Page 33 - ELG2301 Jan Issue 483

REVIEWS

ESCAPE THE CLASSROOM
Fiona Wall Minami
Perceptia Press, 2020
ISBN: 978-4-939130-29-8
he author of this supremely
intriguing title is a firm believer in
the psychological notion of ‘flow’.
T“What on earth does that have
to do with language teaching?”, I hear you
murmur over your cornflakes. A much
deeper explanation can be read in her brief
and hugely informative introduction, but
in layman’s terms, flow relates to a state
of complete absorption with an activity,
such as those participating in the many
enigmatic missions in this book will probably
experience, a kind of heightened sense of
interest. It all sounds rather heavy, I know,
but bear with me; this really is a book with
a difference.
From her brief biodata, the author has
a clear history of escape rooms, including
war bunkers in Austria, plus – and you’ll
probably be as surprised as I was to learn
– an Aztec gold mine in the north of
England. (Yes, really!) The goal in escape
rooms is clearly to work as a team, finding
useful objects, breaking codes, opening PHOTO CLOCKIN DK FROM PIXABAY
locks and solving puzzles; all within a strict
time-limit of course. Each of the 15 missions
in this title has six absorbing activities
that test the learner’s memory, powers of
observation and ability to remain calm
under pressure. All these attributes enable
them to escape the classroom and how many
learners do you know who would not wish Get out of here
to do that?

The initial activity
involves learners guessing Take your students on a mission to learn with this

from the eye-catching innovative book, says Wayne Trotman
full-page illustration made to the detailed and almost life-saving or so common classroom items before a
what clues it reveals 'Teacher’s Guide'. (To save your own time, mysterious terrorist organisation set off a
bomb that would obliterate the classroom
the answer is ‘quick response’, though I was
concerning what they sure it was quality reader). I should also add itself and all within it. Did I not announce
are going to be that within the vocabulary task there was above this was a book with a different
outlook on ELT matters?
a hidden password, one which I took pride
While it may never replace the mainstream
asked to do in working out. course books that tend to prevail, as a
Following the above, missions deal with
the topics of survival, clocks, aliens and play, supplementary resource it would certainly
In order to avoid spoilers, apart from each involving work on common idioms and add a bit of spice to any of them. As the
missions one and 15, they can be covered expressions in English, such as ‘killing time’ contents of the missions might suggest,
in any order; so, let’s jump into the first, and ‘once in a blue moon’. Along with these this title would probably be best used
titled 'Enigma'. As with most of them, the are further motivating tasks, like the several with learners at a high level, probably B1
initial activity involves learners guessing open-ended quiz questions that involve group and above.
from the eye-catching full-page illustration participation. Although I wasn’t so successful
what clues it reveals concerning what they in the quiz activities and was occasionally
are going to be asked to do. Befitting the completely baffled when searching for the
mission title, there then follows a vocabulary code word, I felt much more motivated by
task on codes, which was quite enlightening the word-search puzzles. Wayne Trotman is
for me personally as I couldn’t answer The business end of each mission, though, a teacher educator
most of them. Further evidence that I’m is the final activity – the escape. I tried the at Izmir Katip
a dinosaur, perhaps, but do you yourself lot and can report that the task to escape Çelebi University,
know what QR stands for in relation to from mission three, titled 'Clocks', was the Izmir, Turkey.
the recent trend in QR codes? This led most fun. I carried it out with a trial group
to the first of many visits I subsequently who had only five minutes to find a dozen
editorial@elgazette.com 33