13 Unlock the Story: An AI-powered ELA Escape Room
Luis E. Pérez Cortés, PhD and Hugh J.D. Kellam, PhD
Author Bios
Dr. Luis Pérez Cortés is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. He holds a Ph.D. in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies from the Arizona State University and an M.A. in English Education from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. With over twelve years of teaching experience in higher education across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, he has taught diverse courses in gamification and game-based learning, online learning, user experience design, qualitative research, parenting and literacy development, educational psychology for aspiring teachers, and bilingual English education. His research explores how digital and tabletop games impact literacies and encourage under-represented populations to see the world and themselves as adaptable, with work spanning classrooms, after-school programs, museums, libraries, and home settings.
Dr. Hugh Kellam is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the creator and program director of the Instructional and Learning Design Technology Master’s program. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa in Teaching, Learning and Evaluation with a focus on adult learning and instructional design with learning technologies. He has written the book the P-I-E Model: Personalized and Inclusive Engagement for the Design, Delivery and Evaluation of University Online Learning. He has also worked as a corporate training director and has published articles on virtual communities of practice, the PROSE model for AI prompt design and instructional design for online learning environments.
Course Context
This activity is designed to be adaptable to a variety of contexts, but it was originally designed with the following student population in mind:
- Discipline: English Language Arts
- Level: High School and Undergraduate
- Course Name: English
- Modality: Face-to-Face or Online
- Context: This AI-powered escape room activity is ideal for an English Language Arts course during topics on literary analysis and interpretation, helping students deepen their understanding of themes, character motivations, and narrative structure through interactive, game-based learning.
- Number of Students: Individual or team assignments
Activity Overview
This activity engages students in literary analysis and critical thinking by immersing them in an interactive narrative escape room scenario where AI provides clues, feedback, and adaptable hints. Through a series of flexible, text-based prompts, students practice skills like character analysis, theme identification, and creative interpretation while AI scaffolds their learning and promotes problem-solving. Designed to be customizable, this activity allows teachers to tailor content to specific texts (such as novels, poems, songs, movies, video games) and learning goals, which can be adapted for other disciplines too—such as history, science, or social studies—where critical analysis and contextual understanding are essential.
Directions
For Instructors
Plan and Customize the Escape Room
- Choose the Text: Decide what text (or excerpt[s] from a text) you will use for your activity. In general, you might want to pick a text that students have already been familiarized with. The definition of “texts” here includes novels, poems, songs, movies, and video games. You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we used an excerpt from The Tell-Tale Heart.
- Select the Learning Objectives: Pick the learning goals you want students to achieve. You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we used the learning objective of Dialogue and its Role in Character Development: Analyze dialogue to determine what it reveals about characters, relationships, and motivations, as well as how it drives the plot or introduces conflict.
- Define the Story Scenario: Decide on the escape room’s narrative framework. For example, students could be “trapped in a mysterious library” or “lost within a novel’s storyline.” You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we used Inside the Author’s Mind: Students are “trapped” in the mind of a famous author, where they must solve puzzles related to the author’s life, writing style, and common themes to escape.
- Select Puzzle Types: Pick puzzle activities that align with your goals. You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we used Foreshadowing Detection: Students identify hints of foreshadowing within passages to predict future events or outcomes, unlocking the next stage of the puzzle.
- Develop Text Excerpts and Clues: Prepare excerpts, images, or symbols from the selected text to serve as clues in each puzzle. Ensure each clue is relevant to your chosen objectives. You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we used Unreliable Narrator Excerpts: Use passages from an unreliable narrator where students evaluate the narrator’s credibility and interpret the “truth” behind the narrative.
- “I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart.”
