria which I had developed earlier and which can be used for writing any kind of short story. 

The Victorian Period/The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/Oral Conversations

My students just had an oral conversation with me about the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Victorian Period. These conversations give me a real good insight into what they have learnt. Here is the task and here is the handout they got in order to work with this task. 

For mye bruk av verb + ing / When not to use verb + ing or the Present Progressive Tense

Mange norske elever som lærer engelsk som ESL bruker ofte for mye "ing". Her har jeg skrevet ned noen regler for når vi IKKE skal bruke verb+ing. 

Many Norwegian ESL learners use the Present Progressive where they actually should be using the Simple Present. Here are some rules for when NOT to use the Present Progressive. 

Indirect Speech or Reported Speech

Here is a prezi which explains how to convert direct speech to indirect speech or reported speech. The prezi also contains a video.

The rules for the reported speech are important for students to know if they are writing a short story like mine have been doing.