Linguistic Lanterns / Facilitated learning

A cooperative escape room where every learner contributes evidence.
Everyone has a part.

A cooperative escape room that brings a story, a facilitator console, and individual evidence together.

¡Escapa del Internado Maldito!

The door opens
when the class connects the clues.

Five teams investigate a haunted boarding school. Each room holds a different piece of the mystery. The shared final code brings those discoveries together.

Explore the facilitator console View selected pages · PDF

5rooms

4locks per room

1shared final code

Original cover of the Spanish 2 escape-room resource, showing an illustrated haunted school.

AudienceMiddle and high school Spanish 2 learners.

Learning taskInterpret evidence, explain choices, and use past-tense language in context.

FormatFacilitated activity, digital console, reusable print materials and learner log.

My contributionLearning design, Spanish-content review, visual direction and content iteration.

The design challenge

Keep the group moving.
Keep each learner thinking.

An engaging group activity still needs a way to make understanding visible.

This resource combines a shared class goal with individual evidence. Rooms contain different information, so the final code requires contributions from across the class. Within each team, learners record the words that support their decisions and can be called on to explain a clue.

The task sequence moves from reading and retrieving clue details to discussing and justifying a code, then applying past-tense forms in context. Glossary and facilitator hints support the work; individual logs give the teacher a visible record of each learner’s evidence alongside the shared team outcome.

How the activity supports learning

Look inside the learning system.

A shared finish

Each room contributes a letter to the final code. Bonus rooms let early finishers earn time back for everyone; the reward system also recognizes careful work.

What this demonstrates Designing dependencies and participation rules for a facilitated group experience.

Page 6 explains the shared clock, five rooms, individual questions, bonus rooms and group flow. — Actual product excerpt · Game mechanics, page 6. Select the image to read at full size.

Evidence before a code

The reading supplies the information for the lock. A glossary supports unfamiliar vocabulary; questions ask learners to retrieve details before moving to grammar choices in context.

What this demonstrates Aligning a game interaction with the intended practice, and placing support beside the task.

The first classroom lock pairs a teacher’s notebook entry in Spanish with three questions and a code field. — Actual product excerpt · El Aula, first lock, page 19.

A record from every learner

The reusable room sheets belong to the group. Each learner’s detective log records the evidence, code and checkpoint for each lock, followed by the team’s discovery.

What this demonstrates Combining a collaborative activity with individual work products that a facilitator can review.

Individual detective log with spaces for evidence and codes at four checkpoints and a final discovery. — Actual product excerpt · Learner evidence log, page 17.

Designed for the person running it

The facilitator needs support, too.

The kit includes one- and two-period plans, an answer key, hints, individual comprehension questions, differentiation guidance, and a paper fallback. Its digital console brings the clock, room progress and discoveries into one place.

Take a short console tour

Evidence and next iteration

What the artifact shows.

The resource includes a complete 53-page classroom kit and a browser-based facilitator console. The selected pages show the original learner materials and teacher guidance; the console preview shows the facilitator interface.

This case study focuses on the design and its supporting materials. Learner outcomes have not been measured for this portfolio.

What I would examine next

Whether every learner can explain the evidence behind a team answer.
Where groups stall or queue at the facilitator’s desk.
Whether the pacing, hints and sensory options work for the intended learners.

Those findings would guide changes to the checkpoint flow and facilitator guidance.

More classroom projects

Choices. Language. A useful reference.

Branching story / Spanish 1

¡Perdidos en los Andes!

Learners read a clue, discuss and vote on a route, then explain how earlier choices shaped the ending.

Explore the story View selected pages · PDF

See the story materials and design reasoning

Original cover of Perdidos en los Andes with a mountain landscape and alpaca illustration.

The actual story map shows decisions, the backpack check and favorable and adverse endings.

The read–think–talk–vote routine stages retrieval, peer explanation, choice and consequence review. The branch map lets the facilitator connect each ending to the evidence and choices that led there.

Communication reference / Spanish

Words for the moment you need them.

Las muletillas groups phrases by conversational purpose, with English meanings. Learners identify what they want to do in a conversation, choose a phrase, and write a short dialogue.

View poster and practice · PDF

See the reference and practice materials

Actual Muletillas poster groups Spanish phrases by thinking, clarifying, transitioning, softening and checking in.

The companion practice page moves from categorizing phrases to selecting them and writing a dialogue.

The reference supports retrieval by conversational purpose; the practice scaffolds application from categorizing phrases to selecting one and writing a dialogue. A future visual revision would simplify the poster’s headings and unify its icon styles; these previews preserve the original resource.

More classroom resources are available through Linguistic Lanterns on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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