Set up the AI Interaction
- Consider creating tiered hints: Tiered hints help scaffold student learning. Each hint should progressively increase in specificity to support students who are struggling. You may use your own or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below. For the illustrative example, we structured our hints in the following way: Start by asking students to think about what the narrator’s repeated phrases (‘I knew it well’) reveal about his mindset and emotions. Next, guide them to examine any specific words that might hint at the narrator’s dark intentions or inner turmoil. If they need further help, suggest they consider how the narrator’s pity and ‘chuckling at heart’ foreshadow his complex feelings about his actions toward the old man.
- Draft AI Prompts: Write prompts that instruct the AI which elements you have chosen and specify how the AI should guide students without revealing answers outright. The sample prompt shown below was built by selecting the following elements from the steps outlined above:
- Illustrative example:
- “You are an AI assistant helping high school students navigate an interactive English Language Arts activity that is an escape room. Explain to the student that they are exploring The Tell-tale Heart and that they are ‘trapped’ in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Describe what this place looks like and say that they need to solve puzzles related to the themes of his work to escape. As they successfully answer your questions, tell them they have made it to a new area of the author’s mind and also describe it. Then, at the end, describe how they got out and successfully escaped. They are analyzing the role of dialogue and how it reveals character motivations, relationships, and drives the plot. Their goal in this puzzle is to detect foreshadowing in a specific text excerpt.
- Using this excerpt from The Tell-tale Heart:
- ‘I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart.’
- Please guide students in analyzing this passage by prompting them to consider:
- What the narrator’s dialogue and reflections reveal about his character and motivations.
- Any hints in this dialogue that might foreshadow future events or reveal inner conflicts.
- How the choice of words in this passage drives the sense of dread and foreboding, hinting at coming conflict.
- Approach each prompt once at a time. If students seem to need help, provide gradual hints for each part of the analysis:
- Start by asking students to think about what the narrator’s repeated phrases (‘I knew it well’) reveal about his mindset and emotions.
- Next, guide them to examine any specific words that might hint at the narrator’s dark intentions or inner turmoil.
- If they need further help, suggest they consider how the narrator’s pity and ‘chuckling at heart’ foreshadow his complex feelings about his actions toward the old man.
- Your responses should encourage critical thinking and analysis without giving away the answers outright. Wait for students to respond before proceeding through the escape room or going to the next prompt or hint.“
- Test the AI Setup: Run a trial with your AI system (e.g., ChatGPT) to ensure it responds accurately and effectively to your prompts. Once you have prompts and hints, test them by simulating student responses. Input likely student questions and responses to ensure the AI provides appropriate hints without revealing answers. Fine-tune your prompts to make hints more specific or indirect based on how the AI responds. Test the progression from subtle hints to more direct ones, adjusting as needed to maintain a supportive but challenging experience for students.
- Introduce the Activity to Students: Set the scene by introducing the escape room narrative and explaining that students will need to solve ELA-based narrative puzzles to “escape.” Mention the AI’s role as a “guide” that offers clues and hints. You might consider implementing this as a group-based activity, so you would also divide students into small groups and potentially assign roles (e.g., “writer or respondent to the AI”) to encourage collaboration and focus within each group.
- Create Copies of the Prompt for Each Group: Copy and paste the prompt, sharing it separately with each student group. They can then interact with their own instance of the escape room.
- Facilitate Puzzle Progression: Let students discuss and attempt responses. They can request hints from the AI as needed. Move between groups, encouraging collaboration and checking understanding. Prompt students to explain their reasoning to help clarify their thinking. Repeat until all groups have finished.
- Getting Started: Students interact with the AI, which introduces the escape room scenario and first puzzle.
- Progressing: Students solve ELA-based puzzles, with the AI providing hints and confirmations as they advance.
- Escaping: The escape is complete when students solve the final puzzle, prompting an AI message like “Congratulations! You’ve escaped!” The activity length will vary based on the prompt design. You may use your own prompt design or adopt and adapt from the examples offered in the appendix below.
- Reflect and Debrief: After the activity, guide a reflection session where students discuss the strategies they used, the clues they missed, and how the AI’s hints helped or hindered their understanding. Have students individually write a short reflection on what they learned, focusing on the ELA skills developed and their interaction with the AI.
For Students
Here is a sample script that might be used to explain this activity in a syllabus.
Title: AI-Powered ELA Escape Room
Activity Overview: This escape room activity is designed to engage you in critical thinking and literary analysis. Working in small groups, you’ll analyze selected text excerpts to solve puzzles guided by an AI assistant. You’ll apply skills such as identifying themes, analyzing dialogue, and interpreting foreshadowing to reach the final “escape” stage.
Instructions:
- Join Your Group: Meet with your assigned group members and decide on group roles, such as the primary “writer” or “AI responder,” to ensure smooth interaction.
- Get Started with the AI: Your group will interact with the AI, which will set the scene and introduce the first puzzle. Use the text provided, clues, and hints from the AI to solve each challenge. Remember, the AI is here to help guide you, so feel free to ask for hints if you get stuck.
- Progress Through the Puzzles: As you solve each puzzle, the AI will confirm and guide you to the next part of the escape room. Engage in group discussion to analyze each excerpt, looking closely at elements like character motivations, themes, and foreshadowing.
- Complete the Escape: You’ll know you’ve successfully escaped when the AI provides a congratulatory message. Each group will likely experience different paces and interactions based on the AI’s responses and the level of hints needed.
- Reflection: After escaping, individually write a short reflection about the skills you practiced, the clues you used, and how the AI’s hints helped your analysis. Consider how this exercise improved your understanding of literary analysis.
Activity Goals:
- Practice critical literary analysis skills
- Foster collaborative problem-solving within groups
- Engage in a narrative-driven experience that builds ELA proficiency
Assessment:
- Completion of the escape room activity
- Quality of group discussion and collaborative analysis
- Reflection on insights gained from the activity and AI interaction
Benefit to Students
- Critical Thinking: Analyzing text passages, identifying foreshadowing, and interpreting characters’ motivations and underlying themes.
- Collaboration: Working in groups to discuss interpretations, share insights, and collectively solve puzzles.
- Digital Literacy: Interacting with AI as a guide, understanding how to seek and use digital resources effectively to aid comprehension.
- Close Reading: Carefully examining text to identify nuanced details, patterns, and literary devices that deepen understanding.
- Empathy: Considering character perspectives, motivations, and internal conflicts, promoting a deeper understanding of complex emotions and relationships.
- Inference and Prediction: Making evidence-based predictions about plot and character actions based on textual clues.
- Creativity: Interpreting and reimagining text elements, especially in genre or narrative experimentation puzzles.
- Metacognition: Reflecting on reasoning processes and analyzing problem-solving strategies to improve understanding.
- Communication: Articulating thoughts and interpretations clearly to peers and explaining reasoning behind puzzle solutions.
Cross-Disciplinary Applications
History
Scenario: Students are “trapped in a time portal” and must solve historical puzzles to return to the present. Each puzzle represents a different era or historical event.
Puzzle Types:
- Primary Source Analysis: Analyzing historical documents, letters, or speeches to understand the perspectives and motivations of historical figures.
- Cause and Effect: Reconstructing the order of events leading to significant outcomes, such as wars or social movements.
- Map and Artifact Analysis: Interpreting historical maps or artifacts to gain insight into the culture, technology, or events of a period.
Skills Developed: Critical thinking, contextual analysis, empathy for historical perspectives, and cause-effect reasoning.
Science
Scenario: Students are “stranded in a research lab” and must solve scientific puzzles to escape. Each puzzle is connected to different scientific concepts or experiments.
Puzzle Types:
- Hypothesis and Prediction: Making predictions based on scientific principles or experimental data.
- Lab Procedure Analysis: Identifying errors in a lab procedure or correcting steps in a scientific method sequence.
- Classification and Analysis: Grouping organisms, elements, or chemical reactions based on scientific criteria.
Skills Developed: Scientific reasoning, analytical thinking, experimental design, and application of scientific knowledge.
Mathematics
Scenario: Students are “locked in a mathematician’s study” and need to solve math puzzles and logic problems to unlock each stage.
Puzzle Types:
- Problem-Solving and Logic: Solving algebraic or geometric problems, with each correct answer providing clues to the next puzzle.
- Pattern Recognition: Identifying sequences, patterns, or properties in numbers, shapes, or equations.
- Real-World Application: Solving problems that relate to real-world scenarios, like calculating distances, measurements, or probabilities.
Skills Developed: Logical reasoning, problem-solving, pattern recognition, and mathematical fluency.
Disclosures
This chapter was written with assistance from AI (ChatGPT), which supported the ideation process for the activity and ensured that ideas were presented consistently in terms of length, tone, and grammatical accuracy. The sections discussing cross-disciplinary applications appear as they were generated by ChatGPT.
Appendix A
List of examples to draw from to customize prompts
Some Possible Texts:
- Novels:
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- Themes: Racism, justice, moral growth
- “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Themes: The American Dream, class disparity, love
- “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
- Themes: Dystopia, survival, resistance
- “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
- Themes: Alienation, adolescence, identity
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- Themes: Racism, activism, police brutality
- Poems:
- “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
- Themes: Choices, individualism, reflection
- “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
- Themes: Leadership, loss, patriotism
- “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
- Themes: Resilience, race, self-worth
- “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
- Themes: Alienation, indecision, modern life
- “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
- Themes: Love, beauty, immortality
- Songs (Lyrics):
- “Imagine” by John Lennon
- Themes: Peace, unity, hope for a better world
- “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan
- Themes: Civil rights, freedom, social justice
- “Rise Up” by Andra Day
- Themes: Perseverance, empowerment, overcoming adversity
- “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan
- Themes: Social change, progress, rebellion
- “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen
- Themes: Love, faith, complexity of human experience
- Movies:
- “Dead Poets Society” (1989)
- Themes: Individuality, conformity, inspiration through literature
- “The Outsiders” (1983)
- Themes: Class struggle, identity, friendship (adapted from S.E. Hinton’s novel)
- “The Lion King” (1994)
- Themes: Responsibility, coming of age, family
- “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006)
- Themes: Perseverance, the American Dream, overcoming adversity
- “The Truman Show” (1998)
- Themes: Reality vs. illusion, media, individual freedom
- Video Games:
- “What Remains of Edith Finch”
- Themes: Family, loss, storytelling, fate
- “Journey”
- Themes: Exploration, perseverance, connection
- “Life is Strange”
- Themes: Time, choices, friendship, trauma
- “The Last of Us”
- Themes: Survival, humanity, loss, relationships
- “Papers, Please”
- Themes: Moral choices, authority, human rights
Some Possible Learning Objectives:
- Literary Devices Identification and Analysis: Recognize and analyze the use of literary devices like metaphor, simile, alliteration, personification, and irony within a text.
- Mood and Tone Analysis: Examine how word choice, sentence structure, and setting contribute to the mood and tone of a passage, then analyze how these elements affect the story’s meaning.
- Author’s Purpose and Perspective: Describe why an author wrote a text, identifying purpose (to inform, entertain, persuade) and perspective, as well as how this influences content and tone.
- Theme Comparison Across Texts: Compare themes between the primary text and another work, and identify common elements or contrasting viewpoints on similar themes (e.g., love, conflict, or resilience).
- Setting and Its Impact on Plot or Character Development: Explore how the setting influences events, character actions, and plot development, or imagine how changing the setting would alter the story.
- Conflict and Resolution Analysis: Identify the central conflict(s) and analyze how it is resolved (or not) and discuss how this shapes the overall narrative and its message.
- Symbolism and Imagery Exploration: Identify symbols and imagery within a text, and examine how they contribute to deeper meanings or reinforce key themes.
- Poetic Structure and Interpretation: Analyze aspects of poetic structure, like rhyme scheme, meter, stanza format, and enjambment, and how these elements contribute to the poem’s meaning.
- Dialogue and its Role in Character Development: Analyze dialogue to determine what it reveals about characters, relationships, and motivations, as well as how it drives the plot or introduces conflict.
- Inferencing and Prediction: Use context clues to predict future plot points or deduce hidden meanings within the text.
Some Possible Story Scenarios:
- Inside the Author’s Mind: Students are “trapped” in the mind of a famous author (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen), where they must solve puzzles related to the author’s life, writing style, and common themes to escape.
- Learning Focus: Author’s purpose, historical context, and literary style.
- The Secret Garden of Symbols: Students find themselves in a mystical garden where each plant, statue, or animal represents a different literary symbol or theme. To escape, they must correctly interpret and connect symbols with themes.
- Learning Focus: Symbolism, thematic analysis, and imagery.
- Characters on Trial: Students enter a courtroom where literary characters from different works are on trial. They must analyze motives, make inferences, and defend their character’s actions to “free” them.
- Learning Focus: Character analysis, motivation, and moral reasoning.
- The Time-Traveling Journal: Students have stumbled upon a magical journal that transports them to various historical settings of classic literature. To return, they must solve puzzles related to how the setting influences plot and characters.
- Learning Focus: Setting’s role in plot development, historical context.
- The Cursed Manuscript: A “haunted” manuscript traps students within its pages. They must interpret literary devices, solve riddles about foreshadowing and plot twists, and uncover hidden messages to break the curse.
- Learning Focus: Literary devices, foreshadowing, plot structure.
- Plot Architect’s Workshop: Students are trapped in the workshop of an ancient “plot architect” who designs storylines. They need to identify elements of plot, arrange events in logical sequences, and suggest possible resolutions to unlock the exit.
- Learning Focus: Plot structure, logical sequencing, conflict and resolution.
- The Room of Riddles and Rhymes: Students are in a world where everything is in rhyme and verse, and they must decode poetic structure, identify rhythm patterns, and interpret stanzas to escape.
- Learning Focus: Poetic structure, meter, rhyme scheme, interpretation.
- Library of Lost Voices: This “library” is filled with the voices of various narrators. To escape, students must identify narrative perspective and tone, comparing and contrasting the voices to unlock clues.
- Learning Focus: Narrative perspective, tone, and point of view.
- The Labyrinth of Literary Genres: Students are wandering through a maze where each room represents a different literary genre (mystery, fantasy, romance, etc.). They must identify and analyze genre-specific elements to find their way out.
- Learning Focus: Genre analysis, structure, and stylistic features.
- The Hidden Plot Prophecy: A mysterious prophecy within a text holds the key to escape. Students must interpret clues within the text to understand themes, symbols, and characters that point to the “prophesied” ending.
- Learning Focus: Theme analysis, plot prediction, inference.
Some Possible Puzzle Types:
- Quote Matching and Interpretation: Students match significant quotes to the correct character, event, or theme within a text. They must then explain the meaning and relevance of each quote to progress.
- Focus: Deepen understanding of character voice, theme, or tone.
- Mood and Tone Classification: Students are presented with various passages and must identify the mood and tone, explaining how specific words and phrases contribute to the atmosphere.
- Focus: Mood and tone analysis, vocabulary, and context.
- Foreshadowing Detection: Students identify hints of foreshadowing within passages to predict future events or outcomes, unlocking the next stage of the puzzle.
- Focus: Understanding plot structure, suspense, and anticipation in storytelling.
- Literary Device Scavenger Hunt: Students locate examples of literary devices (e.g., simile, metaphor, irony) within a text, identifying how each device enhances the story’s impact.
- Focus: Literary devices, analysis of figurative language.
- Contextual Vocabulary Clues: Students use context clues to define challenging vocabulary from a passage, then use their understanding to unlock a riddle or decipher a code.
- Focus: Vocabulary development, contextual inference, and comprehension.
- Timeline Reconstruction: Students arrange events or key moments in chronological order to demonstrate their understanding of plot development and cause-effect relationships.
- Focus: Plot sequencing, comprehension of narrative structure.
- Allusion Identification: Students identify and explain allusions within the text, connecting them to broader cultural or literary references to progress through the escape room.
- Focus: Allusions, intertextuality, and contextual analysis.
- Dialogue Attribution and Analysis: Students are given lines of dialogue and must determine who said each line, what it reveals about the character, and its significance within the plot.
- Focus: Characterization, dialogue analysis, inference.
- Setting Influence Puzzle: Students analyze how specific aspects of the setting influence character actions or plot events, discussing alternate outcomes in a different setting.
- Focus: Setting analysis, cause and effect, alternative perspectives.
- Conflict Classification and Resolution: Students identify various types of conflict within the story (e.g., person vs. person, person vs. society) and determine how each is resolved or left open-ended.
- Focus: Conflict types, resolution analysis, thematic understanding.
- Point of View Shift: Students rewrite a short passage from a different point of view (e.g., first-person to third-person), discussing how the change affects interpretation and reader engagement.
- Focus: Point of view, narrative voice, stylistic experimentation.
- Character Relationship Mapping: Using clues, students map relationships between characters, examining how these relationships drive the plot or reveal underlying themes.
- Focus: Character relationships, thematic analysis, structural connections.
- Irony and Paradox Recognition: Students locate examples of irony or paradox within the text and explain their significance or effect on the reader’s understanding.
- Focus: Irony, paradox, critical interpretation.
- Theme Evolution Tracking: Students trace the development of a theme across multiple passages, noting how it changes or is reinforced throughout the story.
- Focus: Theme evolution, textual evidence, critical thinking.
- Genre Identification and Subversion: Students identify elements of genre within a text and discuss any ways the story subverts or challenges traditional genre expectations.
- Focus: Genre analysis, narrative structure, literary expectations.
Some Possible Tiered Hints:
- Character Analysis Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Look closely at how the character responds to others. Are they being sincere or hiding something?”
- Hint 2: “Notice any recurring phrases or descriptions about this character. What might these suggest about their emotions or intentions?”
- Hint 3: “Think about how other characters react to this one. Do they trust or mistrust them? Why?”
- Theme Identification Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Consider what the protagonist learns throughout the story. How does this connect to a possible theme?”
- Hint 2: “Are there any recurring settings, colors, or objects? What could they represent on a deeper level?”
- Hint 3: “Think about how the story might change if this idea or symbol were removed. Does it alter the message?”
- Foreshadowing and Prediction Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Is there anything unusual or out of place in this scene that could hint at future events?”
- Hint 2: “Think about similar moments from earlier in the story. How did they set up later events?”
- Hint 3: “Is there a particular phrase or object that appears here and in other parts of the story?”
- Symbol Analysis Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Consider why the author might have chosen this particular object or image. What does it bring to mind?”
- Hint 2: “Think about how this symbol might relate to the protagonist’s journey or challenges.”
- Hint 3: “Would this story feel different if this symbol were absent? How does it enhance the theme?”
- Mood and Tone Analysis Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Look for adjectives or verbs that set a particular atmosphere. Do they feel calm, tense, or something else?”
- Hint 2: “Is the language formal or casual? How does this affect the tone and mood of the scene?”
- Hint 3: “Consider if this tone is consistent throughout the story or unique to this passage. What might this change imply?”
- Narrative Perspective Puzzle
- Hint 1: “Think about how much the narrator knows or chooses to reveal. Does this create any biases?”
- Hint 2: “Are there moments where the narrator’s attitude shifts? How might this affect your view of other characters?”
- Hint 3: “What would be different if another character, like the protagonist’s friend or a stranger, narrated this scene?”
